Ah Peter! The idea that all taxation is theft and all community spending is waste does have a simplistic appeal, but it ignores that fact that taxpayers gain from community as well as fund it.
Yes the poor gain disproportionally from Libraries, but the wealthy also gain by not having the poor completely downtrodden.
I cannot believe that folks here in Australia, one of the best examples of the value of community spending, are falling for the "only private profiteers make wealth" arguments from the Right. (The group that justifies $16Million salaries for bankers)
If taxation and community spending is so bad...how come the most advanced nations all have social spending, and those that don't tend to be too chaotic for stable profitable business to be successful? If social spending is *so* bad for wealth generation...how come China is now producing most of the world's consumer products and has the fastest growing middle class?
The real issue is deciding what government should spend money on: Supporting massive profits for unsustainable businesses? (Privatised monopolies, private health & education, wealthy parents), or quality resources that can be used by all.
BTW. The Internet will change the reading landscape...but only when authors go to readers directly and remove the parasitical publishing industry, who are currently using legal means to hold back technology. Hopefully Apple will fix this through sheer force! (ie. *real* competition achieving wealth through creative destruction)

*And so too for my children who I take to our local library usually every Sat morning.*

Yellow Kracken, I think its wonderful that you are teaching your
kids the habit of reading etc. Sadly too many parents don't bother.
I too have a great library which I treasure.

But over time, I've noticed that people slowly adapt to what
is most convenient and so over time, no doubt the majority of the
population will do exactly that.

I remember protesting, when our local bank branch was going to close.
I thought it was madness. I was wrong. Now, something like 70-80%
of bank transactions are done via the internet. The one girl left in
what is now a bank kiosk, spends most of her day twiddling her thumbs.

I recently wanted to buy a copy of Robert Winston's "Human Instinct"
It was on Ebay for 6 bucks, so I bought it. All found with a couple
of clicks.

But the great advantage that I see with electronic books, is that
they are searchable Feed in the keyword and hey presto, you have
the page instantly. That makes it all very convenient.

Forget computer screens, the new tablets coming out are lightweight,
easy to use and will improve dramatically in the next few years.
I can already see myself changing my newspaper subscriptions to
electronic form, as frankly I simply don't need the huge amount of
supplements, classifieds and other pages that I don't read. All that
paper and ink wasted. We'll save a hell of a lot of trees, going
electronic.

So yes, there will be resistance to change, but it will happen.
Younger ones will grow up with electronic books and think nothing
of downloading them. So those libraries will become much
quieter places.

For me it's about being in the company of actual people rather than sat in front of a screen at home. There is something invigorating about leaving the house and going somewhere...this is not an inconvenience, it is a pleasure. If you are too time poor (crap phrase that - we all have the same amount every day, its just some accept that we don't have to do everything) to do this, then I feel for you...perhaps your priorities are not right.

However, I agree with yabby that the generation growing up now will have a different view - which is why my books are available as ebooks - even if I don't use the technology myself. But when their battery dies, I'll still have my book to read...possibly by candlelight!