This article seeks to examine why the many corporate libraries play su
ch a marginal role in today's corporation. This is especially vexing s
ince we are constantly told how we are living in the 'information age'
and librarians rightly perceive themselves as information professiona
ls.' We feel that librarians often operate under the wrong conceptual
model of what an information service should be in the 1990s. This outm
oded concept, we call the 'warehouse' model. Alternatives are needed w
hich are better suited to today's corporate needs and constraints. The
two alternatives are the 'expertise centre' and the 'network'. These
concepts are all fully developed in the text, as are the reasons (with
accompanying research findings) for this situation.