Information professionals are able to see the diversity surrounding information from creation to use. They recognize that information is created by many people for all kinds of purposes, is made tangible in many forms, is of varying value, is gathered/collected for all kinds of purposes, is organized in many ways, is sought and retrieved through many paths, and is used in a variety of ways as there are many people and needs.

In all these diversity, information professionals see unity in the basic aspects and functions of information, in the processes around it, in the systems and interfaces that support it, and in the people who create and interact with it.

Information professionals are willing to question traditional notions in their profession in order to move forward. The questions sound simplistic but soon dig deep into what we take for granted. What is a document? See Buckland (1991). What is a collection? See Lee (2000). What is a reference book? See Bates (1986).

Information professionals are willing to question futuristic visions in order to relate to the past. The paperless society? See Brown (2000).

Information professionals see information as having value. They are able to see components/parts of information systems where value can be added. See Taylor (1986).

Information professionals recognize that technologies supporting information are not infallible. This was brought more forcefully to me by two events that occurred during our residency: the power-grid meltdown in the Midwest, Northeast, and Canada and the Blaster worm zipping through computer networks. Information professionals appreciate both the role of humans and the role of machines in information systems.