Librarianship in the 21st Century-Crisis or Transformation?

Librarianship in the 21st Century-Crisis 

or Transformation 

Candy Davis 

ABSTRACT. The author argues that the profession of librarianship is 

in crisis. She seeks to identify the characteristics and analyse the 

qualities of this phenomenon in order to draw conclusions about 

future trends and directions for the profession. It is argued that this 

crisis is an outward sign of a deeper transformation which is taking 

place and which affects the discipline as a whole including education 

and practice. The recent evolution of the profession is traced against 

the background of the broader transition from the modern to the 

postmodern era. The object is to reveal how the widespread social, 

cultural and technological changes of the 21st century are impacting 

on the library, the librarian, the customer or client and the 

fundamental nature of information itself. 

KEYWORDS. Reputation of Librarians, Image of Librarians, 

Intellectual Basis of Librarianship, Librarianship 

At the beginning of the 21st century, the profession of librarianship 

finds itself in a state of crisis. Nowhere is this more apparent than in 

the discourse amongst librarians themselves. Desperate to slough off 

Candy Davis holds an MA in Information Studies from the University of 

South Australia. She is the Community Research Officer, City of Marion, 

South Australia. She can be reached at 20B Partridge Street, Goolwa, SA 

5214, Australia or at candy.davis@lizzy.com.au. 

The author published this article using the name Candy Hillenbrand. It 

was published in the Australian Library Journal 54:2 (2005). It is reprinted 

here with the permission of the author and the ALIA. 

Public Library Quarterly, Vol. 27(1) 2008 

Available online at http://plq.haworthpress.com 

© 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved. 

doi: 10.1080/01616840802122401 57

58 PUBLIC LIBRARY QUARTERL Y 

the old limiting, stereotypes of the stern bespectacled cardigan-clad 

shushing controller of books, librarians are clamouring to convince 

themselves, each other and the wider community that there is far 

more to the humble librarian than meets the casual eye. Numerous 

websites are devoted to extolling the glories and cementing the 

collective pride of the disaffected 'new' librarian of the 21st centurythe 

'New Breed Librarian', 'Anarchist Librarian', 'The Shifted 

Librarian', 'Progressive Librarian', 'Underground Librarian', 

'Street Librarian', 'Belly Dancing Librarian', not to mention the 

'Naked Librarian' and the 'Modified Librarian' boasting body 

piercings and tattoos. Perhaps Shelley Howells sums up this striving 

towards a redefined identity best in her article, 'The secret life of 

tattooed and bellydancing librarians': 

. . . 'Librarians rock. That reputation they have involving buns, 

sensible shoes and shushing people is merely a cunning ruse, 

developed over centuries, to conceal their real lives as radicals, 

subversives and providers of extreme helpfulness' (Howells, 

2003). 

This preoccupation with challenging traditional stereotypes and 

images, while at the same time seeking reassurance and justification for 

why and how librarians do what they do, is merely one of a number of 

symptoms of a deeper malaise or 'condition of discomfort'' underlying 

the library profession. Other symptoms can be found in the profession's 

difficulty in naming itself-there is much debate about whether to call 

oneself a librarian, information scientist, information manager or 

knowledge worker. Is the object, purpose or product of our work data, 

information or knowledge Do we address the members of the 

communities we serve as clients, customers, patrons, users, consumers, 

stakeholders or the more ubiquitous 'borrowers' The information 

settings, or libraries, from which our profession arises are today places 

in flux, change and uncertainty. Government policy initiatives such as 

the 2020 Vision report of the Cultural Ministers' Council urge public 

libraries to adopt a business or retail model and to strive to add value to 

customer services in an economy where information is the new 

commodity (Mercer, 1996). Moreover, rapid advances in information 

technology have delivered the information superhighway with its 

attendant phenomena of information overload.

Candy Davis 59 

Not only is the library as place changing, but the nature of 

information itself is being transformed through the shift from linear 

text-based information environments to the networked hyperlinked 

non-linear environment of the Internet. Our politicians have begun to 

recognise the crucial role played by information in the 21st century. 

Information has now been acknowledged as the new currency of 

democracy and initiatives like the Federal Government's NOIE 

(National Office for the Information Economy)^ and the Federal 

Opposition's 'Knowledge Nation'^ have begun to solidify the rhetoric 

into policy. Little wonder, then, that librarians should find themselves 

in the midst of a professional identity crisis amidst cultural, social, 

economic and technological changes of such sweeping proportions. 

A PARADIGM SHIFT 

This article will seek to identify the characteristics and qualities of 

this crisis in an attempt to draw some conclusions about future trends 

and directions for the profession. The argument put forward is that 

the symptoms of the crisis are outward signs of a deeper 

transformation which is taking place within the profession. This 

transformation is demonstrated by an evolutionary shift within the 

discipline from Library Studies to Information Science to Knowledge 

Management. What can be described as a paradigmatic change 

within the profession will be traced against the background of the 

transition from the modern to the postmodern era. For the purposes 

of this study, the distinguishing features of these two paradigms can 

be briefly delineated as: 

• the modern era-the age of science; enlightenment; the 

Newtonian world view characterised by order, predictability, 

objectivity, rationality, neutrality; with librarians as 'guardians 

of truth' and libraries as 'temples of knowledge'; 'knowledge is 

power'; information science. 

