Are research libraries imperiled? Is the Internet driving a stake into their hearts? Maybe.
Google, Science Direct, Factiva, and PubMed all “eliminate the middleman,” meaning us librarians. The richer the database, and the better the search interface, the less our customers need us. This is not a bad thing! This is a good thing! We want to be disintermediated!
Almost every responsibility that we assume today, and every task we assume tomorrow, should be undertaken in the hope that one day our work will be done, or that we will be superseded by new, user-friendly systems of self-help.
So. Is the Library dead? Yes. And then again, No.
