It can be easy to take public libraries for granted. The free (tax-funded) service allows anyone with a library card to skim through books, access resources like computers and public archives, or just chill out in a climate-controlled space.
“It’s a real anti-capitalist move to utilize the library,” said Katie O’Dell, a Multnomah County Library director who has been managing the capital project. “Libraries are as punk and as radical as anything else.”
But right now many Multnomah County libraries are closed for construction. Currently, seven out of 19 public libraries are out of commission, and undergoing extensive renovations. So library-goers across the Portland area have had to relocate.
