I completely disagree. I really believe that libraries help make readers, and some (not all) those readers will go on to be book-buyers. Also, while I would like people to buy my books, I'm more keen that they read them. (And heavens, I buy a lot of books I never get round to reading; and read (from the library) just as many that I never buy). The two are complementary, not competitive. The real threat comes from the variety of other media taking up people's time - Facebook, Twitter ... and perhaps even the Napoleon Series Discussion Forum! (Not really, I'm sure this leads to far more, not less, reading).

In Australia we have had Public Lending Right for many years, by which the government pays Australian authors a small sum for every copy of their books held by libraries. This is, or was, quite a significant benefit to the authors of books with an Australian angle, or otherwise popular in Australia (e.g. a local novelist with a reasonably high public profile), but not relevant to someone - like me - whose audience is mainly overseas. Nonetheless, I do think that it is a very good way of encouraging a broad range of local writers, rather than just relying on direct grants either through the arts council or university research bodies.