Borgman, C.L. (2001). Where is the librarian in the digital library? Communications of the
ACM, 44(5), 66-67. Special issue on digital libraries.
Can we or should we do without the librarian in digital libraries? Alternatively, what roles can or should librarians play in digital libraries?
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Despite early predictions that disintermediation would prevail in the online world, the opposite is coming to pass.
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When users retrieve tens of thousands of matches from digital libraries, many realize that searching and filtering information can be a complex task worth delegating to a professional. Selecting the matches that are most relevant, most current, and of highest quality requires considerable expertise, despite continuing improvements in the search refinement capabilities of digital libraries.
A more subtle concern is that while librarians are playing ever-larger roles in making information resources available, their work is becoming less visible. Librarians […] are the professionals behind the scene who are selecting, collecting, organizing, preserving, and providing access to digital libraries.
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Libraries also provide gateway access to many valuable free sites and services on the Internet, investing professional expertise in selecting and maintaining sources appropriate to the organization’s mission.
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In sum, digital libraries hold great promise for improving access to information, but they will supplement, not supplant, the information services provided by physical libraries and human librarians.
En conclusão: o digital pode desintermediar a biblioteca mas não desintermedeia a bibliotecária