The Clueless Librarian

I have an issue with the headline of this article … it seems to equate librarians with clerks whose job it is to check-in and check-out books. A librarian may do those tasks, yes, but a librarian does oh-so-much more. As James Lund, the director of the Red Wing Public Library (Minnesota), is quoted in the article as saying in Library Journal: 

“The basis of the vending machine is to reduce the library to a public-book locker,” Mr. Lund said in an interview. “Our real mission is public education and public education can’t be done from a vending machine. It takes educators, it takes people, it takes interaction.”

These lockers and vending machines should never be looked at as a way to replace libraries or librarians; they are a way to increase access to library resources.

librarianista:

New Library Technologies Dispense With Librarians