Questions about the Question

    Librarians have been trained and quickly add to training with experience in one of our most valuable tools, the reference interview.  What sets librarians apart from keyword searches is the insight gained from eye contact, body language and questions about the question asked.  Keywords in a Google search bring more "hits"  than anyone has time to tunnel through.  The professional librarian is still the key to making the keyword search productive in most cases.  Yes, we do have knowledgeable high school and college students who can do it themselves, but the vast majority of the public including administrators of government offices and big business, do not have a clue how to search to limit the responses to clearly what they are asking for.
The way to be future ready as a librarian is to focus on the things we do best that no one else does professionally.  And ramp it up to the best we can be. 
    Reference questions, whether snake identification, finding people information or statistics to support ones view or need, or a variety of other types, are the investigative and fun side of librarianship.  Next to shopping for books with someone else's money - it is the best thing we do.  We could all stand to study the reference interview more and the subtle body language and voice cues that tell us what level of information the patron really needs not just what they are asking for. 
   Growing professionally in service to others is the key to librarianship of the future.