This past week, there was an article in the Binah magazine (a weekly geared towards Orthodox women) about "school librarians" in Orthodox Jewish day schools. This is what I didn't like about this article (quoting)
"Of all the librarians I spoke to, only [name] has a degree in librany science....." A few paragraphs later: "Hashgacha pratis (divine providence) seems to be better than professional training for landing the post of school librarian, a vocation that is widely learned "on the job"." Okay, now I know that the Binah magazine is not exactly the New York Times or anything, but I find that these types of statements are damaging to our profession. It's because people think that you don't need a degree or any sort of professional training, that we are being replaced with non-trained people, (specifically yours truly, who will be replaced by a parent volunteer!). When I mention to people that I've lost my job, people say to me all the time, "Well, do you have to be a librarian? Would you consider doing something else, like being an assistant in a preschool?" I can promise you, if my neighbor (she's an accountant), lost her job (G-d forbid), no one would say to her "Do you have to be an accountant? Would you consider doing something else, like being an assistant in a preschool?" I am not sure what the answer is to this, but our profession (not just AJL in specific), needs to do some serious PR about what we do, and most important, why training and skills are important. And yes, I realize, as a different neighbor (a law librarian) pointed out, I have to relax and take things in the Binah magazine with a grain of salt! -Rachel Lewin Day School at Baltimore Hebrew [email protected] --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [email protected] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
