On Dec 1, 11:24 am, Willi wrote:
When is everything at a library going to be digitized and available to
patrons online?

Everything? Never. See this excellent article (online! :-) by
Anthony Grafton from a recent New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...a_fact_grafton

(he also has an online-only selection of his favorite web resources
he

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007...neonly_grafton)

I usually shy away from words like "never" but even Google hasn't (and
probably won't) put a dent in digitizing the printed record, let alone
keep up with what is currently published (and "published"). Let alone
usefully make it available. (I do, however, think Google Books is a
pretty cool idea.)

Our libraries in Colorado have made a bit of progress in this regard,
they have a good selection of audio books available (2000+ titles) for
download with a time limit and copy protection. I think is great. You
download the book and transfer it to a MP3 player (but not an IPOD) or
listen to it on your computer for a two week period.

DRM at work. They don't work on iPods because they use Windows DRM.
I've never actually used any of those from my public library because
the restrictions are just so foolish.

There are also some ebooks available, but they are very limited.
Personally, what I'd especially like to see are the online availability
of scientific journals.

Most are, including deep archives, but if you mean "online
availability of scientific journals from my living room" then the
answer is economics won't allow it, at least not now. Tim has pointed
out some of the issues. You should be able to access many online if
you darken the doorway of the library at Colorado State. We see
independent researchers at our place every day.

Bill