The knowledge smiths: librarianship as craftship of knowledge

Abstract

Considers some of the reasons why we can no longer assume a progressive‐linear transition from facts and information provided by “the library” or by the “information professional” to a clearly focused (in terms of information needs) user as the “default” user‐library encounter. Examines why librarians and information specialists can no longer maintain their traditional, relatively passive role, and should aspire to become active participators in knowledge seeking. Librarians and information professionals may be called to intervene and assist users in context of higher levels of information processing (knowledge, understanding, reflection, and application). The main, and perhaps the somewhat revolutionary, implication of this paper is that the centre of gravity in the information professional’s practice and training should move from data and information retrieval and mediation to nothing short of acting as knowledge seekers, editors, and interpreters. Web‐like syntopicons and digital knowledge maps are presented and discussed as two promising intellectual instruments that librarians can implement in their quest for knowledge generation.