Ross Dawson, a business consultant who tracks different customs, devices, and institutions on what he calls an Extinction Timeline,
predicts that libraries will disappear in 2019. He's probably right as
far as the function of the library as a civic monument, or as a public
repository for books, is concerned. On the other hand, in its mutating
role as urban hangout, meeting place, and arbiter of information, the
public library seems far from spent. This has less to do with the
digital world—or the digital word—than with the age-old need for human
contact.
How do you build a public library in the age of Google? – By Witold Rybczynski – Slate Magazine
(via Cenobyte)