Why Libraries Persist: Hermits, Clouds, Confucius, Bubbles, and Hortense Foglesong.

This article is a look at hermits, cowgirls, pioneer librarians, information habits, and how networks are changing the information supply chain. The Internet operating as a ruthlessly effective supply chain direct from the cloud to the individual poses a fundamental risk to libraries. Libraries have to adapt, as they have successfully done in the past, or follow the well-documented pathway to institutional failure. Adaptation is difficult and requires a reexamination of core values and the processes by which those values are implemented, including questioning the concept of what constitutes research, information, and customer service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]