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Cybrarians at Last?: The Impact of Technology on the Professional Identity of Librarians
Abstract
This examines the three main themes throughout the book: us versus them, technology as tool, and library as place. Us versus them highlights the relationships that librarians have with their various user communities and even with other librarians. Librarians use technology to position themselves as technology experts, which places users in a subordinate position. Amongst themselves, librarians use technology to distinguish between those who are concerned with patrons' needs and open-minded about the best way to address them and those who are closed-minded and anti-technology. Additionally, librarians use technology to distinguish themselves from LIS faculty members by claiming that faculty members are too distanced from the actual uses of technology in the profession. Technology as tool is perhaps the most dominant theme throughout the book. By understanding technology as just a tool, librarians end up defining themselves by how they use technology, thus limiting not only their use of it, but also placing inadvertent limits on how it can be used within the library itself to provide services. Lastly, technology has changed how librarians understand the library as place. The library, in the face of technological change, has become a place that needs protecting. Librarians, as a result, have become the protectors of the library as place. They use technology in a controlled way to manage this.
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