Toward A New Paradigm for Library Instruction in the Digital Library

Abstract

Hypertext and the Internet have dramatically altered the world of information access. The digital library does not focus on ownership and holdings, but strives for instant global access to information. Text is no longer merely linear discourse; hypertext is branching, linking, interactive discourse with no absolute beginning or end, no boundaries and no permanence. Technology has thrust the library into the Information Age, but models of service delivery have not changed, especially in the area of library instruction. Academic librarians must examine their beliefs and values regarding the purpose and value of library instruction.

Over 30 years ago, Thomas Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and coined the phrase “paradigm shift”. Kuhn theorized that science may encounter a law so significantly different that a discipline is forced to alter its worldview or paradigm of its environment. A paradigm describes everything which the science is based on-all of its laws, beliefs, procedures and methods. Until Kuhn, science was thought to be built on an accumulation of all that had been learned over history with each new law adding to the mass of scientific knowledge, not radically changing it. It has been 500 years since Gutenberg’ printing press altered the paradigm of the world forever. Likewise, hypertext and the Internet are radically transforming the worldview of global information access, electronic publishing, scholarly collaboration, and resource sharing.

Although technology has changed the “look” of the library, there has been no major paradigm change in the area of library instruction--mainly because the underlying belief structure remains the same.