Remote access to information via the Internet is undoubtedly useful and is going to become even more so as more and more resources become available on line. Indeed the Web has sometimes been likened to a place which has been hit by a neutron bomb - lots of traces of people, but strangely devoid of actual people. In the exercise we set of comparing searching for information on the Web and searching in a library, the key difference that many students note is the assistance that they have been given by librarians. There will always be information that isn't available on the Internet. As well as the hoards of manuscripts, libraries don't just contain printed materials.
Libraries have a history of providing entertainment and other facilities.
Just as books will survive, so will libraries. In the UK Public Libraries remain one of the most used of public facilities. However, their functions will change and it is likely that they will increasingly become public access points for on-line facilities. That they have been slow to do this has been because, until recently, it hasn't been easy to use, the expense of installation and high running costs and because of the resistance of some librarians who feel threatened by unfamiliar technologies. The EVHs were established with community groups rather than in the local libraries which would have been well suited to such an experiment in community involvement in accessing information.