"Librarians are centered on the human record that vast assemblage of texts, moving and still images, symbolic representations, recorded sound, and other fruits of the human mind. They select, acquire, organise, give access to, and preserve sub-sets of that human record and give advice and instruction on its use. They share core values stewardship, intellectual freedom, service, etc. and work cooperatively with other librarians locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally through such methods as inter-library lending, cataloguing standards, etc., to ensure coordination of library efforts and strive for total access to the human record. These words apply to the librarians of yesterday and tomorrow as much as to the librarians of today. They also, in my view, apply to librarians of all kinds in all countries. There is a golden thread that connects a school librarian in California to an academic librarian in Mumbai and a public librarian in Nairobi to a government librarian in Sydney."
Exciting, grand and inspiring scope part
"That being so, it follows that there are subjects in which all librarians should be educated and a core of such subjects that apply to all librarians and that should be included in the curricula of all library education programs. I have proposed elsewhere that we should work internationally on identifying that global core and work nationally and within linguistic groups to expand on that core as it applies in a particular country or grouping of countries".
Practical, more nerdy librarian part
Michael Gorman, past president of ALA at the Forum on International Library Education
