What Does the Future Hold?

I have been thinking today about the future of librarians. I hear a lot of murmuring about whether our roles are diminishing (due to our students ability to find ALL on the internet), or conversely expanding (due to the evolving complexity of the information landscape). Will our work be really different down the road a piece? Will there be libraries on college campuses, or just study centers? What title would the future "me" have in an academic setting and what would I actually do? No one who knows me will be too surprised to learn that I think the role of consultants and teachers who help people learn to use information will grow.

Here's what I see the future me doing with my work time:

• Designing learning activities that attend to the ways we use information
• Helping others to understand the evolving information landscape
• Teaching people how to use information to learn
• Teaching about the information landscape (as the content)
• Researching aspects of the information landscape and our engagement with it

Of course, much of this I do already. I guess what I am thinking is that the need to further develop this work will actually increase over time - particularly if this need can be articulated well to the parties who stand to benefit, e.g., students, teachers, administrators, parents, etc.

I would love to hear others thoughts on this too.

Clarence