Growing together, and the recreation centre

If the recreation centre has a bookshelf, your sims can read there and if it has a pc your sims can use that as well. Basically sims in your active household can do the same as they can in a library if the necessary objects are present. The main difference with a library is the behaviour of other visiting sims. In a library other visitors will autonomously read books. In a recreation centre NPC's will focus on other activities, for example they will autonomously play games or play music.

One of the things about the recreation centre is that each day sims do different things there. One day they do art, other day exercising etc.

So if you are there at the right day, you will see sims reading books.

Edit. Looking into the tuning files, I got somewhat confused on info there. The activities aren't tied to certain days, thus can happen randomly. However, I did find out that most of the visitors mostly show up between 7 AM to 10 PM. Children and teens however how up 7 AM to 4 PM on weekends and 4 PM to 22 PM on school days.

Thank you @Atreya33 and @EgonVM for your answers. I think I will change the library for something else then. Il like the idea of a place with many different activities better. Here in Québec we have Cultural centres (maisons de la culture) that house a library and have many other activities (Internet, a place for coffee, a theater. Each has his own flavor.

Another difference will be that Libraries has a Librarian working there. I think s/he mainly tidy up books, which is not that essential, but maybe they also come with other features. I thin k the only reason why so many worlds have libraries is that the lot category comes with he base game. I'd gladly replace most of them with recreation centers with room for a mini library :)

I have two cafes with bookcases in my game and they work well if you just want a place where your sims can come to read a book and browse the internet. The only downside is that sometimes they leave the books scattered around the place but you can easily put them back so that's not much of an issue. You can build the lot to fit requirements for both a library and other lot type and then change the lot type as needed when you play. Depending on their aspirations, sometimes sims have wants to visit a certain lot type, so if that comes up you can easily switch it back to library lot type.

"Atreya33;c-18266866" wrote:

"crocobaura;c-18266850" wrote:
I have two cafes with bookcases in my game and they work well if you just want a place where your sims can come to read a book and browse the internet. The only downside is that sometimes they leave the books scattered around the place but you can easily put them back so that's not much of an issue. You can build the lot to fit requirements for both a library and other lot type and then change the lot type as needed when you play. Depending on their aspirations, sometimes sims have wants to visit a certain lot type, so if that comes up you can easily switch it back to library lot type.

When do you switch lots? Is it something you can do while you are visiting the lot? When I change lot types, I always make sure my current active household is not visiting there.

If the lot type allows access to build catalog, I always change lot type when visiting with a sim because I don't have the patience to load the lot twice just for that. It takes a few seconds for sims to adjust to the new lot type, NPCs to arrive, etc.

"crocobaura;c-18266868" wrote:

"Atreya33;c-18266866" wrote:

"crocobaura;c-18266850" wrote:
I have two cafes with bookcases in my game and they work well if you just want a place where your sims can come to read a book and browse the internet. The only downside is that sometimes they leave the books scattered around the place but you can easily put them back so that's not much of an issue. You can build the lot to fit requirements for both a library and other lot type and then change the lot type as needed when you play. Depending on their aspirations, sometimes sims have wants to visit a certain lot type, so if that comes up you can easily switch it back to library lot type.

When do you switch lots? Is it something you can do while you are visiting the lot? When I change lot types, I always make sure my current active household is not visiting there.

If the lot type allows access to build catalog, I always change lot type when visiting with a sim because I don't have the patience to load the lot twice just for that. It takes a few seconds for sims to adjust to the new lot type, NPCs to arrive, etc.

OK. I wasn't sure if that would work or mess up things. Good to hear it is possible.

All of this is very interesting. For those who have MCC you can make it so that Sims will replace books they have read on the bookshelves. I think I will change some of my libraries into recreation centres. They will offer much more to do.

I left the library there, but changed some rooms . I added a room with a podium and chairs for my politicians, an area with a scout board and a table for children to do homework, a children’s play room upstairs, and extra computers. The infant, toddler room is still there , and I left the room with the diaper changer and sofa. I added a mural from City living to the outside with a bucket of paint, that sims can use, a dumpster from Eco lifestyle, and a grill, picnic table, ice chest, tarp for toddlers and infants, and outdoor trash can outside to make the Library multi-functional

Keep at least 1 library in your save because there are Wants that require them.

I'd say that Britechester needs one for the the Honor Society events and maybe StrangerVille if you want an easy place to find scientists. Everywhere else, they aren't really needed.