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When I was young, libraries were where you did research for school and where you got novels to read. They were large buildings with row after row of books and huge card catalogue cabinets.
Then, not too many years later I went to a university library and when I asked for directions to the card catalogue I received an indulgent smile and they explained it was all on a computer. They led me to a monitor and I went to work.
Then, I visited the brand new main branch of a city library. Wow! It was beautiful. I saw over 100 PCs. They had classrooms for teaching the use of PCs and for classes in specific software, such as Lotus and WordPerfect, but what they didn't have were a lot of shelves for books. They had some, mostly modern novels. When I asked about research books I was directed to the internet and the inter-library lending site. I could order in books from a variety of sources or I could do my research on the internet.
I also saw rooms for childrens productions, reading books allowed or putting on puppet shows and plays, and meeting rooms for book clubs and community groups.
It would seem to me that in my lifetime, the concept of "library" has changed a lot and it will continue to change.
If we reach a point that research books and popular fiction are on-line to be downloaded easily to all ereaders if we will still have a library but not a building full of books.
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