[Publib] Late night thoughts on retirement . . . and jobs and people

[Robert Balliot]

I agree, but I think it is possible to change the outcome.  If you get a
chance to see
The People's Palace <http://www.nypl.org/press/2007/palace.cfm>, one of the
key points made is that a public library does not
need to simply collect information - they should act in their capacity to
recombine it.
There are huge opportunities to creatively bring together far-flung
resources and
librarians are uniquely positioned and trained to take advantage of those
opportunities.

The need for professional librarians has not diminished.  In fact, the need
to have
professionals who will critically evaluate information based on:

 Authorship and Affiliation
Accuracy/Verifiability
Objectivity
Audience
Currency
Content/Purpose
Comparison to Other Similar Resources

is desperately need to keep our democracy healthy.

Disinformation is being created and pushed out to the public much faster and
in much
greater quantity than quality resources.  Librarians have always been the
first line of
defense for the public, acting on their part to establish and maintain
legitimate resources
through critical thinking skills.

Every problem faced by Public Libraries and even Academic Libraries can be
traced back
to erosion of ethical standards and failure to market services. It is not a
lack of need, it is
simply a failure to lead.  The first step to recovery is to apply the same
standards of
critical evaluation to the profession without group think bias that we do
for evaluation of
resources.

R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com



On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 8:27 AM, <Backwage at aol.com> wrote:

>   In a message dated 8/19/2009 12:20:52 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> jschallan at gmail.com writes:
>
> I would respectfully beg anyone on the list setting out on a
> professional-degree program to reconsider. There aren't going to be
> jobs for most of you, and even the few of you who do get jobs may find
> they are nothing like what you expected.
>
>  I'm glad you wrote that.  This has been true for some time now.  The
> solution is to take your skills elsewhere.  Sometimes you've got to make
> your own job.  For people who can answer questions--assuming they can do
> something with those answers--there will be a place.  The world is full of
> empty spots for us.  For the more enterprising, the sharper, the ones who
> can make results.
>
> There are two really awful wastes of intellect in America.  One is the
> attorney, in which a very clever, capable individual spends her career
> initiating and enlarging disputes between parties rather than solving them.
> The other is the librarian, who too often waits for the question, and then
> settles for it.  We need to control the questions--the idea that we only
> suggest answers is ridiculous and for us, fatal.
>
> M. M.
>
> ------------------------------
>
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