(REV.)POSTING - NETWORK RESOURCES - CT -Reply

[Martin Cohen]

On Sat, 24 Aug 1996, Linda Hyman wrote:

> I remember clearly a statement the personnel director made when I was on the
> city's negotiating team.  It went something like this:  "If I can hire a
> librarian at $30,000 why should I pay more?  I can't hire an engineer at
> that rate, so I have to pay $60,000.  It's that simple."

Yes. The kicker in it is that becoming "a librarian" _requires_ relatively
little investment and many of those who call themselves librarians value
it little. To resort to a little hyperbole: one seldom hears of people who
have considered themselves desperate because they are unable to get into
library school. Some may have found cataloging class boring, or a database
class difficult - but nobody flunks out because of it. While more than a 
few would-be engineers are unable to get through thermodynamics, or the 
theory of complex electrical circuits, or advanced calculus. If a 
curriculum regards story telling and C programming as equivalent, it's 
difficult to define the marketplace worth of those who have taken a degree 
in it. (I'm not making a comparison here: I'm not much good at either).

Martin J. Cohen                                 mcohen at stmarys-ca.edu
Media Services and Library Systems              voice: (510) 631-4229
Saint Mary's College of California              fax:   (510) 376-6097
Moraga, CA 94575                                ars longa vita brevis