• the post modern era-the networked hypermedia information 

age; post-structuralist world view characterised by subjectivity, 

relativity, chaos, unpredictability; knowledge is socially constructed 

and context-dependent; 'sharing knowledge is power'; 

knowledge management.

60 PUBLIC LIBRARY QUARTERLY 

The characteristics of this transformation will be examined with 

reference to each of the elements that combine to form the profession 

as a whole-which for the purposes of this paper will now be referred 

to as Library and Information Science (or LIS). These elements 

consist of: 

• The discipline of LIS via its theoretical or epistemological 

foundations. 

• Education for LIS. 

• The profession. 

• The place of LIS (the library or information setting) and the 

community (of users and arguably non-users) served by LIS. 

THE DISCIPLINE 

The discipline can be broadly defined as the theoretical body of 

knowledge which is taught to students, exchanged amongst 

educators, studied by researchers, and communicated between 

professionals in the field. It can be surveyed via LIS university 

course curricula, conference proceedings, published literature, 

discourse on Internet Listservs, and so on. 

Underlying any disciplinary body of knowledge are core assumptions, 

overarching theories and various philosophical positions. 

These theoretical and philosophical positions (or ways of thinking 

and therefore knowing) are referred to as epistemologies. 

Epistemology is defined as the 'study or theory of knowledge"^ and 

'the study of our right to the beliefs we have'.^ Obviously, a discipline 

which has the very phenomena of information and hence knowledge 

as its primary focus, needs to be clear about what constitutes its 

underlying theories of and beliefs about knowledge. At least two 

quite opposing epistemologies or theories of knowledge can be 

identified-positivism and postmodernism. 

Positivism 

The term was coined by French sociologist Auguste Comte in the 

mid-nineteenth century to describe the evolution of human thought 

through theological and metaphysical stages to a superior scientific


stage.^ According to the positivist epistemology, 'all genuine human 

knowledge is contained within the boundaries of science, that is the 

systematic study of phenomena and the explication of the laws 

contained therein'.^ This scientific theory of how-the-world-works is 

thus characterised by notions of order, certainty, rationalism, 

empiricism and predictability. It concerns itself with that which can 

be reduced into units, observed, measured, quantified and ultimately 

known. 

Postmodernism 

Postmodernism, on the other hand, not only criticises but rejects 

what it calls 'meta-narratives', a term coined by the French 

philosopher, Jean-Francois Lyotard, to describe universal allencompassing 

theories such as positivism or Marxism (Lyotard, 

1991). It could be argued that postmodernism, in its critique of 

positivism, itself risks becoming yet another universalising theory. On 

the contrary, postmodern philosophers argue that postmodern 

science is a 'search for paradoxes, instabilities and the unknown, 

rather than an attempt to construct yet another grand narrative that 

would apply over the entire scientific community' (Sim, 1998, p9). 

The term has been used to describe a quite complex philosophical 

and epistemological approach as well as a general cultural movement 

which is sceptical and critical of the values, principles and 

assumptions that have come to dominate Western society since the 

Age of Enlightenment. Antony Easthope, in his essay 'Postmodern 

and Critical and Cultural Theory' lists a cluster of effects which have 

been associated with postmodernism: 

• Scepticism about the Enlightenment view that reason may rely 

on a firm foundation for deciding between truth and falsehood, 

a tradition closely bound up with science. 

• Uncertainty about traditional humanism and ideas of progress. 

• An absolutely unprecedented development in the mass media, 

especially visual media (television, film, advertising) since 1950. 

• Widespread prosperity that seems to be here to stay, expressing 

itself in consumerism. 

• The weakening of any sense of central social authority in favour 

of a plurality of acceptable ethics and lifestyles (Easthope, 1998, 

p21).


This epoch from which postmodernism has emerged is referred to 

as modernity. Indeed, implied within the word postmodernism is the 

suggestion that the postmodern has somehow grown out of the 

modern. Yet Lyotard does not see postmodernism strictly as that 

which follows modernism in a linear fashion but rather 'as a cyclical 

movement that returns before the emergence of ever new modernisms' 

(Jameson, in Lyotard, 1991).^ 

A growing number of theoretical researchers are analysing the 

traditional epistemological foundations of Library and Information 

Science and proposing alternative epistemologies grounded in 

postmodernism, hermeneutics and discourse analysis. The movement 

towards use-centred and cognitive approaches to research in 

Information Retrieval can also be seen as parallel developments in 

the field. 

