ABSTRACT
If we are to make sense of where our profession is going, we need to at some point in time become a bit more proactive in thinking about the impact of the change the field is experiencing. For instance, assume for the moment there is at least some truth in the remark by Penniman to the effect that "Librarians are a curious enigma. Librarians have a long history of dealing with change, but in a schizophrenic way. They cling to the past, and yet they are often the heaviest users of technologies, such as computing and telecommunications resources" (Penniman, 1992). Given this, how does our inherent schizophrenia about technology limit our understanding and ability to make the most effective use of the nonlinear and rapidly changing world of Internet reference service? We embrace the greatly increased access to resources via the Internet and at the same time rail at the amount of misleading information, the difficulty of drilling down to relevant hits, and the lack of stability of URLs. It is easy to see how this love-hate relationship can work against a continuing involvement of the staff in using Web tools.
