Library Shitstorm

Apparently there is much internet-drama in the world of Libraries and Librarians. Many of the librarians actually have a name for their world of Library-related blogs, the biblioblogosphere, that's cute. The problem seems to have started more or less when a 'big shot' librarian at a Canadian University said that, 'rather than hire new Librarians to replace those retiring and others that will be forced out, we're going to replace them with PhDs and the like. No more librarians at the library'. This drove the biblioblogosphere berserk.

On the one hand, this sounds fine, replace people that specialize in whatever librarians do with subject matter experts. But there's such an uproar amoung the 'glasses on a chain' crowd, that I have to wonder, have I not been making use of my librarians? The librarians I've had contact with are great people, they are helpful. At Adelphi, one of the librarians actually met with our class, all pro-active like, and distributed a book-let she had written on using the library for science research, and also included proper citation methods. I still have it, it's useful. The librarians at Kingsborough are also really good, I usually have my students do a research project, and I insist that they learn to use the library databases, rather than google, for their research. One of the librarians there meets with my class, usually for two sessions, showing them how to use the database, how to come up with a research project, rather than just making up some idea and 'googling' it.

But clearly that sort of thing doesn't require a Master's in Library Science, so why insist on Librarians?

I don't know why, so I think I need to find out what else the librarians can be doing for me.