APPLICATIONS OF POSITIVIST AND POSTMODERN 

EPISTEMOLOGIES TO LIS 

John Budd asserts that the field, alongside most of the disciplines 

in the social sciences, has long been dominated by the positivist mode 

of thinking (Budd, 1995). The application of the scientific method to 

library and information science can be observed in current attempts 

to empirically observe and predict information-seeking behaviour, to 

measure relevance using quantitative methodologies, and ultimately 

to isolate the person or user from the information system s/he is 

using. An underlying assumption of the positivist method, therefore, 

is that 'human phenomena can be reduced to physical phenomena' 

(Budd, 1995, p 301). 

Gary Radford has added to the critique of the positivist 

epistemology with his description of the library in positivist terms 

as a 'metaphor for order and rationality. It represents, in institutional 

form, the ultimate realisation of a place where each item within it has 

a fixed place and stands in a priori relationship with every other item' 

(Radford, 1998, p2). 

Radford continues: 

The rationality of the library in many ways represents the 

description of nature idealised by the institutions of positivist


science. As the library imposes a completely consistent system 

upon a collection of unique texts, so positivist science seeks the 

system by which unique observations derived from nature can 

be ordered and classified according to a set of general principles 

(Radford, 1998, p 2). 

Radford believes that this association of the library with 

rationality and order underlies the common stereotype of the 

librarian as stern, forbidding and controlling. While the 'librarian's 

domain is that of the creation and maintenance of order.... the library 

user represents a threat to that order'. According to Radford, this 

fundamental tension between the librarian who seeks order and the 

library user who threatens that order informs the negative stereotypes 

of librarians (Radford, 1998, pp2-3). The positivist epistemology 

therefore affects how library users and librarians alike experience the 

library. 

Postmodernism calls primarily for a change in mental attitude and 

not merely the substitution of new theories and methodologies for the 

old. In the context of LIS, the first step lies in becoming aware of the 

underlying positivist epistemological foundation of library science. 

Quoting Radford again: 

The next step is the consideration of this stance as particular 

rather than absolute, as produced rather than natural, in a 

movement toward recognising the formation of alternative 

epistemological foundations that do not structure existence, 

values, and practice in the same manner as the positivist 

framework' (Radford, 1998, p4). 

In other words, postmodern theorists attempt to resist the 

construction of a postmodern discipline of information. They 

contend that what is fundamentally called for is the application of 

the insight that we exist in Lyotard's 'condition of postmodernity' to 

our discourse and debates in LIS. Conceivably, recognition of the 

uncertainty and complexity of the postmodern world in which we 

inhabit will result in more innovative thinking in the field. The 

postmodern approach therefore does not provide answers-it asks 

questions.

64 PUBLIC LIBRAR Y QUARTERL Y 

INFORMA TION-THE PROFESSIONAL OBJECT OF LIS 

At this point, an attempt to define the fundamental object of the 

LIS profession-information-is called for. Just as doctors practise 

medicine and lawyers practise the law, librarians dispense information 

and knowledge. As Capurro points out, there are 134 notions of 

information in the LIS field which makes attempts to narrow its 

meaning highly problematical (Capurro, 1999, p2). 

The word is derived from the Latin informare meaning to shape or 

form.^ The Macquarie Concise Dictionary links information to the 

concept of knowledge by defining information as 'knowledge 

communicated or received concerning some fact or circumstance'. 

Common definitions within the LIS field appear to centre on notions 

of 'organised data' suggesting that information is something objective 

which exists outside the person (Terra & Angeloni, 2002, p2). 

Knowledge, on the other hand, is more complex, residing as it does 

within the human mind. 

Such traditional notions of information are challenged by 

postmodern theorists like Capurro who stress the interaction between 

society and information systems-the social nature of information. 

According to Capurro, the nature of information is changing at the 

end of the period of modernity. He outlines three 'abandonments' 

characterising this shift-the abandonment of the primacy of scientific 

thought; the abandonment of the objective-subjective split; and the 

abandonment of the Platonic idea of human knowledge as something 

separate from the knower. Arising from these propositions, in the 

postmodern era, knowledge is relative, contextual and dependent on 

the knower's frame of reference. Information is acknowledged as 

'something basically human' and 'modern knowledge is something 

common, shared by a community'. Moreover, knowledge is no longer 

separate from the knower, and information has become a medium as 

a result of modern information technology (Capurro, 2000, pp 2-3). 

Indeed, Capurro refers to a 'Copernican revolution' in information 

science akin to the paradigm shift from the Ptolemaic model of the 

earth as centre of the universe to the Copernican revelation of the 

earth revolving around the sun: 

Instead of considering knowledge something static and permanent 

in the center of a (library) system, we are now aware of the


constitutive role played by the interpreter and user of such 

schemes (Capurro, 1985, p 12) 

Education for LIS 

The stated purpose of the University of South Australia's 

educational training program for librarianship, the Graduate 

Diploma in Information Studies, reads as follows: 

This program.... covers principles and practices involved in the 

selection, acquisition, organisation and presentation of a range 

of materials and information technologies, to provide effective 

services for users. Emphasis is placed on the role of the 

professional information manager as intermediary in the process 

of communication in a complex society."^ 

While the course synopsis emphasizes the complexity of contemporary 

society and the role of communication processes in 

information work, the primary focus is on the organisation and 

management of information which, as we have seen, reflects a 

positivist epistemological approach to LIS. 

