The Internet—all information is now at everyone’s fingertips! Move out some of those books in the library to make way for the wave of the future: more computers.
Google—now we really won’t need traditional libraries and students won’t need to ask librarians for help.
Libraries—turn them into cyber-cafes, fill them with study pods, put more of the paper collection in storage—add more computers: the 21st century reference tool.
Wireless—get rid of those bulky computers in the library and make way for the laptops.
Librarians—prove your usefulness to academia.
In my years as a librarian I have heard these phrases and more just like them. “Libraries are becoming extinct!” is usually one of the comments I get from uninformed people when they find out what my profession is. Of course those with more tact won’t make an exclamatory statement but will make an interrogative one instead, “Are libraries becoming extinct?”
On the shelf behind my desk, right now, are among other items, a 5 ¼ “ floppy disk, a 3 ½ “ disk, a zip disk, and countless books. Some of these items stay there because I can be a bit nostalgic at times. Only one of the 4 types of media is still useable by me and will be useable by generations to come. I could go on and on about my first reel-to-reel tape recorder, my first cassette tape recorder, my first digital recorder, my 45s, my 33 1/3s, my cassettes, my CDs, and back to my vinyl. And, of course, there are my VHS videos, my DVDs, and my Blu Rays.
But I digress! This was meant to be a short introduction to an interesting article on librarians but I allowed my mind to wander and I just followed along to see where it would lead. And I think in a roundabout way it lead to a somewhat decent intro to this article:
