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…