Positivist versus postmodern trends in LIS education 

The discourse of postmodernism has penetrated many academic 

disciplines including the social sciences, the 'hard' sciences, architecture, 

art, education, amongst numerous others. Yet postmodernism 

appears to have 'only marginally impinged on the information 

and library sciences'. In part, this state of affairs can be attributed to 

the technical focus of librarianship and 'the fixation of a predominantly 

vocational disciplinary field on practical problem solving 

rather than social and cultural theory' (Muddiman, 1999, p 1). 

Muddiman and others argue that the 'problem' rests with LIS's 

uncritical acceptance of Enlightenment notions or 'narratives' of an 

ordered, rational and socially progressive 'information age' in which 

information is central to modern life, and librarians, as managers of 

that information, are positioned to assume the pre-eminent role of 

organisers and rulers of this information society (Muddiman, 1999, 

p 1). The claim is that if knowledge is power, then surely librarians 

should rule the world! The reality is that in this postmodern era of


burgeoning information technologies and the resulting pluralism, 

relativity and fragmentation of knowledge, the traditional information 

professions have failed to achieve such pre-eminence. Indeed, 

according to Muddiman: 

[the] postmodern critique helps to explain the relative decline of 

librarianship and, to some degree information science, which are 

seen as associated historically with the 'modern' project' 

(Muddiman, 1999, p 1). 

Others offer divergent reasons to explain the problems which 

beset LIS education. Myburgh, for example, believes the most 

dangerous threat to the profession is the 'librarian mindset' 

(Myburgh, 2003, p2), while Kruk asserts that the 'postmodernist 

model of librarianship' poses the greatest threat to libraries (Kruk, 

2003, p229). 

Postmodern theorists in the LIS field are calling for new directions 

in the education of information professionals (Muddiman, 1999, 

Myburgh, 2003). They point to the flaws of the 'modern' project of 

LIS with its emphasis on an ordered enlightened information society 

that, by its very nature, excludes the cultures of large majorities of the 

world's population, constructing instead 'a privileged form of 

knowledge which, far from being universal, amounts to a partial 

yet dominant culture which is male, European, positivist and 

humanist' (Muddiman, 1999, p4). 

An interesting example of this 'culture of exclusion' can be seen in 

The Library of Congress Subject Headings system of classification 

whereby 'man' is used as the subject heading to represent 'human 

beings' and 'women' are found at the very bottom of the hierarchical 

list (Olsen, 1996): 

Man 

UF Human beings 

Humans 

Mankind 

BT Primates 

RT Anthropology 

Human-animal relationships 

SA headings beginning with the word Human

NT Economic man 

Ethnology 

Human biology 

Human-plant relationships 

Men 

Persons 

Philosophical anthropology 

Women 


In contrast to what is viewed as the prevailing rationalistic 

patriarchal paradigm, feminist theorists and others are calling for a 

new disciplinary paradigm based on co-operative, participatory, 

interdisciplinary and non-hierarchical methodologies (Halligan and 

Crew, quoted in Muddiman, 1999, p4). According to Myburgh, LIS 

education 'is no longer technical, but must include consideration of 

new cognitive, social and situational processes' (Myburgh, 2003, p 1). 

Van House and Sutton argue that LIS is fast becoming an 

endangered species, They maintain that the 'information problem' 

which lies at the heart of the LIS domain has been largely 

misunderstood because 'the traditional focus of LIS has not been 

on information at all but rather on its containers'. Quoting Barlow, 

who compared information to fine wine: 'We thought for many years 

that we were in the wine business. In fact, we were in the bottling 

business. And we don't know a damned thing about wine' (Van 

House & Sutton, i996, p4). If this argument is accepted, it goes some 

way towards explaining why LIS now faces serious competitive 

challenges to its traditional jurisdiction from professionals in such 

fields as computer science, business studies and the communications 

discipline. LIS has found itself well behind the eight-ball in 

recognising the emergence of information and knowledge as strategic 

commodities in the 21st century. 

INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE AS STRATEGIC 

COMMODITIES 

The 21st century has been variously referred to as the Information 

Age, the Age of the Mind and the Knowledge Society. In a global 

economy dominated by capitalism and world debt, technological


transformations fuelled by the unparalleled growth of the internet 

have served to transform knowledge into a form of capital. 

According to Lyotard, over the last few decades, knowledge has 

become the 'principle force of production'. He continues: 

Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity 

indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue 

to be, a major-perhaps the major-stake in the worldwide 

competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states 

will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled 

in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control 

of access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor. 

A new field is opened for industrial and commercial strategies 

on the one hand, and political and military strategies on the 

other (Lyotard, 1991, p5). 

