The context of change in the information professions

The information profession owes much to Daniel Bell and his well‐publicised speculations in the 1970s about the future post‐industrial, or information society. People working in such long‐established and well settled sectors of society as education, libraries, printing, consultancy, administration, and the entire bureaucracies of every organisation in the world — including Britain's civil service — were suddenly reclassified as part of the information sector, and transformed into pioneers in the progressive and futuristic information society. Did the information sector really grow without anyone recognising it? Or has there always been a very large information sector? Its creation essentially was a relabelling exercise. But it did help to focus attention on the important and unique role of information in society.