Summary
One of the few things Lee Rainie has believed and said since the day he landed his dream job is that the future should belong to librarians and journalists. He reasoned that in the information age, the people who know how to sort through and find the best information and the people who know how to weave information into stories would be the winners. Yet, it's hard to think of two other professions that feel more besieged by the change ushered in by new communications technologies. Statistics point to a central truth about the Web: Internet use in America is the norm. Those who do not use the Web and e-mail are in a shrinking minority. Clearly, Americans' relationship to information has changed. It moves faster, is more easily accessed, and comes in bigger dollops than it ever has. That is why the world needs librarians, especially Internet librarians.
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Extract
Internet Librarians Own the Future
[Editor's Note: This is an edited version of Lee Rainie's keynote speech at the Internet Librarian conference held Nov. 15-17 in Monterey, Calif.]
One of the few things I have believed and said since the day I landed this dream job is that the future should belong to librarians and journalists. I reasoned that in the information age, the people who know how to sort through and find the best information and the people who know how to weave information into stories would be the winners.Yet, it's hard to think of two other professions that feel more besieged by the change ushered in by new communications technologies. Nevertheless, I'm going to try to make the case that the things you have learned, the things you do each day, and the knowledge and principles your profession embodies have never been more needed.First, let me walk through some history to see how we got to where we are.Netscape MosaicOn Oct. 10, 1994, Netscape's Mosaic browser was made availab...See the full content of this document
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