Spitting out the Status Quo party line of why we should all ingnore criticims without real alternative plans, aye?

I realized something as I wrote that post as I was puttign that part in there about the cancer researcher. You see, people don’t want a cure to [persay, lung] cancer because we already have one: DON’T SMOKE CIGARETTES. But that’s not an acceptable solution – what these people REALLY want is a little pill that cures their lung cancer whent hey get it so they can go RIGHT BACK TO PUFFING THEIR CIGARETTES!

And this Status Quo group doesn’t really want the solution; they want a quick fix that makes the problem go away for the few that have them and advance on with their perfect utopia because there so nothing wrong with the field whatsoever.

So you see, the Status Quo doesn’t want to hear the cure, because we already know the cures. The Cure to the library school problem is simple: eliminate half of them outright and cut the rest by half throughout. Tell the world the TRUTH about hiring AND wages in the library field. That alone will reduce your library school influx by at least 3/4ths right off, because educated people make decisions that are only as good as the information to make their decisions – and when library schools are publishing volumes of “LIBRARIAN SHORTAGE” and it is back by a professional organization like the ALA, [this setup has serious weight in SOME fields] OF COURSE you’re going to end up with high recruitment numbers!

The solution is to retain the librarian skillset and put it back to the AA degree level that it is, hence taught at the minor level or by the community colleges.

If you Must have librarians with higher education, then insist that they have an ALS in Library Science or a minor in Library Science accompanied by a four year degree in a serious degree program of study. Your public libraries would then be seeking undergrduates with degrees in psychology and public service; academic libraries would be seeking people with graduate degrees further denoting a real knowledge in a particular subject that should translate to a fluency in research methods and resources in that subject, a skill easily translateable to new subjects.

Library science is NOT a serious program of study for the vast majority who are in the program! if we remove the deadweight and the fluff, in both content and student, then we end up with a proper graduate student to advisor ratio, thus enabling proper research relationships to develop.

But if we did all of this, everybody with a job and an MLS in Library Science would lose their job security, library schools everywhere would close, there would no longer be an easy master’s degree to put all the academies on par with the rest of faculty ["har har, on par??" says the real faculty] and a librarian shortage might actually become a reality. But then again, I don’t think that shortage will EVER become a reality, even if this happened.

Personally I am damn tired of people who live this way. If I am unhappy, angry or hurt why should I hide it? It doesn’t make me feel better. It simply protects those around me from suffering momentary discomfort. While I don’t want to get up on a soap box and get all righteous, the cheerful police need to stop trying to assimilate the rest of us. I am not Borg.

I believe the ranting is easier for the establishment to ignore than a few pointed criticisms and new ideas. The new ideas would help highlight how ossified and pre-occupied with maintaining the status quo organizations like the ALA are…