Librarian interrupted! Ur‐librarian to un‐librarian, or ur‐librarian to uber‐librarian?

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the dangers and opportunities for a highly trained group of professionals – librarians – in responding to the present and future challenges, for example from the web's so‐called digital natives and from the web's bare‐fisted market forces.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a general view of the current state‐of‐play in library management vis‐a‐vis the e‐revolution, in terms of the history and future of the profession.FindingsLibrarians are in danger of casting off the primordial and deeply original tenets of the profession (the term “ur‐librarianship” is suggested here to refer to this canon of library beliefs). Librarians may well become irrelevant shadows of their former selves by embracing a mish‐mash of misdirected and misappropriated ideologies and peripheral priorities from other, newer, professions and undo centuries of hard work (here referred to as “un‐librarianship”). In consequence, readers, in a cloud of unknowing, would not understand who librarians are, what they do, and especially, what they stand for. Librarians have opportunities to re‐enliven the developmental arc of venerable tradition and to recast agile services to sustain, as in the long past, an absolutely unquestioned place in society (“uber‐librarianship”). Is it going to be “Librarian Interrupted!”, or “Librarian Triumphant!”?Practical implicationsLibrarians need to brand themselves and their libraries distinctly for a successful and relevant future.Originality/valueUsing practical examples from many years of experience in librarianship, the author states some strong opinions on librarians' professional futures.