What's the point of libraries these days? We literally have the possibility for everyone to have a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in their pocket with all books that were ever written.
As other users said above, libraries are a huge deal in poor communities. People use them to search for jobs/fill out job applications. These are tasks that are onerous to impossible on a low-end smartphone, if you have one at all.
I live in a gentrifying area of NYC. There's a public library branch a few blocks away from me that sees lots of visitors every day. I rarely walk by it and don't see people coming and going.
If these people are there for the space and the Internet, and not the books, that seems like an argument for a new type of institution that has a lot of computers, rather than an argument for libraries.
It's only a possibility at this point. For instance: law libraries. Currently, there is much legal info online but there is plenty that is not (e.g. Rutter Group law guides). Or maybe they're online but only for a hefty fee aimed at law firms (e.g. Lexis-Nexis access). For someone forced into self-representation for a legal matter, a public law library is a HUGE help. While the online resources that are available are very helpful, they are not enough at this point.
A book certainly is just a medium, but it's a particularly accessible and durable medium.
If you place a 50-year-old book written in English in front of me, I can immediately pick it up and begin reading. Books far older than that are equally as legible and, with care, accessible.
What are the chances that in 50 years that even half of the current ebook formats will be viewable by contemporary technology?
This isn't to say that other formats shouldn't be used or improved, but we have yet to see a medium that is as unfettered and easily used. It's hardly about nostalgia.
Probably for the same reason we didn't replace books with microfilm, which began to be used commercially in the 1920's. And microfilm can be "decoded" using simple magnification. No issues of software compatibility with document formats and whatnot.
