Academic Libraries: 'Nothing More than Computer Labs with SOfas and Coffee?

Johann Neem posits that "across the country deans of libraries are giving up the fight and changing their mission rather than fighting to save an important academic institution. Rather than make clear why we need academic libraries, the library’s leaders are seeking instead to become vague learning environments which, when boiled down to their essence, are nothing more than computer labs with sofas and coffee." He sees a dual threat to academic libraries and other support areas: Declining funding and the campus professionals more tied to their "fields" - such as library science - than to the core purposes of the library. (He sees similar problems in student affairs and higher education administration in general.)