Something that's missing a lot of the time with the discussion of libraries in the US: library access for teenagers is a vital community safety net - eviltoast

There are so little places for teenagers (especially in cities) to actually spend time safely outside of their home without needing to pay some kind of money. Having a safe space for teens to drop not only keeps them safe, but also likely prevents them from committing nonviolent crimes. I’d be very interested in seeing potential statistics comparing cities with well funded teen library drop-in centers and those that don’t and their youth offender reporting statistics.