ABSTRACT
As libraries across the globe are transformed by new technologies, librarians increasingly look to the future and explore ways to exploit the possibilities of the digital environment. Yet at the same time these dramatic changes also compel us to look to the past. In order to assess fully the impact of the digital revolution it is essential to compare emerging practices in librarianship with those that preceded them. In particular, we must first determine if there were general trends or continuities throughout the history of libraries that transcended the particulars of time and place, and then, if such continuities indeed existed, whether they have been disconnected by the emergence of new technologies. I argue that the digital revolution is revolutionary only in a relative sense. The current changes in librarianship, however dramatic, are for the most part a rapid acceleration of trends in library practice that have been an important part of the profession from its beginnings.
