I believe digital research is the future for libraries and related institutions (ie. schools, research facilities, etc). FAU had a decently sized collection of articles and texts as digital copies which we could use for our reports. It was most helpful to be able to access such information from home rather than having to deal with traffic and parking on campus. PBC is building a collection of audio books on our webpage, which I think is fabulous.
In "Away From Icebergs", Rick Anderson discusses the obsolete "Just-In-Case" collection. I completely agree that libraries should not be trying to build collections wastefully, anticipating user needs where none exist. I constantly see libraries not weeding "classic" books that have not been checked out (or clearly have not been moved at all) in the past 10 years just in case someone wants to read this book published 30 years ago. Why not archive them?! Then we could use the space in our libraries for contemporary popular literature.
With the limits of physical space with regards to building new libraries or expanding current locations it makes sense to try to build as large a ditital archive as possible. There will be no more lagging behind in reading school required texts. Simply access it from home (or library) until you can get a hard copy to read at school.
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