The environmental scan begins with the “information consumer.”2 Without this person, there would be no libraries and no need for OCLC. But, the relationship between the librarian and the information seeker has often been uneasy—at least from the librarian’s viewpoint.

Librarian yearns to see more of Information Consumer who is apathetic or indifferent to the wishes of Librarian. Librarian tries to be more accommodating by renovating the Home Page to be more attractive to Information Consumer who finds the changes pleasant enough. But while Librarian was busy sprucing up the Home Page—moving things from here to there and recovering the worn upholstery—Information Consumer has been hanging out at the Information Mall. Now Information Consumer is critical of what seems to be old-fashioned, fussy—and boring—decorating at the Home Page. Librarian tells Information Consumer that the Information Mall is shallow and disorganized and that anything found there is possibly shoddy and not to be trusted. Information Consumer isn’t listening. Information Consumer is perfectly happy at the Information Mall.

Major trends

Three major trends have been selected to show information consumer characteristics.

• Service: moving to self-sufficiency
• Satisfaction
• Seamlessness

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