It is essential because it:

1) Provides books (and movies and music and magazines) for free, given the current economic climate it offers great resources to many individuals and families who don't have the individual resources to purchase these things.

2) Being as these are free it also allows people to explore authors and topics one might be wary about spending money on to find out if you like them.

3) Great resource for children's material

4) Great space for public interaction and meeting without the requirement that you purchase something in order to justify being there.

5) Repository of local history, not necessarily on the internet.

Having a citywide internet service would be nice, but it excludes those unable to purchase a computer, the library provides that for free, which also allows for those who may not have a solid address a place to go to check email.

Here is an article from 2009 that address some of your questions

Honestly if city council members, or seekers, can not articulate at least some of why public libraries are good I'd be pretty ... er ... disgusted with them.

Personally I love browsing any large library, just walking trough the stacks and pulling random books and seeing what they are about and if they are any good. The internet is a good thing (sometimes) but it has huge holes in it.

I am currently using the library for many things that are enriching my life and saving me money. I have two sets of language CDs that I am working through to brush up on my second language (my minor in college years ago) and to start getting the basics down of a third. I am working through the complete works of a particular author who was quite prolific. While our library system doesn't have every single one of his books, I am able to obtain the ones I do not have through the greater library system via inter-library loan. 

I am on the waiting list for four books that I want to read, and the library has decided to order three books that have recently come out that I would like to read but that they hadn't purchased. (You put in an ILL order and if it's new and the library doesn't have it, they decide if it's something they would like to add to their collection. Sometimes you get lucky and they order it, and you are top on the list.) This is in addition to the seven books I currently have out beside me on the table right now (and the one waiting for me at my local library that I requested from the main library). I don't have to play "will it still be there when I get there?" with books, because I can put a hold on it (or I can ask for it to be transferred to my local library in order to avoid going further out of my way if it's somewhere else in the system).

Sometimes when I want a good place to work, but I don't want to have to buy coffee somewhere, I just pop over to my local library and enjoy seeing fellow Duluthians going about their library business. Reference books that are updated every year are easily checked at the library, which saves me from needing to buy them every year (my husband has a particular book for his line of work that helps him stay on top of new developments, but it's costly to purchase yearly).

Granted, I'm a book lover (most of the space in my apartment is taken up by bookshelves), but there's something about randomly grabbing something off the shelf at the library and digging in to see if I'll like it. Yeah, I could do that at B&N, but I can't just take it home to see if I like it before buying it. I generally find some of the best random reads at the library by judging the book by its cover and taking it home.

To add to edgeways regarding computer use: More and more companies are going to online application systems. People who are looking for a new job but don't have a computer or internet at home are able to use the free services at the library to apply and check online job sites.

Libraries are awesome and have different uses depending on who you are. I'm sure some people check out the CDs and DVDs more than I do (I use Spotify and Netflix when I want to check out new music or movies), but it's not just about my needs (obviously). Reference librarians are excellent resources for any random question you may have, even if you aren't at the library. If you need to know something and you can't find it easily, call the library and ask for a librarian.

A free library is a hallmark of democracy. Libraries are part of our compact as citizens. Knowledge IS power. If you could only buy a book from a commercial retailer, who decides what's available? Libraries are an important part of the marketplace of ideas, unhindered by the marketplace of money and popularity.

It's good for the environment.  Lots of people checking out and reading the same book (or movie) is a lot less impact on the environment than each buying their own copy.

Because Google doesn't give you all the research you need. There are so many articles out there only available by expensive databases which are best shouldered by a community.

Also going to the library every week with my children is a highlight. They need to see reading and research and love of artistic materials modeled by more than just their parents. They need to see these things valued by society.

I agree with everything everyone has said on this thread.  I am at the Mt Royal library branch weekly.  Duluthians are able to read books that we otherwise couldn't afford.  We are able to apply for jobs online that we otherwise couldn't apply for.  We are able to let our children take home stacks and stacks of books, and learn the value of reading, that we otherwise couldn't afford to buy for them.
Public libraries are a fundamental hallmark of a free society.  They are the backbone to an educated populace.  Any city council that shuts its library's doors is a shortsighted and ignorant city council.
And:  I am completely dismayed that this needs to be spelled out to some council members.

The libraries should be open every day, and fully staffed for a full day, so people can have open access to information regardless of the ability to pay.  Without open access, fully staffed, and full library hours, a free and informed democratic process is weakened.

One word: Marian.

