I wonder if Mr Godin, in articulating his vision of the library as a
place "filled with so many web terminals there's always at least one
empty," isn't framing it around the Digital Public Library of America
proposal? He didn't specifically name it but, with all the acclaim for
the idea in the mainstream media, it is difficult to believe he is
unaware of it. In that he is primarily describing a public rather than
an academic library setting in his post, access to books rather than
journals and databases is probably what he had in mind and that aligns
with the goals of the DPLA. In addition, the DPLA conceivably could
satisfy some of the concerns voiced here about how local libraries go
about maintaining links and obtaining cataloging records.

To bring something new to the discussion, take a look at this post to
the PLA Blog, http://plablog.org/2011/06/two-more-reasons-for-library-outposts-the-dpla-and-youmedia-learning-labs.html
, describing something similar (or so it seems to me) to what Mr Godin
is describing.

Tom