Information is only one of many things found in a library. While many people view and use the public library as an information agency, its original mandate, many more now come to it to learn, to interact, to explore, and, of course, to be entertained. Yes, they come to the library to have fun. Reading Bill Crowley’s “Lifecycle Librarianship” (Library Journal, 4/1/08, p. 46-48) made me realize how broad the mission of the modern public library has become. At the insistence of its users, the public library, indeed libraries of every type, provide an array of services and items that go far beyond “information” as it is usually defined. Reading Crowley, I too was shocked by the narrowness of the definition of library and information studies he quoted from the Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies adopted by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1992. Such a narrow statement of the field’s mandate would lead to the current conventional wisdom that something called “information” is the quintessential substance of librarianship, the embodiment of the profession. This is not only inadequate, it is inaccurate. Our professional outlook, our vision, is trapped in the 1992 Standards. (A recent minor revision did not address this issue.)
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