In short, in the postmodern era, knowledge has become 

synonymous with power. It can be produced, distributed, bought 

and sold: 

The relationship of the suppliers and users of knowledge to the 

knowledge they supply and use is now tending, and will 

increasingly tend, to assume the form already taken by the 

relationship of commodity producers and consumers to the 

commodities they produce and consume-that is, the form of 

value. Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it 

is and will be consumed in order to be valorised in a new 

production: in both cases, the goal is exchange. Knowledge 

ceases to be an end in itself, it loses its 'use-value' (Lyotard, 

1991, pp4-5). 

This fundamental shift in the nature of information and knowledge, 

the traditional domain or 'heraldic crest' (Herold, 2001, p5) of 

the LIS profession, lies perhaps at the heart of the crisis facing the 

entire field. Educators and professionals find themselves located in 

increasingly complex and ever-changing environments which must 

necessarily require changes to both the academic programs and the 

physical libraries within which students and professionals study and 

work.


FROM THE 'INFORMATION AGE' TO THE 'AGE OF 

KNOWLEDGE' 

There are those who assert that the Age of Information is now on the 

wane and that western society is currently experiencing the transition to 

the Age of the Mind or the Knowledge Society. This transition is led by 

technology and has given rise to the knowledge-based organisation 

(Riley, 1998, p 145). With the advent of informational capitalism, the 

traditional focus of Library Studies or Information Science has been 

steadily shifting towards the management of information (or 

Information Management). As Muddiman notes, the foundation of 

traditional librarianship, with its 'ethos of progress through the diffusion 

of public knowledge for the general good,' is findingitself increasingly at 

odds with the trend towards Information Management whereby the 

commitment to a service profession is replaced instead by a commitment 

to an 'entrepreneurial market economy' (Muddiman, 1999, p7). 

More latterly, the discipline of Information Management is giving 

way to the postmodern concept of Knowledge Management-the goal 

of which is to 'exploit information entities in an organisation for the 

purpose of using that information to achieve greater value and to 

gain advantage over competitors' (Muddiman, 1999, p5). 

With Knowledge Management have emerged the key concepts of 

knowledge sharing, the learning organisation, the knowledge-based 

organisation and the knowledge audit. Consequently, some LIS 

educators are arguing that they need to close the gap between 

traditional studies and the evolving needs of the knowledge-based 

workplace. The new skills and competencies required include 

collaborative management, change management, entrepreneurial 

courage, strategic planning, information technology and corporate 

skills. A recent study has found that while LIS graduates may possess 

the necessary skills to take their place in the knowledge economy, the 

view of 'the librarian' is still impeding their entry into the Knowledge 

Management sector (Breen et al, 2002, p 127). 

LIBRARIANSHIP-THE 

PROFESSION 

The future of librarianship thus hinges on what happens to the 

perpetually changing work of the profession in its three contexts: the


context of larger social and cultural forces, the context of other 

competing occupations, and the context of competing organisations 

and commodities (Abbott, 1998, p3). 

Librarianship is defined in the Macquarie Dictionary as 'a 

profession concerned with organising collections of books and 

related materials in libraries and of making those resources available 

to readers and others'. This characterization points to the traditional 

functions of the librarian in the selection, acquisition, organisation 

and provision or delivery of books, information and knowledge to a 

community of readers or users. This definition does not take into 

account the 'larger social and cultural forces' which have transformed 

the nature of information through technology, the mass media and 

the internet. It restricts librarians to books. 

Core values 

All professions are characterised by a body of knowledge, a set of 

skills or competencies, and a set of shared or core values. The first 

two have been discussed earlier. The core values of a profession are 

set out by the professional associations through which practitioners 

become registered or accredited. In Australia, the professional 

organisation is the Australian Library and Information Association 

(ALIA). The central values of Australian librarianship can be 

reasonably extracted and summarised from ALIA) Core Values 

Statement: ' ' 

• Service to the community 

• Democracy 

• Freedom of access to information. 

• Equity of access to information. 

• Intellectual freedom. 

• Respect for diversity 

• Commitment to reformation literacy and lifelong learning. 

Additional shared values which can be gleaned from other ALIA 

policies are:'^ 

• Freedom from censorship. 

• Privacy. 

• Respect for copyright and intellectual property.

• Preservation of the human record. 

To this list, Bundy has added the following: 

• Rationalism. 

• Stewardship. (Bundy, 2001a, p 8) 


From a postmodern deconstructionist perspective, if one looks 

carefully at some of these shared values on the one hand, and the 

practices of the librarian on the other, there appears to be a 

i"undamental schism between the theory and the practice. Could it he 

that librarians are deluding themselves about their core values 

For example, librarians uphold the value of freedom and equity 

of access for all as a pillar of their professional approach to 

clients, and a cornerstone of our democratic society. And yet, 

the criterion for membership of most public libraries is proof of 

an address, usually residential. If one has no address, that is, 

apparently is homeless, s/he cannot join the library, cannot 

borrow books nor enjoy many of the other benefits of library 

membership. The resources of the public library are clearly not 

available to all and sadly, it is the poor and disadvantaged who 

are excluded. While the profession professes values of inclusion 

and respect for diversity, the reality is actually a culture of 

exclusion. 

