What's a library without books?

This may well be a question I can address the government on the lack of books in the country's public school libraries. But this is a perfect juxtaposition of the trend in US academic libraries and the state of our libraries here in the country in relation to this story from USA TODAY.

It seems that academic libraries in the US are taking the bold step of radically changing the library from a place where one can get lost in the stacks, literally and figuratively, into a sort of tambayan and where patrons can check out not books but laptops, MP3 players, and software suites not to mention a cup of coffee and pastries. While these libraries are emptying their stacks, libraries here are aching for materials to fill their shelves and with very limited funds, if there is at all, they could only afford a few titles with the already high cost of books made more expensive with the E-VAT. So how about sending their books over here for good measure?

I wish I'd live to see the day when a public school library will be a dynamic place where ideas are born and bred with the aid of technology tools without librarians "shushing" or in our case, ringing a bell.

So what's a library without books? I guess it depends on which part of the globe you're at.