Reflections on the state of specialized libraries: Five global trends all knowledge professionals should understand

That we are living in an age of information and knowledge explosion is an accepted cliché. Formal and informal data, information and knowledge are available to individuals and organizations in both structured and unstructured formats leading to information overload, concerns about data accessibility, discussions of the role of metadata, content farms, return on investment in both the creation and consumption of information and the future of the information professions and those who provide services to them. Social media has worked to make every information consumer believe they are search experts, to create new models of communication bypassing traditional sources, directly impact the business structure of information companies and lead to the rapid decrease in the number of libraries, information and business centers and the role of information professionals in corporate, news and related settings. In this position paper I’d like to suggest there are five global trends causing, affecting and driving these dramatic changes.