A technologist view of the next decade evolution of the librarian work environment

Abstract

The work environment has deeply evolved in recent decades with the generalisation of IT in terms of hardware, online resources and software. Librarians do not escape this movement and their working environment is becoming essentially digital (databases, online publications, Wikis, specialised software, etc.). With the Big Data era, new tools will be available, implementing artificial intelligence, text mining, machine learning, etc. Most of these technologies already exist but they will become widespread and strongly impact our ways of working. The development of social networks that are "business" oriented will also have an increasing influence. In this context, it is interesting to reflect on how the work environment of librarians will evolve. Maintaining interest in the daily work is fundamental and over-automation is not desirable. It is imperative to keep the human-driven factor. We draw on state of the art new technologies which impact their work, and initiate a discussion about how to integrate them while preserving their expertise.