Sad News

In 2003, the Marathon County Public Library had 7 Librarian I positions. Since then, they have had 4. Now they have none. Last week the director and board decided to change those positions to "Customer Service Librarians" and drop the pay from 46K to 36K. The people currently in the positions can accept the demotion if they wish. Here's the article.

The reorganization also aims to meet the ever-changing needs of customers, she said. Librarians today do less complex work, [the director] said -- calling for pay adjustments and more technological assistance.

"We're really becoming a community center," she said. "Our public has different requirements of us."

In a follow-up article, she said basically the same thing: "Some of it is budget constraints, some is just a need to become increasingly relevant to our communities," Christensen said, explaining that librarians are doing less "complex" work, such as providing reference and research assistance.

I've been mulling this over since I read about it last week, trying to figure out how to react. I'm appalled that people who have worked faithfully are being arbitrarily demoted; this is an awful thing to do to them. But at the same time I'm defensive because I feel my profession is being attacked. These people are saying what I do has no value. I want to make sure my assessment is fair and not just a gut reaction.

Some, like the Annoyed Librarian and, I'm sure, John Berry think librarians are bringing this on themselves by not being staunch defenders of traditional librarian work. If we just refuse to change, they say, we can continue to enjoy things as they've always been. But that fails to acknowledge the fact that we aren't necessarily bringing all of these changes about ourselves. The Marathon director is right, with the rise of the Internet and other factors we have seen a drop in traditional reference questions. Much of what the public uses libraries for is bestsellers and popular movies. And, yes, people enjoy using libraries as community centers. But librarians are not causing these changes--many are adapting to them and going with the flow instead of fighting it, but they will happen regardless of what we do.

But that doesn't mean we have to abandon our traditional role as centers for learning. That still exists alongside all of the new things. Even though reference questions don't occur as often, we still have to have the knowledge to answer them when they do. We put a tremendous amount of time and resources into storytimes and early literacy. Our most used web page is our business one with resources for entrepreneurs. Those are just a few examples, the point being that people still use the library as an educational resource. On top of that, we have to know more about computers every day to help people make use of the ones we have for them to use. People who read bestsellers want recommendations for what to read next, which means we have to know a wide variety of genres in addition to the classics. Patrons want recreational programming options in addition to the educational ones, so we have to be able to do both. The job is not getting less complex, but more. We have to be able to do all of the traditional duties plus be the experts in our newer, changing roles. And we do it all with a smile and provide excellent customer service. There is nothing about this less "professional" or deserving of a high salary than the librarians of the past. The Marathon director may be aware of some of the dynamics, but has had absolutely the wrong reaction. I can only hope it's not a growing trend.