Response to Goodman's comment on librarians

[Janellyn P Kleiner <jkleiner@lsu.edu>]

Goodman's comment:

> Who might not benefit:
>
> Librarians: The librarians and library staff necessary for the complex
> procedures of purchasing journals and arranging access would not be
> needed for these functions. The part of public service librarian's work
> involved in helping people navigate the maze to find their articles
> would not be needed either.  The proper functions of librarians would
> continue, to provide indexing and to help users match their problems to
> the material which would meet their needs.  There is a large unmet need
> for such help-- but institutions and users would have to be convinced of
> that, and there might be a better name for these information
> intermediates than "librarians"  It's a role that should convey high
> prestige.

As an administrator of a division of an ARL Library (The LSU Libraries)
that includes Collection Development and Technical Services Departments
and who previously served as Head of Reference Services, in online
services and in grant-writing, I find that comment uninformed regarding
current academic library practices. The roles of librarians and library
staff have altered rapidly in recent years. All electronic titles
including those in aggregator databases have been in our catalog and Web
guides for years and are appropriately linked to the resources. Keeping
that information current and updated is a major task but can be handled by
support staff. The traditional library processes in our library, in most
cases, are now the responsibility of staff not librarians. One of our
biggest challenges today is identifying and evaluating the new resources
and open access titles available on the Internet. And yes, we do have the
directories & bibliographies citing such titles but these are dated as
soon as they are compiled. Managing the array of electronic resources has
become increasingly complex and demands considerable expertise.

A bigger challenge today is finding graduates of library & information
science schools who have the skills and preparation to step into this
environment without having to "re-educate" them to meet today's academic
library and university faculty demands. I don't foresee any problems for
future librarians who are professionally prepared to work in this
challenging and ever-changing environment. In fact, the demand for those
with the skills needed today will be greater than ever. Those who will not
benefit are the ones, unfortunately, still clinging to the traditional
models of librarianship.

Jane Kleiner
Associate Dean of Libraries for Collection Services
The LSU Libraries
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Phone: 225-578-2217
Fax: 225-578-6825
E-Mail: jkleiner@lsu.edu