a quiet space without having to “purchase” a coffee, and read etc.;

a social place were you can have access to a computer or any future technologies, if you do not have one with you, or own one;

a quiet place for people/students of any age, that at home/residence would not be able to concentrate and have a quiet desk, for a reason or another and also be safe in a public space and sheltered from the weather.

In other simple words, the “physical” is the strength of a library building.

It is quiet and public, (available), space, at the same time, when you do not have a private space.
what you can access there, at a library, will change with technology, it was books and a desk once, it is still books and magazines with a public computer now and with printing capabilities, later it might be a space were we can access to information or technologies that we cannot afford otherwise in space or time of our own at that moment.

It was, it is, or could be, a very high form of physical space of access to a sanctuary of social information/communication democracy.

It’s a sad fact that many media publishers are indeed overly litigious to the extreme these days. And it’s not surprising that as music publishers have gone this route to improve their bottom line, so have book publishers.

Hopefully we will see a surge in self-publishing or smaller online publishers in the coming years, and I think we will. I also expect that e-book prices will drop as people begin to self publish across a variety of platforms.