The Future Role of Reference Librarians:

This article seeks to explorc whether or not the basic rolc of reference librarians, that of helping people find the information they seek, will change in the future. Three trends currently affecting libraries will be discussed and their potential impact upon the fiuture role of refercnce librarians will be discussed. Economic trends, which could threaten the very existence of publicly funded libraries will be examined first. Then technological trends, which will challenge the means and methods by which librarians secure and provide information will be examined, and last, demographic trends.