as librarians, we have lots of information resources at our disposal. we learn how to navigate through it and help others to do so. we learn to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources. in short, we are "informationally literate."
but we can't be there all the time, and many databases, etc. that a library may have subscriptions to are accessible from home, 24/7. here we hope that our patrons, and the public in general, have a degree of information literacy too, so they can avail themselves of these resources.
the conundrum? when folks discover they have enough information literacy of their own, and no longer need our services. i'm not saying the folks at the wall street journal are all informationally literate (i'm sure
some are). but somebody upstairs at the WSJ has decided to save the dinero and
close the WSJ library. bye bye librarian & assistant.
this is the future of librarianship. as budgets shrink, personnel perceived as "non-essential" get the axe. and as more of the citizenry or workforce becomes more informationally literate, the need for a "professional" falls away. the need for information seekers won't disappear, as there will always be someone who just doesn't have the time or patience to go plowing and digging through all those resources for their informational needs. those with the cash will hire someone. but others will increasingly go without, or be satisfied with the first hit or two a cursory search reveals.
(dark chuckle) heh, i got into this profession (some would say "returned to this prof.") for a sense of stability and security. but as we learned in retail and in life in general, there isn't really a lot of either.
support your local library. learn your way around, but please ask a question every now & then.
Chatboard (0)