A measure of change : comparing library job advertisements of 1983 and 2003

Abstract

From the perspective of all of human history, a twenty-year periodone score -is a brief moment. In the immediate context of our harried electronic age, however, twenty years are enough for three or four technological lifetimes. Indeed, the twenty years from 1983 to 2003 were witness to profound and rapid change that altered the very heart of the library profession, "the process of acquiring, storing, and accessing information" (Kwasik, 2002, p. 33). Prominent sociologist Manuel Castells (2000), arguing that the last quarter century ushered in a most fundamental social transformation, identified "new information technologies" (p. 693) as a key contributing factor.