Is this a flame? You could not be more wrong. First of all, Librarians (for the most part) do not shelve books (pages, usually high school and college students do). However, Librarians do select what goes into the collection (i.e. what goes on those shelves in the form of books, periodicals, digital and analog media, etc.), catalog the items, classify them, create databases so that all items can be inventoried, and so people can locate what they are looking for. How is this really different from what museum professionals do? Librarians also work to create policies for what to collect (scope of collection as part of a larger mission statement - sound familiar?), they create policy for loaning items, look into creating agreements with other libraries as to what each institution will focus on collecting, so that they may borrow these materials for their patrons, without needing to fill limited space in their own institution with materials another local library has. They work with budgets, the deal with censorship and freedom of speech issues all the time........ I'll just stop there. But let me just say this, I would not trust just anybody to cut my hair either. Allison 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 >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > ******************************************************************** Allison A. Smith Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Registrar Museum of Art [log in to unmask] Marquette University Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA ********************************************************************