Library 2.0: Ideal librarianship and the real world

My post is in response to two of the articles on this topic, Away from Icebergs by Rick Anderson and Into a New World of Librarianship by Michael Stephens.

Few can fault these commentators with a list of ideals to guide librarians due to ever changing information technologies and the paradigm shift they've forced on us. As benchmarks to aim for, they're sound proposals. But as soon as one returns from the realm of airy philosophizing to reality, one is confronted with the staff limitations that make implementing many of these proposals difficult. Along with limited staff, many librarians face funding shortages that further compound this problem. For instance, it's easy to encourage a greater reliance on user education, but anyone who's worked in a public library realizes that many users require staff assistance - and at times substantial amounts - to use computer equipment effectively. Likewise, while many support outreach activities as a way to make libraries more visible to their communities, such undertakings often entail a heavy investment of staff resources. So while the ideals the authors encourage are admirable - and, perhaps, to a certain degree essential, they're only partially obtainable.