Libraries and E-government

As governments attempt to streamline their services and cut down on their spending they have once again managed to shift the burden of responsibility for some issues onto other parts of society while patting themselves on the back for allegedly saving money.
A glaring example of this shift is the e-government issue. In an effort to cut down on paperwork and staffing, many governmental departments have shifted to an electronic application format. This sounds good on the surface because it means less paperwork, fewer staff and a significant amount of saving. However there is another issue that this shift brings up. Namely, does someone else have to take the burden for state or local government's efforts to save money.
In this case, it's your local library. By and large, librarians are suddenly finding themselves having to assume additional duties - particularly in areas they are untrained for like social work - because government departments have moved needed documents to an electronic format and are sending the patrons "...to the library. They have people there that can help you."
In reality, librarians by and large do not have degrees in social work, yet we are being asked to fill that role while places like the Department of children and families congratulate themselves for saving millions of dollars by putting everything online. This shifting of the burden of responsibility is a travesty. Librarians should not be put in the position where one wrong answer on a form could potentially affect a client for more than a year.
One of the other problems with this shift to "e-government" is that the target audience for many services are on literate in the use of the computer. This is particularly true for those library patrons who may need food stamps or other welfare-related items. These patrons will need the most assistance, and they are increasingly having to rely on librarians who are ill-trained to help them.
Maybe what needs to happen is some data collection and billing. For example, the library could track all their e-government requests for help, track the time those tasks took out of a librarians day and send a bill monthly to the affected departments or (better yet) the governor's office in the hope that when budget time comes the legislature will see fit to free up more money for the public library.