…a local news story skeptically questioning whether libraries are “necessary” set off a response from Vanity Fair, and a later counterpunch by Chicago’s Public Library Commissioner won her support from such diverse, non-library-specific outlets as The A.V. Club and Metafilter, and from as far away as The Guardian.

Call it a hunch, but it seems to me that the thing is in the air that happens right before something — families with a million kids, cupcakes, wedding coordinators — suddenly becomes the thing everyone wants to do happy-fuzzy pop-culture stories about. Why?

via Why The Next Big Pop-Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might Be Libraries : Monkey See : NPR.

Excellent points and well worth the couple of minutes to read.