Re: Position description

John R. Garrett (mailto:0004716758@MCIMAIL.COM)
Mon, 28 Nov 1994 17:13:00 EST

Message-Id: <mailto:199411290711.BAA08045@library.wustl.edu>
Date:         Mon, 28 Nov 1994 17:13:00 EST
From: "John R. Garrett" <mailto:0004716758@MCIMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Position description
To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB

I find the view that people with library degrees have some special claims on
positions (a "right" to certain jobs) to be both dispiriting and
indefensible.  Employers will hire the person for a position who is most
likely to do the job well.  Sometimes, for jobs in libraries or involving
information, that will be someone with the mls union card, sometimes not.
Instead of berating the employers, perhaps one might instead wonder what it
is about library training -- or people who choose to become librarians --
that leads so many employers to look elsewhere to fill non-traditional
positions -- and what can be done about it.  In the library world, Dick
Dougherty at Michigan has thought deeply about these issues, and finds them
much more complicated than several posters here have suggested.

John Garrett