Free is no longer free

Well, I suppose things must be rough when the libraries start charging money not simply to borrow, but to simply use their collections. And behind that is the threat of charging money to browse a collection. That's what the University of Toronto is proposing. There will always be public libraries and ebook sources for the budget-minded, but I know that academic collections - especially one such as U of T's - contain so many hard-to-find materials, that this just can't be a good thing to the academic community. I understand that libraries need to keep an eye on the bottom line, especially these days, but taking information out of the hands of the people simply never ends well.