I agree that school libraries need more help, and so do regular libraries, though. I don't think this is a result of the rise of ebooks, however. This is more a result of the recession and financial problems. Is library patronage in the US is dropping, anyway?
I'm also confused by the idea of an orderly etc transition to ebooks. If Patterson believes that we will completely transition to ebooks soon(which I doubt), isn't the decline of physical bookstores inevitable anyway? So the problem is that they're not shutting down in an orderly fashion?
Personally, I think the transition would be more "civilized" if the following things happened:
1. Prices of e-readers and tablets dropped. Right now e-ink readers seem to have ceased dropping in price, which is unfortunate.
2. Big publishers adopted a more "civilized" attitude about e-books in libraries.
3. If Amazon faced more serious competition in ebooks (in the US). B&N can't do it because of the
strategy tax they need to pay. (In other words, if Amazon's book customers switch from ordering physical books to buying Kindle books, this is good for Amazon. But if B&N gets its book customers to switch to ebooks, this not good for the stores.)