Rantity: Librarians(except those who read to kids) are the most useless group of people.

Rodney King ^ | today | Rodney King

[Rodney King]

Why would anyone need a degree to be a librarian?

Librarians are some of the most unproductive people on the planet. They put books on shelves. Woo-hoo.

Got to have a degree for that. Perhaps it made sense when they needed to be experts on the Dewey Decimal system, but now we have a thing called computers.

If a clerk at Borders can put books on the shelf without a degree in Library Sciences, why can't he/she do the same thing at a library?

Libraries themselves are a waste. Go to any major college library and all you see are people there to study, yet 95% of the library is taken up not by study space but by books that nobody reads.

The books should be scanned online, and then the originals sent to a nearby warehouse in case some Poindexter really needs to get his hands on the actual book. Then, university libraries can be full of study areas with computers for research.

Fire all the "librarians" and replace them with book store clerks. All Librarians are is glorified clerks anyway.

It would seem that degrees in Library Sciences exist solely as a barrier to entry to prevent clerks from competing for "librarian" jobs.

The exception to this rule is libarians in schools and community libraries that read books to kids. Not that they need a fancy degree to do that.

[Rodney King]

my library tax is 409.57 year

Wow. I hope you steal 409.57 worth of books from the Library to make up for it.

[tfecw]

no clue, jump on over to a Terri thread and ask, it shouldn't be *too* hard to find one.

[johnb838]

Well that's sort of like pharmacists who get all these years and years of training and then spend their careers counting gaily colored pills into little bottles and affixing labels to the bottles and selling them to people. Or having someone else do it.

[redheadtoo]

A person can learn the skills needed to be a librarian by reading a few books.

About twenty years ago, while looking for work, I decided to apply for a entry level position in my county library. I had no direct background working in libraries but had a degree and had worked in schools. I figured that with my extensive past as both student and teacher I was pretty familiar with the way libraries were run.

I soon received not one but two letters telling me that because I did not have a degree in Library Science I was unqualified. Both letters had a harsh sneering tone to them that would have been appropriate if I had tried to pass myself off as a brain surgeon when I only had a HS diploma. I also received a phone call from their human resources that was more of the same. Their whole attitude was how dare I think of aspiring to their ranks.

But that was not the end. About six months latter they sent me a post card informing me that I was not the caliber of person they would deem acceptable. It was all highly insulting.

[highimpact]

I've heard of anti-semitism. I guess you'd call this anti-librarianism?

[Rodney King]

I've heard of anti-semitism. I guess you'd call this anti-librarianism?

Not really. Anti-semetism is a form of irrational bigotry. Anti-librarianism is a set of opinions based on fact and logic.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

The books should be scanned online, and then the originals sent to a nearby warehouse in case some Poindexter really needs to get his hands on the actual book

Written by a guy who must live and work in nice, comfortable, dry places. Try your computer reading in a foxhole, a missile site, eating lunch under a tree with a horse, 3000 ft underground in South Africa waiting on an elevator that runs every two hours, 40 miles offshore Gabon on a rig with one computer, sitting on the hood of your car watching a gas lift well kickoff for four hours, or just sitting outside in the sun with a good book after being cooped up inside because of the weather. Buy a book and go outside, you may like it.

[TexasCajun]

Give it time and somebody will come along and say at least librarians aren't pulling feeding tubes out or something like that.

Or how long before we hear/see some librarian state Michael checked out every Murder She Wrote novel that was written.

[Rodney King]

Written by a guy who must live and work in nice, comfortable, dry places. Try your computer reading in a foxhole, a missile site, eating lunch under a tree with a horse, 3000 ft underground in South Africa waiting on an elevator that runs every two hours, 40 miles offshore Gabon on a rig with one computer, sitting on the hood of your car watching a gas lift well kickoff for four hours, or just sitting outside in the sun with a good book after being cooped up inside because of the weather. Buy a book and go outside, you may like it.

I never said I was against books. I am against university libraries using 95% of their space for books that haven't been checked out for 35 years while there is a huge demand by students for study space and computer terminals.

[TexasCajun]

Did you mean librarian or libertarian?

As in "Libertarian National Socialist Green Party"
They've been in the news lately.

[discostu]

That's not what librarians do. Librarians assist in research, help teach people how the library is organized (either Dewey or LOC), keep up on the latest publications to be able to steer people towards current information, and make decisions on what should be in the stacks. It's actually pretty involved and difficult work, but for their trouble they get to spend all day surrounded by books so it's got a nice payoff. Aids and assistants put books away, librarians USE the books.

[Quick1]

Well, librarians are mostly liberals, and are constantly adovcating allowing porn on library computers.

Funny how being against filters that would accidently filter out things that are not porn, but are useful for research, can somehow make you in favor of allowing porn on computers.

In realityland, I was at a library the other day, and some dumbass was trying to look at porn on the computer. The librarian came over immediately and gave him a chewing out, and threw him out.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Degrees in library science now require a great deal of computer science, and prepare librarians to acquire, maintain, and instruct other people in the use of a wide variety of computerized and online information sources.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I never said I was against books. I am against university libraries using 95% of their space for books that haven't been checked out for 35 years while there is a huge demand by students for study space and computer terminals.

I have been on the oversight committee in the building of two libraries, one 30 years ago in Harris County, Texas (Alief area) and one a couple of years ago in Ft Bend County, Texas (Sugar Land, Eldridge RD.). 30 years ago it was 100% printed material. Three years ago, in a new library it was 40% printed and 60% computer stations. Almost no reference books are bought as on line stays more current. Check out what is happening today.

[tfecw]

"Degrees in library science now require a great deal of computer science, and prepare librarians to acquire, maintain, and instruct other people in the use of a wide variety of computerized and online information sources."

Computer science has nothing to do with scanning in books or teaching people how to type in google into their web browser. Computer science it typically writing software. They might need some IT work, but i wouldn't really call that IT work either. I would call it computer 101.

[Rodney King]

Librarians assist in research, help teach people how the library is organized (either Dewey or LOC), keep up on the latest publications to be able to steer people towards current information, and make decisions on what should be in the stacks. It's actually pretty involved and difficult work, but for their trouble they get to spend all day surrounded by books so it's got a nice payoff. Aids and assistants put books away, librarians USE the books.

Sounds like the clerks at Borders.

[Rodney King]

Degrees in library science now require a great deal of computer science, and prepare librarians to acquire, maintain, and instruct other people in the use of a wide variety of computerized and online information sources.

Yeah, things that your average college kid who grew up with computers manage to figure out on their own without degrees.

[BlackRazor]

I always thought school librarians were too stupid to teach so they stuck them in the libary.

From my experience, most school librarians were volunteers (usually kids' mothers), not employees of the school.

[Rodney King]

I have been on the oversight committee in the building of two libraries, one 30 years ago in Harris County, Texas (Alief area) and one a couple of years ago in Ft Bend County, Texas (Sugar Land, Eldridge RD.). 30 years ago it was 100% printed material. Three years ago, in a new library it was 40% printed and 60% computer stations. Almost no reference books are bought as on line stays more current. Check out what is happening today.

Well, the University of Oklahoma is 95% books - a random sampling shows that most haven't been checked out in 20 years or so.

[discostu]

Really, so does the clerk at Borders know how to use the Periodic Guide to find the most recent article on the moral questions involved in gene splicing?

Sorry clerks at Borders do what the low end aids (minimum wage workers) do in libraries, they don't even come close to the skill set of a librarian.