Today, though, with just a computer and Internet connection, much research can be accomplished without leaving the comfort of home or office. University Librarian Gerald Munoff discusses the increasing availability of online resources and how they impact library use. I think of libraries as places that critically assess information, organize it for easy retrieval and, very importantly, enable people to work together with the information to create new knowledge. Libraries continue to do that, but now we have different tools. It varies by discipline.
Stereotypes suggest that the sciences utilize the online resources more than the humanities.
However, some of the earliest online full-text databases were Greek and Latin texts used in classical studies. The transition of information to the electronic format among the disciplines will happen at different rates and in different ways. The challenge is to find ways to bring the two worlds together so that users can access materials regardless of format and integrate them as required for research and instruction purposes. History has shown that, in most cases, one communications medium does not make another obsolete. I don't think this has actually happened.