What do librarians do?

People who think librarians spend all their time shelving books and helping children to find a good book ought to read about how one school librarian worked fast to create a lesson on the Gulf oil spill. Putting together online information from a variety of sources is going to be a greater and greater share of a librarian's job. Teachers and students want to learn about what is going on in the world right now and want to understand how to get information about current issues as well as history, science and all the traditional school subjects. Librarians are well positioned to be leaders in finding information and putting it together in meaningful packages for students. The world moves too quickly for books to keep up. We have to supplement books with all sorts of digital information that makes connections between the lasting truths of books and current news headlines. Three cheers for librarians who become leaders in this task.