Can librarians and information specialists evolve from passive mediators to active knowledge seekers? This paper proposes a revolutionary shift, advocating for librarians to become active participators in knowledge-seeking. This addresses why we can no longer assume a progressive‐linear transition from facts and information provided by “the library” or by the “information professional” to a clearly focused user as the “default” user‐library encounter. It suggests they should assist users in the information processing. This implies that the centre of gravity in the information professional’s practice and training should move from data and information retrieval and mediation to acting as knowledge seekers, editors, and interpreters. The paper then presents digital knowledge maps as intellectual instruments that librarians can implement in their quest for knowledge generation.
This paper, published in New Library World, fits the journal's focus on the evolving role of librarians. It urges librarians and information professionals to become active participators in knowledge seeking. Web‐like syntopicons and digital knowledge maps are presented and discussed as two promising intellectual instruments that librarians can implement in their quest for knowledge generation. The paper presents practical recommendations to information workers.