Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Intentional Synergy: The New Librarian As Co-Learner, Christopher Lawton

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Questions abound regarding the changing fate of libraries, and librarians, too, must reconsider their role. New Librarians increasingly find themselves serving not just as human information retrieval systems, but as “safari guides,” leading the curious through an information ecosystem growing explosively. Gone are the days of inscrutable librarians definitively announcing that they had provided all available information on a topic. Today, New Librarians need to cultivate a toolkit of skills and roles surrounding learning and inquiry, parsing new ideas quickly, challenging assumptions, and guiding their communities through the information ecosystem. As a partner, not a service provider, New Librarians shine.