Uh, isn't the core function of "ordinary" (as opposed to research, and university on-campus libraries) libraries to loan out books? So that people don't have to

Uh, isn't the core function of "ordinary" (as opposed to research, and university on-campus libraries) libraries to loan out books? So that people don't have to buy a book just to be able to read it? As long as literature isn't free, it seems libraries have a role to fulfill. But then again, I think even that usage of libraries is declining, perhaps because time previously spent reading books is now spent on other pleasures (surfing the Internet, for instance). I don't have data to back up this hunch, though.