Quote:
Originally Posted by webroot
There is difference!!! public libraries can become "media center" or internet cafe but not college library, unless they move away from original purpose.
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Less of a difference than you think. Even 20 years ago when I was at university there was starting to be the ability to search indexes for scientific journal articles. Albeit after you found what you wanted you had to go into the stacks and pull out the hard copy of the edition you wanted to read the article. That's moving to being able to search AND pull up the article on the computer. Still serving the original purpose even though it's now electronic and I would imagine the library staff are still occupied helping people find what they are looking for -- search engines are great, but are only as good as the search terms you enter.
Having said that, the bigger threat to university/college libraries is the cost of subscriptions to journals whether print or electronic versions. But that's getting off topic of this thread.