Why be a librarian/information specialist in the 21st century?
For some twenty years now, the world of information has been preparing itself for a new era - the era of technological advances, where the wildest dreams can come true. One of these dreams is to obtain reliable, collated and relevant information as fast as possible at an acceptable cost; or, even better, to provide it free to all those who need it. Although some of these dreams are becoming reality - at least in part - the changes involved are having a profoundly disconcerting effect on professionals and users alike.
The traditional professions of the information world not only have to redefine the scope of their work but also to adapt to new techniques and new tools. User behavior and demands are changing and, compounding the problem, the economic situation of all the players involved is getting worse. In fact, new technologies forced themselves upon us without our either having a clear view as to how they should be developed or knowing what the consequences would be.
But technology is an opportunity which we cannot allow to slip through our fingers. Even if it has not lived up to all its promises, everyone stands to gain at least something from it. Past experience has shown us that data storage will require less and less space, that access to it will become faster and faster and more efficient, and that the presentation of information in the form of books or periodicals may perhaps partially disappear. Nevertheless, although everything is inexorably leading towards something easier to conserve and to access, the end result will not necessarily be easier or more enjoyable to use.
If librarians/information specialists learn to master new technology, they will find themselves facing the greatest challenge of this decade. Indeed, the development of new technologies, new processing tools and new methods of inforamtion transfer makes it possible to process any data and transfer it instantaneously to any point on the globe. In the years to come, progress in multilingual inforamtion systems will reduce the language barriers that impede the circulation of inforamtion.
Libraries are an important resource both for individuals and for communities of people who are interested in the preservation of knowledge. This importance stems from their ability to maintain records of human endeavor within a range of different contexts using many different types of medium. Libraries and librarians/information specialists will therefore continue to play important social, cultural, technical and pedagogic roles in the future. Indeed, for the majority of people, libraries will act as a powerful multimedia window on the outside world, particularly through the use of computer network systems (i.e., Internet).
There is no doubt that we live in exciting times. But what is important for the future is flexibility: some people will want to continue to use conventional libraries while others may wish to use virtual ones. Naturally, the technology that we now have is sufficiently flexible to allow both to coexist.