I fully agree that physical aspects of libraries cannot be fully replicated with databases and searches.
Discovery indeed comes in many forms, sometimes by proximity, other times by serendipity, size of the book, even what sits on the recently returned racks.
In a similar sense, I mourn the death of printed phone books and yellow pages. And printed encyclopedia, dictionaries and atlases.
The loss of the physical formats removed forever, extremely interesting aspects of browsing and learning from these sources.
Discovery indeed comes in many forms, sometimes by proximity, other times by serendipity, size of the book, even what sits on the recently returned racks.
In a similar sense, I mourn the death of printed phone books and yellow pages. And printed encyclopedia, dictionaries and atlases.
The loss of the physical formats removed forever, extremely interesting aspects of browsing and learning from these sources.