Open Access

Diane H. Sonnenwald

• The landscape of society continues to undergo tremendous change. Social challenges are more complex than ever before, often crossing multiple geopolitical boundaries, creating new socio-economic boundaries and involving new relationships and interdependencies among actors. Natural and humanmade disasters continue to present multiple challenges linked to information access. Scientific instruments and sensors are producing new types and large volumes of digital data that require curation. Personal, cultural and organizational heritage digital data that allow for new ways of interacting with information and others, and new ways of understanding ourselves and our society continue to increase. These trends present challenges and opportunities for information and library science that place demands on our academic leadership. This paper discusses these challenges and demands.