https://www.librarieslearn.org/self-paced-courses/collection...
God only knows how many works have been consigned to permanent oblivion because they were only of local or niche interest, when even notorious classical works that were read for a thousand years are no longer available in many library systems without ILL. (And sometimes not even then.)
Modern libraries are for entertainment, not education, with few exceptions.
Aside: do not donate books to the library unless you do not care what happens to them. If the library cannot sell them they will be pulped. They are almost never added to collections.
Aside2: for some reason rescuing library books from dumpsters is considered theft by some librarians, so be careful.
It's quite apparent when I've explored libraries in small towns on cross-country road-trips. Ideological influence for sure.
It's such a bummer that public libraries won't have these physical objects on shelves in a discoverable form and place, where people can just stumble upon and page through them.
I've picked through a couple public library "removed from circulation sales" and always find at least one gem there's no obvious good cause for removal. It's hard to not become a hoarder in such situations.
Already brought two such finds home: Bombs Over Bikini [0] and Alaska Crude [1]. They're tiny, and dense with historically relevant photographs. It seems strange to remove them, I suspect it's partly because their contents are dark/depressing/embarrassing to the nation in hindsight. But that's arguably their value IMHO.
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18354016-bombs-over-biki...
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25135337-alaska-crude