Similarly, the value of freedom from censorship is upheld as crucial 

to the ethics of librarianship, yet librarians exercise censorship 

(whether they are aware of it or not) every time they select materials 

for inclusion or not in library collections. Censorship may also be 

imposed on librarians by central authorities or networks (like South 

Australia's Public Libraries Automated Information Network or 

PLAIN) which select and distribute the books from which the public 

librarians make their selections. 

The values of neutrality, rationality and objectivity can also be 

deconstructed for librarians continually exercise value judgments in 

their role of 'evaluating' information sources and determining what 

are 'good' and 'bad' materials or websites for users. Iverson refers to 

this as the 'metanarrative of objectivity'. She argues that in upholding 

the myth of objectivity, librarians have served 'hierarchical and


positivist orders in determining the 'knowledge' that will be made 

available to the public'. She argues further that the role of the 

librarian "should not be to act in collusion with the forces which 

perpetuate disadvantage, but to redefine their role to assist in the 

establishment of a truly equitable society' (Iverson, 1999, p3)." 

The core value of service and more particularly, free services, is 

also being threatened by increasingly market-driven 'economic 

rationalist' values of the postmodern era. Pressures from funding 

institutions, local government authorities and managers to respond to 

economic constraints and meet performance measures established 

outside the profession serve to drive librarians to promote, advertise 

and sell the library to a wider customer base and to bring it under the 

influence or outright guidelines of private-sector funding agencies. 

The decline of librarianship 

Amidst the exhortations from some quarters of the profession to 

sever the umbilical cord to librarianship, others are calling for a 

reaffirming of pride in it. Alan Bundy, for example, maintains that 

librarians need to 'rediscover' themselves (Bundy, 2001b, p3). With 

numerous government policies and initiatives focusing on the 

information economy and the knowledge nation, there is widespread 

agreement from both within and outside the profession that the 

information and knowledge professions will have a crucial role to 

play in the 21st century of the mind. 

Indeed, Bundy maintains that librarianship is 'the profession for 

the 21st century' (Bundy, 2001a, pi) and his sentiments are echoed 

throughout the literature. And yet, at a time when reformation is the 

new commodity, librarianship is in decline. This is evident in recent 

trends Australia wide and abroad towards the closing down, 

reassignment and cutting back of library studies departments, courses 

and academic staff. Berring describes it thus: "At the very moment 

when librariansbip should be striding forward it is in full retreat. 

What has happened' (Berring, 1993, p96). 

Numerous explanations exist to explain this state of affairs. Some 

maintain that librarians have been too slow to embrace the paradigm 

shift in information from analogue to digital. Certainly, the literature 

of the 1990s is replete with lamentations about the 'death of the 

library', and the fear that the technology of the Internet would not 

only replace the book but render the librarian increasingly redundant


in an information environment where the user is now able to meet 

her/his own information needs without the assistance of an 'expert' 

intermediary. 

Others believe that librarians have gradually given up responsibility 

for their role as guardians of information to information 

technologists (Danner, 1998, p20). Certainly within many public 

libraries, there is sharp competition between librarians and the 

local authority IT staff for jurisdiction over matters relating 

to information technology. It is the IT staff who are largely 

responsible for establishing and maintaining library websites [or 

overseeing the local area networks, as well as dealing with problems 

large and small which arise with the library's public access and staff 

computers]. 

Still others suggest that the 'problem' Hes with the general public's 

sustained misperception about the profession of librarianship. Most 

library users cannot distinguish between a university-trained librarian 

and a non-trained library support worker. For many, everyone who 

works in a hbrary is a librarian and there is incredulity that a 

librarian requires a university degree to practise-'but why do you 

need a degree just to stamp/wand books' is the oft-uttered refrain. 

Obviously, the public does not see what a librarian does behind the 

scenes, and in a public library where support staff and librarians alike 

attend to reference queries and help with computer problems, is it any 

wonder that the library user cannot distinguish between who is 

university qualified (read professional) and who is not 

The Image Problem 

The blurred boundaries surrounding the profession of librarianship 

and the changing nature of information are just some of the 

factors contributing to what has been described in the introduction to 

this paper as a professional identity crisis. Apart from the numerous 

websites devoted to challenging traditional stereotypes and attempting 

to reveal the 'funky' side of the otherwise boring librarian, other 

websites deal more directly with what is referred to within the 

profession as the 'image problem' (Marinelli and Baker, 2000). 

Websites such as 'Image and the Librarian' reflect the deep insecurity 

and anxiety which lies at the heart of the library profession. 

