This question was posted to the Library Underground discussion list, and I thought the answers were worth sharing on the open web. The answers included were done so with their contributors' permission.

I was at a party on Friday night and we were talking about property taxes being raised so that services like police, fire and libraries didn't have to face any more cuts because of state funding. Someone then said to me, "I'm going to ask you something that probably will be offensive to you because you are a librarian." I said, "Okay, what's your question." She asked, "Why do we need librarians and libraries anymore now that we have the Internet?" I felt very put on the spot and proceeded to answer the question, but feel that since I was ill prepared did not answer to the best of my ability. So, in preparation to answer this question again, how would you all answer this?