I tend to agree with David. My initial thoughts:
1) I think of the current set of tools as “training wheels” for what’s
to come – ThirdLife, perhaps? Get us used to thinking “socially”, then
see what actually hashes out in the marketplace. Libraries, in
particular, can use this “kick in the pants” to keep us thinking in
terms of the user, not the institution, when designing resources.
2) I still have a copy of Nicholson Baker’s “end of librarianship”
article, which everyone and their sister sent me right after I applied
to library school, about the time the article appeared. It makes me
smile, especially when I’m overwhelmed by patron requests for assistance
with online tasks, which no one else but the library will give them,
esp. for free. I worry a bit about keeping up with day-to-day relevance
to patron’s needs, but I don’t worry about our (libraries) actual
existence as entities/concepts. I guarantee, however, that the form of
our existence (virtual, super-virtual AI, ??) will change in my
prof (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)