Daniel Rubin Column

Daniel Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer posted an article today entitled “Libraries’ Experts on Call: A Dwindling Breed” about the librarians of the Free Library of Philadelphia that field the general information questions posed by patrons.

Within the article Daniel Rubin points out how the 14 in-demand librarians of the past are now just one librarian and a couple of librarian assistants.  Sadly, this is not a new issue in the library field, especially due to the vast amount of information available on the Internet.

There are two types of librarians those that dig in their heels when new technology becomes available and those that jump in with both feet and never look back.  It today’s world we need more of the jumping in kind of libraries in order to remain vital to the communities we serve.  Because even though the information is available online, librarians are the ones that can find information patrons are looking for effectively and  efficiently.

And as for the Free Library of Philadelphia – they are doing wonderful things with the resources they do have.  If you’re interested to see check out this report researched by the University of Pennsylvania.