Are All You can Read Services like Oyster a Threat to Libraries

I was just reading a post from Gary Price on InfoDocket regarding this article on Publisher's Weekly about how librarians feel about ebooks in 2013. In that article Michael Kelley describes a mood of 'mild optimism and lingering concern'.

These concerns are commonly talked about - the technological barriers forced on library patrons through DRM, above market pricing for libraries and restrictions around concurrent use or number of loans - all of which you can read about in many other places.

Gary Price added some of his own comments and one idea in particular grabbed my attention.

He suggests that one of the threats to libraries from subscription based services like Netflix, Spotify, Amazon and now Oyster and Scribd, is not that it makes the use of ebooks harder for libraries and their customers, but rather that they…

"take mindshare away from the library as a source for all types of content and overall, promote the idea that libraries and librarians are not relevant"
Gary Price: “E-Books in Libraries, 2013 Has Been a Year of Small Victories and Bigger Battles”. InfoDocket, November 2013.

In my opinion, while the current issues with ebook lending for libraries are a real problem they will eventually be sorted out satisfactorily. Many others have argued the case that ebook lending does not equate to lost sales for publishers and indeed may actually lead to increased sales.

Every year that it takes to solve the current technical problems is a year that Oyster and Amazon have to win the hearts and minds of digital readers.

We have seen it happen. We know that almost everyone tries Google first before they think of the library as far as seeking information goes. The library is almost a last resort when other channels have failed.

I doubt that most of these subscription services have the capital and the commitment that Google has to reducing friction in the transaction between people and their content. But they have all learned from Google the importance of making it cheap and easy for their customers to use their service - every online startup knows that.

My biggest concern is that if it takes libraries 5 years to sort out our differences with publishers and technology will the horse have bolted?

New all you can read services will always have to charge for access. In that sense, I believe there will always be a segment of the population that will rely on libraries for free access to content. But will books still be the library brand or could we be consigned to a niche market for books as well?