Libraries and the communicative citizen in the twenty-first century

Modem American Librarianship, a model for much of the world, is based on the concept of the informed citizen. This concept can no longer sustain the library and librarianship in a twenty-first century of expanding global electronic interactive communication and expanding universal human rights. It is argued that a renewed librarianship must shift to the concept of the communicative citizen grounded in a universal human right to communicate. The right to communicate provides a framework for a new conception of the library and of librarianship that builds on the accomplishments of the past but addresses the needs of the individual and the community in an electronically connected world.