Contributors bemoan their low status, the lack of recognition and 

respect from their clientele and the world at large, their apparent


invisibility, the routine nature of their work, the low pay, and much 

more. They loudly proclaim: 'all we're asking for is respect'.'-' 

Questions are asked, motives are examined, and recommendations 

and resolutions put forth, for example, to improve service, to be more 

welcoming to patrons, to stop talking about the 'image problem', to 

not criticise the profession, to speak positively about being a 

librarian, and so forth. 

Jennifer Cram, in her article, 'Self love and joy and satisfaction in 

librarianship', counsels librarians to love themselves first, thenceforth 

the world will love and respect them in return. While this article (and 

others like it) is excruciating in its professional self-consciousness, it 

nonetheless points to what may lie beneath the 'image problem' - 

librarians have a negative self-image and this underscores their 

perception of their work, their perception of their workplaces and 

their perception of how their clients and the wider public value their 

professional contribution. 

It is time for us to take steps to ensure that we change the way 

we look at ourselves, that we start behaving as if we are the 

people we want to be, rather than the people we believe we 

are....We have to make sure that what we actually do is what we 

set out to do. WE have to be positive in our outlook, and proud 

of the fact that we are Librarians, and that pride must be evident 

in everything we do. The image that the world has of us, and 

which does have a bearing on our effectiveness, will only change 

if our self image changes first. (Cram, 1997). 

Unfortunately, while it may be therapeutic for librarians to share 

their professional insecurity and anxiety via the internet and various 

print publications, the unintended result is that the proliferation of 

this kind of discourse is merely adding to the 'image problem'. Deidre 

Dupré warns librarians to be reserved when sharing messages of 

either professional pride or insecurity: 

When a person is utterly convinced of the value of his profession 

he does not need to force others to believe in his professional 

pride with lots of loud proclamations. Instead his actions, like 

encouraging others to join the profession, remaining with and


succeeding highly at his organisation, and exuding confidence 

that his profession is valued by his peers and society, show that 

he has no professional insecurity' (Dupré, 2001). 

The library - the place of LIS 

Humans are the only creatures able to change their fate by 

making decisions based on their view of the future and their 

review of the past. Our libraries are the collected wisdom and 

foolishness of humanity, and every aspect of human behaviour. 

The most powerful use of a library for any individual is 

continuous life-long browsing, building up a background 

knowledge of the way humanity behaves. This knowledge 

contributes to personal wisdom (Cram, 1999, p3). 

Bundy notes that since the world's first libraries were housed in 

temples, 'the first librarians were probably priests' (Bundy, 2001c, 

p 1). Could it therefore be that a sense of unconscious superiority has 

lain at the heart of the profession It could be argued that librarians, 

even in the 21st century digital library, may still be in touch with their 

traditional roles as 'guardians of knowledge' and 'keepers of the 

temple'. Libraries and librarians have also played a key role in the 

'civihsing' mission of Western society. 

The meta-narratives of truth, objectivity and a unified body of 

knowledge permeate much of the literature. Miroslav Kruk, who has 

had several articles published in ALIA's flagship Australian Library 

Journal, in recent years, provides an excellent example, bearing in 

mind that ALIA is the voice of the profession (Kruk, 1998, 2001, 

2003). An analysis of Kruk's discourse reveals the core assumptions 

behind the 'positivist' epistemology He argues that libraries should 

contain materials that present a 'true picture' of the world; that 

'knowledge is about how things really are'; and that librarians must 

'rigorously apply themselves to give the public access to a true 

representation oi" the world' (Kruk, 2003). 

In criticising the emerging postmodern critiques of traditional 

librarianship, Kruk bemoans the postmodern emphasis on freedom, 

relativism and the social construction of knowledge. Instead, 

he calls for a return to the traditional values of truth, objectivity 

and reason and urges librarians 'to serve truth'. Curiously, he uses


the example of Hitler as 'one historical personage who well 

exemplifies the problem of library users having boundless freedom' 

(Kruk, 2003, p232). Essentially, Kruk maintains that for libraries 

to survive as 'public institutions working for the common good 

they must be defended from postmodern attack' (Kruk, 2003 

p238). 

A further source of concern for Kruk is the presence in public 

library collections of books on the New Age movement which he 

dismisses as 'books on superstitions'. Despite the fact that such books 

are immensely popular with the borrowing public, Kruk urges 

librarians to maintain their role as 'guardians of truth' and defenders 

of the moral good and to actively resist the pressure to try and please 

everyone. The library should not serve 'customers'; it should serve 

some idealised and unified notion of 'truth'. Indeed, according to 

Kruk, 'the modern model of the public library as a service to 

customers has a fatal flaw'. Libraries, he says, should instead be 

engaged in the 'fight against ignorance' and should 'promote 

enlightenment' (Kruk, 2001, p 8). 

Kruk's articles beautifully illustrate the 'modernist' or 'positivist' 

epistemology which pervades the profession. It could be argued that 

the underlying tendency of LIS professionals to adhere to a 

modernist or Enlightenment view of knowledge, at a time when the 

postmodern networked era is well and truly upon us, is bound to 

create confusion, identity crises, self-questioning and a conflict in 

core values. In short, librarians and libraries are out of step with the 

changing world of the 21st century. 

