If you haven’t read this book and you’re interested in topics such as peer-to-peer, pay-per-view, and information privacy, you should go get yourself a copy now. Only one chapter deals specifically with libraries but every word is relevant. Here’s one specific example:
Libraries are under incredible pressure to conform to the pay-per0view model. Increasingly, academic journals are coming to libraries in electronic form rather than on paper. So imagine this: An electronic journal is streamed into a library. A library never has it on its shelf, never owns a paper copy, can’t archive it for posterity. Its patrons can access the material and paybe print it, maybe not. But if the subscription runs out, if the library loses funding and has to cancel the subscription, or if the company itself goes out of business, all the material is gone. The library has no trace of what it bought: no record, no archive. It’s lost entirely. This is not a good model for a library. It defeats the fundamental purpose of a library. You might as well be sitting at a computer terminal in a copy shop. [emphasis added]
