America's libraries depend on the well-being of those publishers. Throughout our history, libraries have been among the most voracious, lawful acquirers of published works. Each year, our institutions spend literally billions of dollars supporting the publishing community. From my own experience, the trend is up from these figures. Clearly, America's libraries are paying their fair share in rewarding copyright creativity.
Libraries also serve small business and budding entrepreneurs.
In Virginia, the Arlington Public Library emphasizes service to small business through both online and print materials on how to set up a small business, on business law, business plans, finance, legal forms, advertising and marketing, import and export information, and other business tools and resources. This is a very typical example of library attention to the fastest growing segment of American business. America's libraries have always had the right to allow their patrons to enter the library's facilities and access the works and use them as allowed by copyright laws. The Act has never meant that lawfully acquired books and magazines were to be locked up in the library or that the library could only allow access to the reproduction of excerpts for an additional fee paid to the publisher. It has never meant that the publishers could control who looked at information and whether a page could be copied.