As Ray points out, libraries by their very nature are 'modernist' 

institutions which embody the values of order, predictability, 

reliability and rationality: 'they are of necessity rule-bound, mechanistic, 

linear organisations' (Ray, 2001, p251). While libraries have 

embraced and integrated postmodern technologies like the Internet 

into their range of services, there is nonetheless a lingering sense of 

something almost anachronistic about the librarian in the 21st 

century library. Something doesn't quite fit. Ray believes that 

'librarians as a whole have been slow to recognise the limitations of 

their traditional 'meta-narrative' in a postmodern information age 

because their construction of reality is bound by the function of 

'bibliographic control'. She advises that:


Our postmodern condition requires that we alter our current 

meta-narrative or construction of reality if we are to accommodate 

[the new postmodern] values without forfeiting our 

traditional core values (Ray, 2001, p251). 

This would appear to indicate the crux of the crisis besetting the 

LIS profession and points equally to the opportunity for transformation. 

Clearly, society is undergoing rapid and far-reaching social and 

technological changes and the profession must change and adapt in 

order to meet the changing needs of the communities it serves. The 

challenge, as articulated so insightfully by Ray, is how to change 

without losing our commitment to our core values, like that of 

service. Ray argues that we need to accept the realities of the 

postmodern condition-the realities of constant change, ambiguity 

and fragmentation-rather than try to fight against them as Kruk and 

others propose. In doing so, we remain in touch with the world we 

inhabit. By refusing or failing to do so, we risk remaining an 

anachronism. 

The futme-bnilding communities 

Ray offers concrete suggestions to help postmodern librarians and 

libraries adjust to the turbulent changes of the postmodern condition. 

Postmodern libraries, she writes, need flexible and open boundaries 

and clear missions. They need to focus on relationships (internal and 

external) and communities. And finally, they need to focus on 

learning as the organising principle (Ray, 2001, p253). 

The qualities and competencies called for in the 21st century 

librarian, therefore, are fiexibility,vision, the ability to think critically 

yet synthetically, to form partnerships, to collaborate, to continue 

learning and to teach others. We need to shift our professional focus 

from the traditional 'guardian of knowledge' to the more modern 

'intermediary' to that of the postmodern 'enabler.' 

At the beginning of the 21st century, new core values for the 

profession of librarianship are emerging (Cox, 2000; Bundy, 2003a, 

2003b). There is a growing body of literature detailing the collapse of 

community and the loss of trust between people in Western countries. 

Recent literature points to the library's role as contributor to 'social 

capital' or social cohesion. The World Bank defines 'social capital' as:

7* PUBLIC LIBRARY QUARTERL Y 

the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality 

and quantity of a society's social interactions. Increasing 

incidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to 

prosper economically and for development to be sustainable. 

Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which 

underpin a society-it is the glue that holds them together.'"* 

Public libraries, in particular, are poised to play a crucial role in 

building communities and connecting people. In providing local 

communities with 'a safe place to go', libraries are in a unique 

position to facilitate the building of trust and relationships between 

members of the communities they serve. The trend for the future of 

the profession of librarianship, therefore, is towards a community 

development role whereby librarians can act as facilitators and 

partners in the development of social capital for their local 

communities. In doing so, libraries can collaborate with other 

community agencies committed to a similar vision. To quote Hugh 

Mackay, the library of the future can become the new 'village green' 

(Mackay, 2002). 

NOTES 

1. Definition of 'malaise' from The Macquarie Concise Dictionary, Macquarie 

University, 1988. 

2. Australian Government, National Office for the Information Economy 

(NOIE). http://www.noie.goxtau 

3. Australian Labor Party, An Agenda for the Knowledge Nation, July 2001. 

http://www.alp.org.au/kn/ 

4. Defmition of 'epistemology' from Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, H W 

Wilson Company, Edinburgh, 1988. 

5. Honderich, Ted, Ed. (1995), The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford 

University Press, Oxford, 1995, p245. 

6. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, p 705. 

7. Flew, Antony, Ed. (1984), A Dictionary of Philosophy, Macmillan Publishers 

Ltd, London, 1984, p283. 

8. Jameson, Fredric (1991), in Foreword to The Postmodern Condition: A 

Report on Knowledge, pxvi. 

9. Defmition of 'information' from Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, H W 

Wilson Company, Edinburgh, 1988. 

10. From SATAC University Guide 2004, p 149.


11. ALIA Core Values Statement, 2002. [Online, accessed 2 Dec 2003]. http:// 

alia.org.au/policies/core.values.html 

12. ALIA Policies. [Online, accessed 2 Dec 2003]. http://alia.org.aulpolicies/ 

13. Professional status and image, http://home.earthlink.net/~cyberresearcher/ 

status.html 

14. World Bank, What is social capital http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/ 

scapital/whatsc.htm 

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Received: 06/07 

Accepted: 07/07

Librarianship in the 21st Century-Crisis or Transformation?

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