In the piece, Panos Mourdoukoutas of Long Island University argues that recent changes in the worlds of technology and commerce have rendered libraries mostly obsolete.
Since public libraries are financed with public dollars, Mourdoukoutas argues that replacing them with brick-and-mortar Amazon bookstores would save taxpayers money.
Mourdoukoutass piece is notable less for the arguments it contains than for sparking a backlash that was loud and fierce, two traits not typically associated with libraries or their patrons.
For the typical library, that works out to about 4.4 visits for every single man, woman and child living in the region served by the library.
It noted in a report last year that it doesnt track virtual visits to libraries, when patrons visit their local library website to, say, download an e-book to their reader.
Original article