> And it must be acknowledged that physical books are less important than access to knowledge,

I guess that explains why so many libraries are tossing old books, even local history books that have probably never been digitized and will be impossible to replace, while at the same time finding money to have larger computer rooms. Libraries are forgetting their purpose, giving people access to books and other documents should come before more vague missions like "access to knowledge" which gets twisted into meaning something other than books and documents.

Free internet access can be gotten all over the place. I can get online at McDonalds, but I can't get books at McDonalds.

I doubt librarians would agree. Libraries are a lot older than books. "Access to knowledge" has always been their goal.

My librarian friends spend most of their time playing with relational databases and showing patrons how to use computers.

I think a society shouldn't leave the responsibility of giving access to internet to those who don't get that at home (if they have one or even if they have a device) to McDonalds. Let alone a place to work, to sit and read, public lectures, meeting rooms etc. Bookstores serve your vision of a library btw.

It's not just access to the internet. It's access to journals, databases, and other sources that are legitimately costly. Individuals can't even get access to ProQuest, for example, because they sell institutional subscriptions.

I'm certainly not opposed to libraries having free internet access (everyone else does, so they might as well too) but they should remember that their foremost purpose is giving the public access to books. They should let the vague "access to knowledge" talk become an excuse to deemphasize books.

And no, bookstores do not fit my vision of libraries. I specifically mentioned libraries hosting old local history books and other documents. Stuff that is long out of print, many times was never "in print" in the first place. In libraries that haven't suffered the purges as badly you can find things like binders filled with documents that a local history buff a century ago compiled, detailing town history a century before that. What bookstore has such a wealth of information? Once libraries get rid of that stuff, it's usually gone forever.

I never said anything about throwing out books that haven't been digitized.

And yes, you can get free internet access, but those research databases I mentioned are not free to access. There a millions of "documents", to use your term, already indexed and categorized, with varying quality of searchability.

Let's not skip over the main point I meant to emphasize: librarians. I get why people in tech believe that they have all the tools and skills to do their own research. They don't value librarians for the expertise they have, even though just getting an entry level librarian job requires more education than most programming jobs.