The deactivated librarian

Abstract

The economic crisis and the rapid advances of information technology have led to reflection about how libraries should face the digital challenge and the need to adapt daily work routines and professional profiles. This paper considers whether libraries are restrained environments that can have an inhibiting effect on their profesional staff, harming their adaptation to the new digital environment. There are several reasons for this: technology dependence, a workplace model that gives priority to established structures, the rigidity of the structures involved in the decision-making process, and attachment to our traditional roles.