The shifting information landscape: re‐inventing the wheel or a whole new frontier for librarians

The explosive growth and overwhelming use of World Wide Web resources have led to the often misguided, but understandable belief that one can find any information on the Web. In businesses, direct marketing on the Web produced big success stories in sales and marketing. This led to the conclusion that the process of “dis‐intermediation” has begun. Do we need intermediaries such as libraries (especially small special (medical) libraries) anyway? As librarians, how should we position ourselves for this change? The author draws a parallel analogy from knowledge management literature and highlights the importance of adding value to the process of the transformation of data to information, and from information to knowledge. The trend towards supporting evidence‐based practice in health care is a good example of how librarians could use their skills and knowledge to give better support and added value to the health care process. In participating in knowledge building and application in the local environment, the traditional role of a library in being a repository and a provider of information is no longer adequate. New roles in publishing, marketing, teaching, researching, collaborating and building up the knowledge emerge. Continuous education and training in new skills will better equip librarians with the new roles, while at the same time, librarians should preserve the traditional and professional value of providing quality information to those in need.