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QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANSHIP
LIKE MANY LIBRARIANS TODAY, I view recent technological developments in information and telecommunication technologies with a mixture of excitement, nervous anxiety, and paranoia.' In 1968, when I graduated from Columbia University's library school and began working in my first professional position, library managers focused on matters related to bibliographic control, acquisition of printed resources, and library collection development. As a graduate student, I took no courses in information systems retrieval, digital media, or network information infrastructure. In short, I entered librarianship before the advent of the electronic frontier.
However, my Columbia experience did include lessons about change. In the spring of 1968, student protesters shut down the university. Ardent struggles between student radicals, the New York City Police Department, and campus authorities created an environment of revolutionary ferment, fanatic change, and passionate struggle. Although these lessons were not part of my graduate library degree course work, my introduction to librarianship included the challenge, excitement, and exhilaration of witnessing revolutionary change.
Today, almost three decades after graduating from Columbia, I continue to confront revolutionary change in my profession. For librarianship and libraries, the pervasive influence of digital computing is transforming the expression and communication of shared ideas and knowledge. When I completed my library school studies three decades ago, computers were just beginning to find their way into the orderly world of libraries. Today, it is almost impossible to identify a library or a librarian that is not affected by computers, digital information, and the electronic network infrastructure. Columbia's library school was unable to successfully manage change, closing its doors a few years ago. Librarians everywhere are concerned about their libraries suffering the same fate.
Unlike my introduction to librarianship, today's library-school graduates encounter an economic and technological landscape where information and communication concerns are intertwined with more traditional library-related issues. Consequently, librarians discuss the changing role of the library in the cultural, social, and economic structure of society. They express concern that the essential nature, values, and practice of librarianship are threatened by change. Increasingly, soft distinctions among library services, interactive media, and information communication networks raise concerns about the roles of libraries in the future.
The popular old-fashioned image of the librarian is of someone...