Argues that if librarianship is to change its outside perceptions, it must first change its self-perceptions. Three areas in which true professions that demand recognition and respect have established clearly visible ground rules are highlighted: (1) credentials and librarianship as a profession or trade, (2) research, and (3) continuing…

This final column by Herbert White addresses his concerns with the professional objectives of librarians and how librarians are perceived and treated. Highlights include the users' need for librarians; the role of the American Library Association in supporting libraries more often than librarians; and stressing institutions rather than people.…

Cautions that present purely qualitative accreditation standards tend to deny disaccreditation as a Committee on Accreditation (ALA) alternative and to reinforce mediocrity. Standards should be revised to accept certain quantitative, structural, and procedural changes to insure quality in library school graduates. (RAA)

Explores the concept of the "professional" in librarianship, the right mix of professional and support staff in libraries, librarians doing clerical work, professional credentials, and staffing changes resulting from technological advancement. (PEN)

The present and future of the library profession provide the focus on this new collection of 57 of previously published articles and speeches. The essays in this work were written during a time (early 1980s to 1994) when there was significant change in librarianship. Professional issues examined range from library education, funding, personnel,…

This book is a collection of the author's following publications and speeches, primarily from 1995-2000: "Look at All Those Beautiful Birds Overhead!""Priorities for the Research Library Budget,""What Do We Give 'Em?""The Legacy of John Swan,""Small Public Libraries-Challenges, Opportunities, and Irrelevancies,""Lead Me Not into Temptation To Do…

Librarianship has been preoccupied with its role in education and scholarship, to the neglect of its responsibilities and concerns with information utility. The two are no longer separable but should form one profession with opportunities for diversity and specialization. (Author/JS)

This discussion of the education received by professionals in the fields of libraries and information services highlights education versus training, educator and practitioner values, complaints about library education, improvement of library schools, alternatives to the problems, and identification of basic competencies. Ten sources are noted.…

Directors of academic, public, and special libraries were asked to relate curricula of master's degree programs in library and information science to their own perceived needs and preferences in hiring of junior professionals. Options for alternatives to education outside one-year degree setting were examined and ranked. Seventeen references are…