Re:The better question is: should they? (Score 1)

One thing to remember is that libraries are not simply physical locations. You may have spent "exactly 0 hours and 0 minutes" in your library, but the materials you accessed by your "university's electronic library" are also part of your library. They were free for you to access because your library pays thousands of dollars a year to provide its patrons with access to them. For you, then, your library was digital access; for others it's physical access. And for others it's both. Thankfully, most libraries have both. If we're looking at libraries as a "has nothing but books" model, then yes, that's dying. But how many libraries DON'T have wireless internet, computer internet terminals, DVDs, electronic resources, etc, in addition to books these days?