5.The Shift from Librarian-as-Searcher to Librarian-as-Evaluator
Now that many users have become more adept at finding information, some of the study participants saw a shift in the reference librarian’s role from a focus on the librarian-as-searcher to a focus on the librarian-as-evaluator. In today’s information environment, librarians teach users how, to evaluate source quality and credibility more than how to locate sources. As one participant said, One of the key components of today’s reference work is our ability to evaluate what is a valid site, what is valid content, and how does it relate to the question that was asked? That is something that I think is a specialization that [librarians] have and … that needs to be focused on and emphasized. [Librarians] will always be very important.