Public libraries should try to cover as many areas of interest as possible, and collection development policies exist to help make rational decisions. Another dilemma is trying to resolve the problem of our commitment to offering access to our resources versus our responsibility to protect materials and machines. Dissatisfied patrons may take their protest underground, vandalizing, stealing, hiding and tampering with library material to which they object. Librarianship is based on the civil liberties, principles of freedom of speech, equal access to ideas, and due process. Attempts to limit the provision of materials undermine the ideology of intellectual freedom underpinning public and academic libraries.
Libraries have the potential to offer a diversity of electronic and hard-copy content.
While we may still be better at distributing the latter, we need to look forward to how we perceive our role in connection with the former.