I think the perspective that most resonates with my own and inspires me in my future work comes from Michael Stephens of OCLC, when he suggests that: "'the Library is human' because it makes the library a social and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience. Librarian 2.0, then, is the 'strategy guide' for helping users find information, gather knowledge and create content" (Stephens, Into a New World of Librarianship, 2006).
I agree that Library 2.0 must reach beyond simply engaging with new technologies, but also focus on facilitating patron use of new technologies in creative, community-building, and personally fulfilling ways. Expectations of the library as a social institution have changed; a massive shift towards more digital and less analog content may be becoming an increasingly real phenomenon; and the demand for more responsive, user-friendly, intuitive, and constructive systems has certainly begun out-weighing the need for info-mage intermediaries. But I consider the future to be bright, exciting, and challenging for all information professionals! Google may very well become the one-stop information shop of the future, but Librarians will always be here to separate useful from unuseful, unauthoritative information; to help our patrons interact with new technologies in successful ways; and to bring together communities and bridge communities - whether in physical buildings or virtual spaces.
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