I'm certainly not opposed to libraries having free internet access (everyone else does, so they might as well too) but they should remember that their foremost

I'm certainly not opposed to libraries having free internet access (everyone else does, so they might as well too) but they should remember that their foremost purpose is giving the public access to books. They should let the vague "access to knowledge" talk become an excuse to deemphasize books. And no, bookstores do not fit my vision of libraries. I specifically mentioned libraries hosting old local history books and other documents. Stuff that is long out of print, many times was never "in print" in the first place. In libraries that haven't suffered the purges as badly you can find things like binders filled with documents that a local history buff a century ago compiled, detailing town history a century before that. What bookstore has such a wealth of information? Once libraries get rid of that stuff, it's usually gone forever.