Will librarians be obsolete?

Will computer automated libraries and classrooms be the new wave of the future? On the way home recently, I overheard a few of students talking about the future of libraries & education. One comment that really caught my attention was “one day there will be no teachers, or librarians as everything will be done via the computer. Librarians will become obsolete as we can generate the information off the inter net, and professors lectures will be taped.” I chuckled at the response.





Part of the students comment rings true, but not all of it. If anything, we live in a society that is heavily reliable on information that we get from electronic sources. Depending the career you work, you might needed that information yesterday. What the student did not realize is “how much much of the information we get is it reliable?” If anything, librarians will not become an extinct breed of people, but be the driving force of how the technology is used. Librarians act as a filter who sorts through an endless amount information that we use in our papers and discussions, this is something even a computer cannot do. Librarians are riding the wave of change, and are keeping up with the times by being informed and keeping up with the needs of their customer. This something that even a computer cannot do.