On continuity, culture, competition – cooperation and convergence, too

This keynote paper considers each of the three facets included in the title of the conference: continuity, culture and competition. Each facet, it is argued, challenges the academic community in library and information science (LIS) to retreat from a narrow view of knowledge transfer in society founded on textual documentation as the channel of communication, and libraries as the means of gaining access to such documentation. The case against continuity in the design and teaching of LIS curricula is made by forecasting the likely socioeconomic context of information resource management in 2005. The widening availability of digitally‐integrated cultural artefacts signals the need for a convergence of librarianship with professional activity within other forms of memory institution. Competition from the subject discipline of computer science to provide the knowledge and skills deemed most appropriate for the information professional of the future suggests that LIS academics should collaborate, rather than compete within their community, the better to present a strongly unified discipline provision as the basis for a convergence of interests and influence with information system developers.