In fact, for many environments, it is the visual people, not the text people, who will be more successful in the 21st century. The second reason we need to think of ourselves as being in the information business is that the Internet really is something new under the sun in information provision. Because we are in a time of revolutionary, not incremental, change we need people who can see the big picture, who can see the commonalities and the differences that really matter in a situation, rather than the surface conventions. In revolutionary times, you need the vision to translate the core values and service functions that are the heart of information service into the new circumstances. Core of technical knowledge .
Librarians have a unique mix of expertise.
That s a strength to build on. Earlier this century, reference courses consisted almost entirely of the description of reference books and how to use them. In recent decades, material drawn from library and information science s research on information seeking and searching has increasingly been integrated into courses on reference and information services. That should continue, so that students see the relationship between what people actually need , not what we surmise they need, and what it takes to meet those needs. The AACR2 and Library of Congress Subject Headings will not do for all information in all environments.