Tacit Knowledge, Tacit Ignorance, and the Future of Academic Librarianship

This theoretical essay uses tacit knowledge, the often-undocumented wisdom of expert practitioners and practitioner communities, to explore future prospects for the academic librarian. Traditional and emerging valuations of the academic librarian held by higher education stakeholders are identified. The practical implications of these views for university funding and other support are explored using the philosophical stance of cultural pragmatism and by applying the sociological perspective of the “stranger,” tacit knowledge gained by the author as a researcher and a faculty member in an LIS program and as chair of a university Committee on the Library, and insights from a spectrum of publications. In the process, the March of Dimes, an organization that successfully repositioned itself after accomplishing its primary purpose, is examined as a possible model for enhancing the academic librarian’s perceived value.