Digital libraries will profoundly change the way universities work and the way people teach, and the way people learn over time. Yet the Director of the Programme will not commit himself to the cost-benefit argument. In order to make that happen, we would need a business model in which people who don't pay currently would have to start paying. In one model, for example, they'd have to pay to publish where at the moment the library pays for them to read. So far, I've seen nothing to suggest that librarians are likely to grasp the nettle and begin to pass on the cost of subscriptions to departments.
Departments therefore have no motivation to pay either to publish or to read.
If it could be done by decree, I think everybody would be reasonably happy with the system within a year or two, but to get there from here requires crossing a gulf of self-interest. To some it seems ironic that the electronic libraries programme has concluded that electronic libraries still embrace traditional forms. There is library as concept, library as organisation, and library as place. All will survive for at least the next 20 years. The concept fulfills the need to provide information on the one hand, and the need to build the academic record on the other.