Becky Hurwitz

The UC Berkeley iSchool used to be the School of Library Sciences.  Since so much information has come to be stored and retrieved using computers/the internet, many library science schools have changed to Schools of Information.  One question this switch raises is — will databases replace card catalogs, search engines replace librarians, digital storage replace libraries?

This nytimes article discusses the roles librarians have taken on in response to computer based information organization and retrieval (io/ir).  The article presents some examples of io/ir skills librarians are now training students in, reasons why librarians should not be replaced by search engines.  It also mentions issues of schools with tight budgets firing librariansto save money and a lack of appreciation for the role of the library/librarian in schools, reasons why jobs for librarians might be threatened in education.

“The days of just reshelving a book are over,” said Ms. Rosalia, who came to P.S. 225 nearly six years ago after graduating at the top of her class at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. “Now it is the information age, and that technology has brought out a whole new generation of practices.”