Do librarians need XXXXXXXXXXX capabilities?

[Tim Mallory]

                (this is about that HTML discussion)

   How many enterprises have expired because they do not know what 
their business is?  I know I'm paraphrasing some renowned business consultant 
here . . . assume all the proper credits/apologies/plaudits to the 
originators, or most recent/popular plagiarizers, or yourself.  
  The library business, in spite of being named after a building, is a 
process of connecting people with information.  Anything more limited 
than that and you're dead in the water, eventually.  Gone the way of 
papyrus pushers and scroll scriveners.
   I need to know tools that enable my help to be worth getting paid.  
Today it is knowing where about 80,000 things are located in my building, 
and they have to be the right things.  I also know about what i don't 
have in my building, and some idea of how to access almost anything.
    Today some of the (referrents of) acronyms I wrestle with 
professionally include DDC, LCSH, IAC, ACLU, LOC, CIA, DSHS, MARC, ASCII, 
EJIC, CMP, FTP, FBI, MASH, WSL, TRL, KCLS, LSCA, PDR, DSM4, AACR2, WFW, 
and just a coupla days ago, LS/MFT.  What's the point of another one to 
learn?
    I don't have to debate what things to learn.  My patrons (Gosh, do I 
want to argue about that one?) will let me know.  If I'm one step ahead I 
think I can continue to get paid in this profession . . .

----------------------------------------- _.. ...      __.. . _..  _____
Tim Mallory, Reference Librarian
Aberdeen Timberland Library     Voice:   360-533-2360   
121 E. Market St.                 FAX:   360-532-2953
Aberdeen, WA  98520-5292       e-mail:   tmallory at timberland.lib.wa.us
__%\__"round and round goes the wind" - ecclesiastes i:6 __%\__)))))>>>*