Here are some highlights of New York Times coverage about libraries and librarians in 2011:

Randall Stross’ recent article Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War investigates the conflict between the publishing industry and libraries and the business model that is necessary in order to sustain both fields.

Jaywon Choe’s The Bibliotech: Library of the Future, Now covers the changing operations of libraries moving items offsite and facilitating transactions digitally.

Curious Contents of the Digital Library reveals the fascinating book titles that were digitized because they are in the public domain and the rare e-book collections that have developed.

Archivist and Reference Librarian Shannon O’Neill  wrote an op ed piece Checking Out describing her project archiving traditional library objects. Some of the items are in her slideshow Checking Out.

Robert Darnton’s op ed A Digital Library Better Than Google’s offers insight into the Google Book Project.