Few academic librarians ten or fifteen years ago would have believed that those days of flat-lined budgets and miniscule raises could ever seem a golden (or at least silver) age by comparison. It turns out that there is something even worse than uncertainty, however--the absolute certainty of budgetary constriction and unwise decisions.…

Over the past few years a troubling pattern has emerged, one that might be termed the trivialization of the Master of Library Science (MLS). As a result of several factors, not least the closing of library schools, low rates of pay for librarians, and high costs of living in many parts of the country, some college libraries have found it difficult…

Some job descriptions of academic librarians, tenure track or otherwise, will emphasize publication, while in others, it is essentially an irrelevant factor. Some librarians have a combination of education and experience, however, that permits them to undertake research and writing in scholarly fields other than librarianship. In some ways,…

Many community colleges are located near rural areas where significant folkloric research could be done. Community college librarians may be pleasantly surprised to find many of the standard folkloric resources on their reference shelves. In addition, folklorists may be professors of English, anthropology, history, sociology, art, or music, who…

Situations arise almost every day of a reference librarian's working life in which a student (or a professor, a colleague, or a person off the street) asks a straightforward question that the librarian recognizes in a specific way. On the other hand, there are specific questions that come up fairly often and routinely lead to further queries. What…

Librarians face a dilemma, one to which most of them appear to be oblivious. Everybody knows about lots of modern problems that confront libraries and librarians these days. The problem under discussion here is of another order altogether: that librarians are taken too seriously by some of the populace they serve; that they sometimes do not take…

A very high proportion of librarians are neither required to publish nor rewarded if they do. The would-be librarian/writer would be well advised to take a brief self-examination before developing a research and publication plan. The author provides a list of questions to consider and also suggests consultation with a colleague with greater…

In the present climate of fascination with online this and digital that, it is easy to lose sight of the importance of the monographic collection in the evaluation of any library's ability to serve its clientele. Within realistic budgetary constraints, this collection should be maintained in a fashion as recent, relevant, accessible, and…

People use the words "profession" and "professional" in a multitude of ways. This article provides an extensive discussion about the idea of "profession." The author discusses how librarianship stacks up against the established professions and explores whether librarianship is considered as a profession. The author argues that librarianship is not…

Some librarians are required to publish a certain amount as part of earning tenure. Some choose to do research and write articles as a form of self-expression, because of intellectual curiosity, or perhaps to justify bearing faculty status. For whatever reason(s) librarians might want (or need) to see their own work in print, this article offers…