Let's start here, BoB:

"[there is] no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of society, but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." -Thomas Jefferson.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -Unknown.

"Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain."   -John F. Kennedy.

Might as well ask "are schools essential?"

A good article from the CSM.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0311/p09s01-coop.html

@BoB

Would the city "fall on hard times" without the library? No.  Would it deprive lots of Duluth citizens of opportunities for self-enrichment, and remove vital resources for the  less fortunate among us?  Absolutely.

There are plenty of good arguments supporting e designation of libraries as vital services above your post.  Just because you don't understand them, or because they don't match your world view, does not make them invalid.

Carla:  to be fair, tHe Internet also holds a wealth of categorized and peer reviewed information as well.

A library is nonessential only if you consider an informed, predate citizenry unnecessary to a democracy.

Of course, to many conservatives, an uninformed, illiterate citizenry is a feature, not a bug.

For Bob, university libraries are generally not open to the general public, at least not in the same way as public libraries.  Typically, only students and faculty can actually check books out.   Duluth is both fortunate and wise in having arranged with UMD for all Duluth residents to be able to check books our of the UMD libraries.

But the collections are not the same.   University libraries are research libraries and don't carry books for the general reader.  These books are important.  The are an introduction to fields that general readers lack the background to go deeply into.   Some will go deeper, others will be satisfied to familiarize themselves with areas of knowledge they will never have the time, or interest, to go into deeply.

That's for the nonfiction.  The fiction is, yes, entertainment.  And entertainment, intellectual play, is a good thing, an essential aspect of our humanity.   Humans are the most playful species on the planet.  Deprive us of one kind of play and we will find others.

Libraries are also part of our commitment to the community, to I Clyde everyone, not just the ones with fancy computers, Internet access, and platinum cards in the public sphere.  Through libraries, we pool our resources of knowledge and share them with everyone.  And that is a good thing and a necessary thing.

Government supports, and must support libraries because government is the means by which we pool our resources for the common good.

The sad reality is, that budget cuts, the Second Great Depression, and an unwillingness to require the financially strongest among us to pull their fair share of the weight, means that we are now faced with cutting essential government services.  But if an increase in taxes will keep our libraries open, I'm willing to pay it.

Lojasmo, I disagree with the sentiment that 'our city won't fall apart without public libraries.'  I think that Duluthians are remarkably well read and well rounded, and that is why the city is such a delight to live in.  Take away sources of information for the poorer among us; take away resources for job hunting among the computer illiterate; take away a well informed citizenry; and who gets elected then, who is appointed to run the city then, and who moves away to a city more committed to intelligent citizens?
By the way, I appreciate your comments and agree with what you have said.  I am trying to ignore BoB the ignoramus ME partier.

The Duluth Public Library has things UMD doesn't have. For example, you can't get into Newsbank, which archives the DNT, through UMD, but you can get into it with your public library card.

@Adam
The U.S. has one of the highest and most byzantine corporate tax rates in the world. It's kind of, you know, bad for business and pushes jobs offshore. Kudos to GE for finding these legal loopholes.

@bob...tax cuts for companies who outsource American jobs are the #1 contributor to the loss of American jobs.

As to the facts, we're not all that bad in the realm of corporate tax rates, there are a lot of countries that run higher.

It's also quite handy that American corporations are able to influence lawmakers (read: bribe) to manipulate the tax codes to their advantage.

BoB, I completely agree with you.  In my opinion, the public library is far from essential.

For the record, while I disagree with Bob vehemently in many ways, I am always impressed with the collaboration between Metro State's academic library and the St. Paul Public:

http://www.metrostate.edu/msweb/resources/library/location.html

You cannot blend collections or MLS-accredited staff, but some argument for sharing physical plant and maintenance seems possible without damaging either.  What if Duluth Public closed the Mt. Royal branch and moved into the first floor of UMD's library?

It appears that we have reached an agreement that the library does provide an essential service, and shifted the discussion to consider whether the city's public library collection merely duplicates the collections available at the local university, thus allowing Duluth to close it's library and freeload off the university collection.

I think that the obvious and large differences between the user groups and purposes of these libraries make it very unlikely that there is any significant overlap in the collections.  

BoB, you seem to simply assume that there is no difference in the collections.  You say it's 'obvious' that we can pitch the public library, add some fiction books to the UMD collection, and be in the same place at a lower cost.

It isn't obvious to me.  I suggest that the burden of proof is on you for this one.

Gotcha? Hardly.