The library is also a social institution. Then there are the objects or genre that are contained in libraries. Without listing them, one can see that a bo ok or journal article is a complex social artifact. It is an expression not just of a person, but can also be thought of as representative of the thinking of a 'community of practice'. As academic journals become electronic, the genre of e-mail, newsgr oup and journal blend into each other.
Time is compressed, for sure.
Lags between thought and transmission are decreased. But more important, for the community of practice, people are brought closer together. Some famous and influential papers stayed drafts for years. The point is, by and large, and certainly among people that did not know each other, we can say, scholarship w as a printed mediated community. Computer mediated communication changes that.