What librarians and Google are for

Librarians are there:To help, aid, assist. To teach, collate, enthuse. To catalogue, index, arrange, organise. To find, discover, promote, display. To interest, intrigue, amuse and amaze. To instill wonder. To help children, adults, old people, the underprivileged, the rich, the poor, those with voices and those without. To protect resources, to archive them, to store them, to save them for the future. To provide differing viewpoints, to engender thought, conversation, research, fun. To provide the best answer possible, to match the answer to the enquirer, to provide just enough information without overwhelming the user, but enough to always help. To better a local community, a company, a school, a college, an organisation, a country, the world.

Google is there:To make money.

 From UK librarian Phil Bradley's blog.

To be sure, librarians are an endangered species and I fervently agree with Mr. Bradley's position on libraries and librarians. It's true that Google is there to make money, but Google is pretty terrific too. I think we can coexist in harmony if we teach our young readers to start with a real live librarian, and I do mean a professional librarian, and then further explore with Google. So come see me at my library, give me a hug, and ask me a question. I'm here for YOU.

Librarians looking at display of early English Children’s books by Christchurch City Libraries on Flickr.
I love Kekabette's comment, "The eternal allure of the besmocked librarian." Check out her Tumblr blog, Manifesto.