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Appendices: 
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The Social LandscapePrimary research informs this subsection of the scan. OCLC staff interviewed almost 100 people in a wide variety of institutions, organizations and positions to gather information and opinions for this section.3 The framework of the interviews was set using the Collections Grid developed by Lorcan Dempsey and Eric Childress of OCLC Research, and a series of questions that was sent to each interviewee prior to the actual conversations.4 Some interviews were conducted in person, but most were done by telephone. Not all interviews followed the structure suggested by the questions, and some interviewees did not want to answer the OCLC questions but wanted to talk about other issues. As a result, unexpectedly, the transcripts of the conversations contained material relevant to all sections in this report. All of the interviews yielded a huge amount of interesting and insightful comments on the real, day-to-day issues facing information professionals working in libraries, archives, historical societies, museums, and allied organizations and companies. It is worth noting that the people interviewed are almost all Baby Boomers (born from 1946–1964) and as such, their points-of-view are of people probably in the last third of their professional careers. It is here in this social landscape that the information gathered during the interview process is best represented, although it has been used throughout the report as well. The narrative is informed by the thoughtful insights of the information professionals interviewed, and the bullet points represent paraphrased remarks from the interviewees. There were divergent views expressed about what needs to be done, who is responsible for activities and projects, and no consensus evident. There was however one central unifying theme to almost all of the interviews: this is the twilight zone. For the Baby Boomer generation of information professionals at least, clarity of purpose has blurred. Major trends
Library Landscape: |
