[Web4lib] At Session on the Future of Libraries, a Sense of Urgency

[Ross Singer]

On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 9:55 AM, Christopher Kiess <clkiess at gmail.com> wrote:
> What we are really talking about here is being replaced. Will it happen? I
> don't know. Can we save ourselves? In some sense, your analogy concerning
> the independent bookstore or the horse and the automobile are good. But, I
> think they leave one primary element out of the equation – skill. It doesn't
> take a particularly complex skill set to be a horse or own an independent
> bookstore. It does take a good amount of skill and experience to be a
> librarian. What you are talking about and arguing is the library as an
> entity being replaced. Does it logically follow that the librarian will be
> replaced?

It also requires skill to be a reporter.  However, the reporter is
still just as unemployed when the newspaper scales back or shuts down
because nobody is reading it.

See also:  travel agents.

I'm not saying that libraries/librarians will meet this fate (I have
no idea), I'm just pointing out the flaw in the logic.

-Ross.