But the bill may have just arrived for not educating those clients and bosses, for not adapting and adopting the new technologies, for not telling the truth. Now, as the Web becomes reality for the world, bosses and clients may draw a line between the functions of the Web and the functions of the library or the information professional. And when they see a Web application that can solve one element of the traditional information professional s role, they may see it as a substitution, rather than an evolution requiring integration. At base, the problem lies in a failure to see that the true function of information professionals and the institutions they create, such as libraries, is service to people in need of information. This service mission exists independent of technologies.
Technologies are tools.
Now more than ever, clients and bosses both need information professionals to help make the technologies and the new opportunities satisfy their needs, especially as the vision of what the new technologies can do continues to expand and elevate user expectations. However, traditional information professionals must not only talk the talk, they must walk the walk. They must take an aggressive stand and proclaim their property rights on the future. They must accept the new standards of success, meet the new expectations, and, if necessary, alter institutional environments. Over and over, they must educate their bosses and clients to share the same vision of the mission and to commit to its successful completion.