People keep writing articles about how valuable libraries are, even with ebooks and the Internet. What people are overlooking is that the reason libraries are having such fits dealing with a changing environment is not that libraries are unrecognized as fountains of value, it's that libraries are so valuable that they attract voracious new competition with every technological advance. Just as the Internet introduced both competition for existing library services and openings for new library ones, the introduction of ebooks presents additional opportunities for competition with and by libraries. The shift to ebook delivery presents a variety of challenges for libraries. They will have to figure out how to manage ebook reading devices, reader application software, rights management, and licensing. The author argues that there is still a lot of uncertainty about how and when libraries develop ebook services as well as how libraries might best fit in a world where books are mostly consumed via ebook readers. He contends that if libraries just sit back and wait to see what happens, rather than participating in the cycle of innovation and competition, they will end up with diminished roles in America's culture.