LISTSERV 16.5 - ARLIS-L Archives

..And then there's the case of Public Librarians.
I have been looking into recent literature about a disturbing trend that my own library is now following. That is the "de-skilling" of librarians whereby subject knowledge and subject specialties are no longer desirable. "Generalist" librarians are now preferred, which means that administration can move us around like pawns and save money on the hiring process. The rationale is that a reasonable good information scientist can find answers to patrons' questions without actually knowing the subject - only the resources. Academic background and realted work experience is now moot. And our union is fully suportive of this new trend, as it gives preference to candidates with seniority over those with actual knowledge and experience. Our own administration can be one of the first places to look for reasons why librarianship is not being considered an attractive career for educated people.

Regards,
Margaret English
Toronto Reference Library

<<< Ruth Thomas <[log in to unmask]> 1/15 10:32a >>>
Ann Haas makes a good point about the salaries of public school librarians
vs. academic librarians--the key, of course, is unions which put
librarians on the same salary track as teachers. Academic institutions,
except for those that group librarians with faculty, often tend not to
think of librarians as part of the education of the student, but rather as
part of the clerical staff (better salary-wise to be lumped in with B&G!).
Why? Visible staff are shelving books and checking them out! As the
virtual library grows, the real-life reference librarian's presence
shrinks (unless we can persuade our administrations to the contrary).
Selectors have always worked behind the scenes and bibliographic
instruction can be a hard sell to faculty.

As for unions, private colleges and universities essentially have been
barred from unionizing since the mid-1970's--for a brief "history" see:

http://chronicle.com/colloquy/98/facunion/background.htm

Academic librarians, therefore, have no faculty unions to join (or apply
pressure to join). Some librarians, as here at Boston University, have
opted to find other kinds of unions, largely non-professional, to
accept them--SEIU is ours. But a dozen librarian members
(supervisory and administrative personnel can not be part of the union),
hardly pack much of a wallop in an institution this size. Another downside
is that the bargaining unit librarians and their administrators often are
engaged in really nasty exchanges, esp. during contract time. It becomes
and "us" vs "them" atmosphere rather than all library staff working in
unison for loftier goals such as the education of students.

An exception are state university systems which can be unionized.
Librarians who are able to join these faculty unions generally have much
higher salaries, l) because they reflect faculty salaries, and 2)
librarians can be on "tenure tracks." Librarians also have sabbaticals
and many other faculty "perks."

This said, probably the way to go is for ALA to join forces with faculties
trying to reverse Yeshiva.

Good luck!

Ruth S. Thomas
Archaeology, Art, Art History, Classics Bibliographer
Mugar Memorial Library
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
(617)353-3714

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