What is the Future for Librarians?

The post, Librarians Are Here To Stay, reminded me of a conversation I had with my brother only recently.  He is studying Law and actually said with true concern that I what I am studying is a dying profession.  I tried to explain to him that yes, anyone can Google and find information but librarians can help users disseminate and find relevant information.  There is nothing wrong with ‘Googling’ a topic if you are just finding basic information but if you require this for your profession, legal or health, I would assume you would want factual, current information. There was an article, John Hopkins’ Tragedy: Could Librarians have prevented a death? (posted on 7/8/2001), which highlighted the need for a medical librarian to assist and work with medical researchers. I suspect there are many more examples of where information specialists (librarians) are necessary. Another blog I thoroughly recommend is, R. David Lankes, “is a professor and Dean’s Scholar for the New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse.”  He is an advocate for the future of libraries and argues that information specialist can be of greater assistance in helping others in learning and gaining knowledge, challenging our preconceived thoughts.  This post, Library a Community, highlights, one example of what  is capable of a librarian and how they can be an awesome and integral asset to the community.  Being proactive and stepping out of the building and addressing the needs of the community. Lankes touches on knowledge sharing and how we need to not only think it has to be through books but orally.  He gives the example, of the Italian learning how to make sauce, they don’t go to a book but to their mama. He suggests, we need to give the community, an environment where they can access training/knowledge ‘created by conversation’ to improve society. Librarians need to be more than just another option to Google. We should be so much more we provide learning, openness, intellectual freedom and safety and intellectual honest. I want to be this type of librarian – the proactive and thinking out of the box librarian. One that helps the community in what they want and need not what is always been done and is easiest to continue as long as no one complains.