Will Libraries Survive Digital Books, and If So, How?

Public libraries serve a number of purposes; a warm place to spend the day, a source of free internet access and community event locations among others, but their primary function is a free source of books for the public. The United States has long supported this service as valuable for educational purposes, allowing anyone, regardless of socio-economic status, to lift themselves by their educational boot-straps. Digital distribution of information, at least in its current form, presents a threat to these institutions. The internet has replaced enough of the functionality of lending libraries to threaten to render them obsolete, but not enough to make the change one that is net beneficial. The question considered here is: what library-side changes can help avoid the loss of this valuable resource?

What libraries have now, and what the internet replaces. Currently libraries provide both fiction and non-fiction media as well as physical assets. Non-fiction media tends to be research material, such as reference books, archived periodicals and research journals, but also includes current periodicals and non-fiction books of general interest. Fiction assets are mostly comprised of novels and other books for entertainment, but also include music and video at most libraries, nearly all of which is available for short term lending. The physical assets are primarily the public space, used both as a venue for various community events and a comfortable, quiet indoor space that is freely accessible, but also usually include use of the internet. All of these resources are free, at least to those in the relevant community, with small exceptions such as minor fees for card replacement or special assistance. The internet currently does an excellent job of replacing much of the research oriented non-fiction resources, offering far more content in more accessible ways. It is less satisfactory when asked to supply more current non-fiction, but is improving quickly, and the same can be said for most fiction. The physical assets are not replaced, but more troubling is that the free-ness of all the materials is usually not replaced. Access to the internet itself (outside of libraries) has a greater cost than the minimal fees charged by a library, and very little of the material available for free at libraries is available (legally) without cost on the internet. If the internet effectively drives libraries out of business, the American ideal of freely available education for all would be endangered by an across the board increase of entry cost.

Why the whole library system will be replaced/eliminated by the internet. There is no loss if the internet simply co-exists with libraries, but it is likely that increasing use of the internet will greatly harm free libraries. This is because the internet will divert users from the libraries because of added convenience, and without a minimum number of users, funding for libraries will evaporate.

Market forces: no one borrows books, no late fees, no pressure to fund libraries (why not use the money for trash collection, or discounted internet service). Also, attacks on altered libraries by publishers/RIAA/Movie industry.

Possible Solutions. Free fiction digital distribution- Still fair use? Will industry stand for it? What restrictions? Fix the internet (question for some other paper)