Being a Librarian

Abstract

Librarians have perhaps taken the most pride in their role as intermediaries, whether as reference librarians personally connecting users to the information they need, or as the creators of tools, like library catalogs, that facilitate those connections. However, in the interconnected world of the Web, information seekers behave more and more self-sufficiently, choosing simple but powerful search engines and moving well beyond catalogs and library collections in their pursuit of information. Using her recent research on the integration of the catalog with other discovery tools as a starting point, Calhoun will explore how librarians can continue advancing the state of knowledge in a digital world.