Message-Id: <mailto:199411300036.SAA07671@library.wustl.edu> Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 16:35:20 -0800 From: Sheryl Frisch <mailto:sfrisch@CYMBAL.AIX.CALPOLY.EDU> Subject: Re: Position description To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
One more thread...I agree with Margaret Webster and my other colleagues, and would like to emphasize that the terms "slide library" and "slide librarian" are misleading. Visual resource management and librianship are two very different professions. Agreed that there may be some overlap in the body of knowledge needed for a library and slide collection, but the bottom line is that they are essentially different professions. So the analogy of a mechanic performing brain surgery is inaccurate.
Discussing the differences between the two professions could go on and on as it has for years. The real issue here seems to be a feeling that librarians are being devalued and I don't believe this is the case. If anything the information superhighway is making librarians extremely valuable. An MLS is a terminal degree and on our campus (and the state university system), librarians are given faculty status and can be promoted within the hierarchy. The top adminstrator of the library is a dean and has equal status to the deans of the other colleges on campus. With this status comes a comparable salary. If you compare the salaries of librarians with faculty status to slide curators, you will notice a marked difference in wages. Many job descriptions for slide curators require only a BA with an MA preferred (with little compensation for the MA). Without the wages and status, I question wether librarians would really want these positions. And if you did, how long would it be before you moved on to another position. As slide curators (and faculty) know it takes a couple of years to really learn the ins and outs of a collection. The VR profession does not offer the same opportunities for advancement that librarianship does. Librarians are highly valued and it is reflected in their status and wages.
Also speaking from the trenches, slide curators may be "asked" to do things outside the slide collection such as teach an art history course, run the university art gallery, curate university art collections, etc. depending on the needs of the department. These duties are not included in job descriptions.
No one is trying to take jobs away from anyone. The bottom line is that the field of visual resource management is simply a different profession.
Sheryl Frisch Slide Curator Department of Art and Design Cal Poly San Luis Obispo