This is a typical reply from someone who does not even begin to comprehend
what librarians do.

Librarians do not do clerking or shelving. We are trained to do reference
work (can you answer business, social science, and criminal justice
reference questions in the space of 5 minutes?), use a series of online
databases, decide on what books and journals to order (collection
development), catalog books (I doubt that you would even understand the
system we use), and various other high-level tasks.

In my corporate library, I am the only librarian. I do all of the tasks,
even shelving books. I check in periodicals, manage the cataloging, etc.

If Chris was trying to get my goat, he succeeded. LIBRARIANS ARE NOT CLERKS!!!!



At 09:28 AM 7/31/97 -0600, you wrote:
>I've always felt librarian's were overpayed.  The fact that a masters
>degree is typically required is simply a function of lobbying by
>librarians- it is like certification for barbers- anyone can cut hair and
>anyone can shelf books.  I think that the reference librarian probably
>requires a degree (a BS) but  and we would have much more money for books
>if we
>turned out all the overqualified librarians
>
>
>
>
>
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Christopher Whittle                         College of Education &
>Box 72119                          Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
>Albuquerque, NM 87195                       University of New Mexico
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>

Anita Cohen-Williams
Listowner of HISTARCH, SUB-ARCH, and SPANBORD
Internet Consultant
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