Purpose of Blog: & Reflections on First Class (Sept 6)

Initially, this blog will act as a journal for all thoughts and opinions that I may have on the content of course 511: Introduction to the Library and Information Profession.

I am highly anticipating the fact that we are going to be discussing the evolution of librarianship in 511. Not only its past, but its present and future as well.
While I have given some thought to the history of libraries and the influence that librarians have had on society (For example, a librarian played an important role in the discovery of the Watergate scandal), I've never really examined how librarianship has had to evolve and shift to accommodate a society that is ever changing.
I'm looking forward during this course to examining librarians as innovators and catalysts for change. The Atlas of New Librarianship states, "As the web explodes, the world economy stumbles, the newspaper industry implodes, the media landscape fragments, and societies around the world face social unrest, librarians have not only an opportunity but an obligation to find their center and the means to continue a centuries long mission to use knowledge to better understand the past, make a better today, and invent an ideal future" (Lankes 2). Modern society is woefully unaware of the relevancy of today's libraries. For me the biggest hurdle for the modern library seems to be updating the public as to the library's relevancy. People have an antiquated view of what librarianship is, and they need to be educated. The question of today is not whether libraries can survive into the future, of course they can survive. The question should be how are today's libraries evolving to fit the needs of current society and is that evolution being adequately promoted and touted to the public.