A piece of my bargain-loving heart breaks when someone mentions “renting” a book from a library. It’s not renting, young’uns. It’s borrowing and it’s still a thing.
It’s like borrowing your neighbor’s shovel (and I know you’re going to return it super soon!) If your neighbor said “Sure you can have this beautiful shovel for the low, low, price of $4.99 an hour!” that would be weird. They’d loan it to you.
Tax dollars help support libraries, so, ok, they’re not totally “free.” But, the idea of libraries is to improve your life – yes, yours! – through open, no-strings-attached, access to info and research on the past, present, and future, as well as just-for-fun stuff. Including a shit-ton of stuff you definitely will not get free online.
So, go ahead and borrow physical and digital books, movies, park passes, and such. If the librarian says he’ll rent anything to you for $4.99, he’s a crook.