ABSTRACT
Stasis is not practical for a life form or an organization. Just as a life form is doomed if it cannot change in response to its environment, an organization that cannot change will be superseded or subsumed; it will have no future. For a library, it is the prospect of the future that makes our present efforts valuable. We collect and organize information for current and future users. If we do not change with our environment and are superseded or subsumed, all our efforts at collection and organization are for naught. Libraries still occupy a unique role in society. No other institution has as its core responsibility the equitable preservation and distribution of information for all audiences. If libraries are to exist in the future, the libraries of today must be able to change. In this chapter I argue that scouts can play a role in controlling that change. The primary justification for scouting-systematically surveying the library environment-is that it gives a library its best chance of continuing to carry out its mission in today’s environment.
