John Unsworth penned a Not-so-Modest Proposal, discussing the future of scholarly communication. The major theme is that humanities organizations should start thinking of collecting digital articles as a default (Caveat from a colleague Michell Citron, digital doesn't preserve as well as analog).
Unsworth was the founder of UVA's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, so he's got a few chops. He's also a very nice guy, as I met him at a luncheon when he came to NU to consult with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences about technology in our humanities programs.
Just for the record, Chicagoland has a great opportunity for a moon shot in this direction with Northwestern, University of Chicago, The Field Museum, The Chicago Historical Society, The Newberry Library and The Art Institute of Chicago within a tiny geographic area.
Oh, did I mention that they're all within easy reach of a new Chicago area optical network? What's a few gigabytes between friends?