Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2003

Scholarship Domain(s)

Scholarship of Interdisciplinary Integration

Abstract

Twenty-first century librarians need to be comfortable with and knowledgeable in technology. Library departments that don't integrate technology into the way they operate are likely to be eliminated along with their librarians. Librarians who have special expertise, especially technical expertise, need to be free to exercise it and use it without being dragged into library tasks that do not use those skills. If librarians do not get out in front of the new technologies that deliver information, then they will be giving up their libraries to techno-businesses that will spring up to fill the information gap. Librarians must retain or gain control of their virtual information environments. Technology has already been affecting the way librarians operate in such areas as the way they select journals, the way patrons search (keyword instead of subject searches), the fair use of materials (software EULAs), software search filters, etc., that is, not always in ways that librarians would prefer. Librarians need to be true believers -- that a better way can be made to supply and use information through the new technologies that intersect the information space and that these new ways are absolutely necessary for their future survival. It takes effort, commitment, and a willingness to face and control the future.

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