I’m sorry to hear that’s been your experience with the library system. I have not had the same experience at all. In fact, I’m listening to the audiobook of Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire on Libby from my local city library, where they for some reason have unlimited copies of it available.

I also listened to Abolition. Feminism. Now., most of Ursula K Le Guin’s novels, Are Prisons Obsolete?, The Communist Manifesto, An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States, and a whole bunch more through either my city library, or the library in my states capital, since all citizens of the state get a library card for there.

Have you checked services like Libby to see if you can connect with your library card? That could supplement whatever your library has physically, since you’re having issues getting things done through inter library loans.

Libraries are like safe havens from capital for me. One of the last truly public spaces, where I don’t feel pressured to consume or produce. I couldn’t live without them.