a funny thought on libraries

While reading those Henning Mankel swedish mysteries (which were great) I noticed a funny thing. At several points the police really needed to find something out but the computer would be down or they would be unable to contact the necessary expert. I kept wondering, "Why do they not just call the public library? They have reference books specially on that subject..."

And then in the Venice books, which I read because I will read nearly any mystery though they were unspeakably badly written and the characters were grody, and it was smugly and stupidly sexist to the max... anyway in those Venice books suddenly the detective guy thinks "crap, I will never be able to find out this information on the illegal dumping of PCBs unless I find a bookstore that's open or can bribe my way into a university library" and he regrets for a moment that it's not America where they have public libraries.

So what is up with the Swedish mysteries? Do they not have public libraries there either? Is that possible? Surely not. How very strange. Thanks Ben Franklin...