Role of information technology & the future of librarianship

Abstract

There is a growing concern by scholars in the field of library and Information science on the way technology is gradually taking over certain jobs performed by librarians and Information professionals. This may be the reason why many of the scholars have submitted that the discipline of librarianship may cease to exist in a couple of years if nothing is done to solve the problem. In the light of this, this article seeks to identify ways in which technology has taken over certain aspects of the field of librarianship with the aim of proffering solutions and identifying other means in which the 21st century librarian can make himself relevant especially with the current dearth of employment opportunities. libraries, appear to be facing a very perilous predicament. Two of their major job responsibilities, developing subject collections and providing face-to-face reference service, are in rapid decline. Budget cuts, publisher packages for books and a transition to cost-per-use evaluations for journal subscriptions all clearly diminish the need for active collection development. Meanwhile, because of changes in information gathering habits, users increasingly approach reference librarians as a last resort. In addition, there seems to be a growing inclination among library administrators to question the importance of subject librarians in branch libraries. This is due to the well known fact that users have come to rely completely on electronic databases, notably Google and Google Scholar, and electronic journals. Keywords: Information technology, Libraries, librarians and librarianship.