New professions in librarianship

Abstract

AbstractThe article focuses on how information-communication and network computer technology effects changes in library operation and presents new possibilities in the development and differentiation of the librarian profession. At the time of the introduction of the Internet, numerous experts were convinced that the decline of librarianship, as a profession, was only a question of time. According to such opinions, users were supposed to search and obtain information on their own and purchase books through electronic bookstores. The reality turned out to be just the opposite. Nowadays, librarians are required to make more and more complex inquiries, to provide rapid, high-quality and non-stop services, to supply documents directly by computer or onto the working table. Moreover, librarians must follow the rapid development of the profession and participate in permanent and polyvalent training. The introduction of the digitalisation of materials and the future development of libraries require that librarians familiarize themselves with complex hypertext protocols, graphic design, and marketing. Moreover, librarians are obliged to accept any change brought about during the process of technological development. Therefore, in the developed world, new professions are being established and relating to the provision of aggregate information in form of various services and products. Those professions do not only imply universal information providers but trained experts with regard to individual fields of interest.