Accessibility is only worse if the implementation is poor. We didn't have literal fights over books on my course, but the library typically had one (1) copy of every book. If you needed that copy you either had to be first in line, you had to wait, or you had to do without.

It's not hard to see how electronic copies would improve on that. With Google Books - or some variant - all you need is a browser. Once you have an electronic copy, you have an infinite number of electronic copies.

Aside from politics and lack of imagination, there's no reason why there shouldn't be exactly one library in the world, with local mirrors.

An online library that offered instant access to copies of everything ever published, without exception, would be a hugely useful thing. And the technology to do this is already available now.

There are also curatorial advantages. You can leave valuable folios in climate controlled storage while still giving readers open access to the words and images in them.