cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/37371338
The question can be broken into two parts:
- would people use it?
- is it appropriate for a library to have a media room?
I have no TV and I suspect with so many people subscribing to streaming services lately as their sole source (from surveillance capitalists), probably not many people even have antennas to pick up local broadcast TV anymore. Is that a safe assumption?
A couple years ago I setup a MythTV for someone. Their local broadcasts were completely different from what I recall from decades past-- mostly educational (documentaries and how-to shows) and mostly commercial-free. It seemed to be largely fed by tax-funded public broadcast service. It used to be rife with commercials but commercial interests seem to have abandoned it.
Where I live now, I am offline and also lack equipment to see what’s broadcast locally. Not sure it’s justified to buy gear just to see what there is. And I have never seen what free satellite signals are like anywhere.
On the one hand, I could see it turning into an entertainment/cinema type of space with people bringing in popcorn.. which is perhaps a deviation from the library’s purpose. OTOH, it could be information focused to give access to locally aired educational broadcasts and to (perhaps more importantly) show people what content exists locally and to experience MythTV. Library users could even schedule shows to be recorded for them (as the library is not open 24/7). The MythTV PCs would of course be running Linux, which would be a covert way to promote the escape from proprietary OSs.
As I ask myself whether this is all crazy talk, a local library has Arduinos for people to experiment with.. which has nothing to do with books or media.
A parallel mission could be to get the library to run an Invideous instance to try to liberate people from Google’s stranglehold and their ads. Google would probably block the library’s instance but the blockade would then serve to inform people about Google’s politics. I guess the question is whether Invidious is too much in the legal gray area for libraries to seriously consider.
When videotape was expensive, Libraries had closed circuit television sets with headphones, connected to VCRs. You could watch educational programming by requesting it from the librarian.
These days I’d argue computers have taken on that role. Pretty I most broadcast programming is available online. And most libraries have computer stations.
Libraries also have services like hoopla and Kanopy. Some also offer DVDs and blu rays for checkout. And if you don’t have a player, ask the circulation desk if any of the computers have optical drives.
I’m familiar with the surveillance capitalist streaming svcs (amazon, netflix, etc) but I did not know about Hoopla and Kanopy. They are described as ad-free, so worth a look. But my quick take is that the websites are a bit dodgy/enshitified. Hoopla needs lots of Google JavaScript and after I enable it the page remains blank. Kanopy blocks Tor while playing dumb (“Sorry. An unexpected error occurred.”) I wonder are those US-only services or can a library member outside the US get access?
My local library indeed has DVDs, blu-ray discs, and PCs. I use the DVDs but that’s not really what I mean by broadcast TV. My local libraries seem to have no way to access local broadcast TV. Maybe it’s possible to go on a hunt to work out which networks have local broadcast, then track down their websites to see if they have liberated the content online, which could be enshitified in many ways with ads injected or be a conduit to a shitty place like Youtube. It’s probably not the best experience.
Broadcast TV “just works”. Broadcast TV does not push CAPTCHAs, try to collect data on you, or reject you for not using some proprietary app. It gives a technological guarantee of avoiding most enshitification that offline people expect to avoid.
I was an early adopter of e-mail and was on the web before it was graphical. But commercialisation has ruined them. I have mostly switched back to postal mail and fax. I have unplugged from home Internet service. For me this was an upgrade. In the same way, I think broadcast TV is a better UX than the enshitified net.