How do I cope with mourning a profession the world calls obsolete?

You have spent a career as a steward of knowledge and access, and you are mourning a profession the world keeps calling obsolete even as it needs what you do more than ever. That grief is real, and so is the irony inside it. The flood of information has made the work of guiding people through it more necessary, not less, even as the world undervalues it. You are watching something essential be misread as outdated. But the worth of your work does not depend on the world naming it correctly. People still get lost in information, still need a place that is open to everyone, still need someone who protects access and truth. That role has not vanished. It has just been poorly understood by people who mistake convenience for knowledge. Keep doing the work with conviction, and where you can, help others see what it really is now. You are not the keeper of a dusty room; you are a guide in a confusing age. Speak up for it, adapt it, teach people what a library and a librarian actually offer them today. Mourn what is fading, yes. But do not accept the world's verdict that what you do is done. It is not.