Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

As 'the anthropologist in the stacks', I have gotten used to questions from librarians about students and faculty. They are familiar, and occasionally vexing, questions: “What do they think?” “How do they know?” “How do we know?” and “Do they care about libraries at all?” I am also asked “Where are the students?” “Where are the faculty?” “Where is the work?” and “Why am I here?” These questions and many others are often framed around concerns about value – how do we demonstrate, argue for, prove the value of libraries? And of course this need to 'prove value' is often in response to external drivers or politics.