CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

The environment in which a library professional has to work is changing fast. The emergence of information resources in electronic format in the late 1980s and, especially, the advent and dominance of the Internet in the 1990s has led to new and welcome emphasis on giving prominence to the wants of library users. Some professionals consider the development of global electronic access to information as a threat to the very future of the physical library, but others regard it as an opportunity to rethink, redefine and to reshape, library services based on needs of their users, in a fast-changing information environment. The digital libraries are beginning to predominate the scene. Traditional library professionals are feeling lost in the new world of digital libraries. They are also feeling a sense of identity crisis. In this changing information environment, the library schools are required to develop a kind of education to equip the graduates with skills needed to help customers to use not only libraries but also information sources in different forms and formats. They must be educated as ‘informtion empowerment specialist’ rather than mere experts in ‘bibliographic instruction’. Library schools must accept these challenges to train professionals who can compete with professionals at the international level.