The Lost Art of Librarianship; Tenured Library Faculty Message for Librarians and Patrons

I received my MLS in the 1990s, and focused on knowledge management and advanced reference.  We studied Jesse Shera, whose works are still relevant today but have been replaced by social media 101 courses.  The replacement of traditional library theory does a huge disservice to patrons who seek in-depth research assistance.  Today's librarians are happy to conduct a Google search and move on.  This is evidenced by the bias (implicit and explicit) in search results delivered to patrons.  Librarians of today are too busy to staff the reference desk.  Virtual reference is now the norm.

I entered librarianship when I had to learn Telnet, Gopher, Archie, etc.  Then came Mosaic!!!  Email started to be a method of communication.  Such exciting times!  Funny how my then mentors viewed email with skepticism and now we can’t live without it; checking multiple times a day.

I have worked in hospital, medical, and corporate libraries before landing a tenure track position in academia.  I loved my job and my profession.  But over the years, in-depth research consulting gave way to drag story time and anti-white rhetoric with bias training for staff and faculty every week.  Every.  Fricking.  Week.  Pronouns were strongly encouraged on our signature line.  Letters of support for BLM and other injustices du jour were distributed.  Meanwhile, anyone who dared to disagree was marginalized.  I’d had enough…….

A year ago, I resigned my from tenured library faculty position.  I gave up my faculty status.  I gave up tenure.  I pulled my promotion packet.  I gave up teaching.  I am now in a different unit on campus as staff where we work for the mission of the institution, not for radical indoctrination.  I, once again, make a difference and use my traditional library skills daily.

Do I miss being a librarian?  Yes, I do.  Do colleagues, other faculty and students on campus miss my library services?  Yes, they do.  I receive emails for assistance—too often.  

Meanwhile, radical librarianship continues to thrive and it's the patrons who receive inferior services.  Our focus should be to help people find the information they need to conduct their research and write their papers.  Not impart our philosophy.  I applaud the librarians who are committed to providing holistic services.

Perhaps librarians of today should reflect on the past and discover how the profession was once revered and respected for their vast knowledge of where to find information.  I hope administrators and the public wake up and scrutinize what is happening in today's libraries.

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The above is word-for-word from a former tenured library faculty member who wishes to remain anonymous but who hopes librarians/patrons will read and consider his/her words before librarianship becomes a lost art.  Librarians wishing to make anonymous statements may reach out to me for anonymous publication.  The graphic top right is a picture I added, taken at the Texas Library Association annual meeting where a drag queen was the keynote speaker.

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