Getting Libraries Invited to the Meeting

For years, forecasters and futurists discussing the future of the library often come across (perhaps fairly) as doomsayers. H. Folk, for example, speaking at the 1976 Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, predicted that with the use of electronic information systems “libraries would also widier away, their historic duty done.” I myself have always believed that librarians would successfully adapt themselves and their libraries to technological change, essentially retooling the profession for the society we serve. While many librarians have successfully done this, society's perception of our skills and our institutions has not changed.