"...assume virtual control of selection?"  ???!!!

This sounds like the recent events in Moscow.  The real question it seems to me
 is whether the primary goal of the library is to support the teaching role or
to serve as the repository of the record of human thought and acheivement.  Whi
le we, as information professionals, cannot ignore (indeed, dare not) the immed
iate needs of our users (especially the influential, powerful ones - let's be h
onest), we also, if we really are information professionals, or as professional
 librarians (in essence if we really are PROFESSIONALS), have an ethical obliga
tion to see the big picture, as it were.  We are entrusted with an entire colle
ction and we have the obligation to build it in a responsible way.  This means
for the future as well as the present.  As serials are an integral part of the
collections we're building, we cannot abdicate our responsibilities, nor let th
em be taken out of our hands.  Then we really would be clerks.