My answer to this question is it depends on whatever will meet the primary purpose of information services which "has always been and will always be to reduce to a minimum the amount of time required by local users to obtain access to that information they need to do their work" [Atkinson, cited by Sutton (1996), p.138]. But to give context to my answer, let us use Sutton's library type continuum. As we move towards the Type IV library - digital - in Sutton's continuum, we can see that information resources become less site-based and more distributed. As a result the nature of the services provided by information professionals also changes from a resource-dispensing model to a more consultative model.

So which service are we talking about here? If what we mean by "services provision" is that resource-dispensing function of Type 1 libraries, then I say such service will not effectively meet the users' needs in the types of libraries to the right of Sutton's continuum. Access to information resources will become more technology-mediated in the digital age and the relationships of users to the overload of available information resources will become more complex. It is in this context that I go for more instruction in information literacy if what that means is helping users learn to use the layer of tools that stand between them and distributed information in the digital age. Resource-dispensing and instruction become one in this context because information professionals will be more required to create or author information architectures that will help users make sense of the information overload.

Oftentimes, this question of more services provision or instruction in information literacy degrades to a question of more human intermediation or machine intermediation. I don't like information problems boiling down to such dichotomies because it lacks imagination. It is our responsibility as information professionals to envision and define our roles as human intermediaries in information systems.

References:

• Bates, Marcia J. (1986). "What is a reference book? A theoretical and empirical analysis." RQ. 26(1) 37-47; 54-57.
• Bates, Marcia J. (1999). "The invisible substrate of information science." Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(12):1043-1050.
• Brown, John Seely. (2000) "Reading the Background," Chapter 7 of The Social Life of Information, Brown & Duguid, eds. Harvard Business School Press.
• Buckland, Michael (1991). "Information as Thing", JASIS. 42(5) 351-360.
• Lee, Hur-Li. 2000. "What Is a Collection?" Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 51: 1106-1113.
• Sutton, Stuart A.. (1996). "Furture Service Models and the Convergence of Functions: The Reference Librarian as Technician, Author and Consultant", The Reference Librarian. 54: 125-143.
• Taylor, Robert S. (1986). "The Value-Added Model" The Value-Added Processes in Information Systems. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, pp. 48-70.