I've been hearing this for a long time, and as long as you're leaning against the "cutting edge" deployment, it's easy to get caught up in it (been there, done that): digital is coming, we must adjust!  While I agree with the service and adjustment part, coming from the public library side, and especially the public side that sees a LOT of computer illiterate people (we're working on that...), until electronic gadgets become as easy to use as point and shoot cameras, our collections are not going to change that much.  Access will never be irrelevant because none of it is ever provided for free.  And even when the library provides the access, there is the training required to enable access.  It's only the mix that will change.
 
Carol Bean, pondering once more the musings of others wiser than me...

        -----Original Message----- 
        From: Eric Lease Morgan [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
        Sent: Tue 7/20/2004 7:46 AM 
        To: [log in to unmask] 
        Cc: 
        Subject: [CODE4LIB] iPods as a library
	
	

        (This message may be off topic, but I'll try posting it here anyway.)
	
        I learned this morning that Duke University will be giving away bunches
        o' iPods to incoming freshman, and they will be come pre-filled with
        content for the students' schoolwork:
	
           http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/news/ipods_0704.html
	
        Extend this further. Imagine in the future an entire library on an
        thing the size of an iPod. I'm not talking about just indexes and
        catalogs. Rather, I'm talking digitized, full text content. All of the
        encyclopedia. All of the books in the stacks. All of the journals since
        forever. All of the videos and music. All of the things from Special
        Collections and archives. Everything. The entire collection.
	
        What would a library be in such a scenario? I don't think it would  be
        very much about collections because everybody would be carrying the
        entire collection around in their pocket. Instead, I think library
        would be more about service -- ways to use and interpret the
        information/knowledge in the collection.
	
        My point is two-fold. First, collections without services is like the
        sound of one hand clapping. Both are required in order for libraries to
        exist. Second, in a digital environment, libraries had better wake up,
        smell the coffee, and work on ways to provide more services digitally.
        As access becomes increasingly irrelevant, everybody will have access,
        other services will have to become more important, such as
        interpretation and manipulation.
	
        --
        Eric "Early Morning Musing" Morgan