Librarians Without Libraries

I recently rediscovered this article by Seth Godin about The Future of the Library. I find it even more relevant than when it was written, 15 years ago. As the article explains, libraries started as warehouses for books worth sharing. As the number of books grew, the librarian appeared. The librarian, who is not a clerk in the library building, became “the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.” The library became the house for the librarian. However, “[p]ost-Gutenberg, the scarce resource is knowledge and insight, not access to data.” The library may no longer be the default place where information is found. But the librarian’s work—selection, orientation, context, and judgment—has become more valuable, not less. I was thinking about this from my own perspective. When was the last time I went to a library? Probably when I was in college, many years ago. The librarians weren’t particularly helpful, but that probably was a thing of that particular…