The changing role of librarians: Managing new technologies in libraries

Abstract

Never before have there been so many opportunities for involvement in an information-based society including electronic and multimedia publishing; local, national, and global networking; development of navigational and filtering tools for access to networked and non-electronic sources; and new modes for delivering information and educational programs. The base of recorded information is growing at an accelerating rate, in increasing varieties of formats (texts, numeric, graphic, video, audio, image, electronic, etc.). Furthermore, an increasing array of computing and telecommunications technologies are emerging to create new options and opportunities for the development of information capture, storage, retrieval, and delivery systems/services. These developments point toward increased difficulty for the information user to obtain needed information in the required time-frame, quantity, and level of detail. The role of information specialists is to facilitate the interactions between the potential information user community and the body of recorded information. The traditional information access and management roles played by the information professions are expanding, particularly in the design and development of new information products and services and of tools to support information seeking and selection, the analysis and synthesis of information content on behalf of users, and information user instruction. The emerging recognition of companies as learning organizations, reinvention of government agencies, new directions for education in universities, colleges, and schools, promise new opportunities for information specialists to reinforce and expand their facilitation of communication and learning processes in their organizations and communities.