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Lynne Stahl is a former editor of the OLA Quarterly. Her latest article is "Librarian, Read Thyself." <br></div><div>See:
<a href="https://the-rambling.com/2020/10/23/issue10-stahl/">https://the-rambling.com/2020/10/23/issue10-stahl/</a>
</div><div>Her latest article
begins: "'Why would you enter a dying field?' 'You need a master’s
degree to shelve books?' 'Must be nice to sit and read all day.' Such
commentary is a rite of passage for librarians, inflicted by everyone
from family members to university administrators. Equally often,
however, the remarks are effusive: 'I LOVE librarians!' 'Librarians are
superheroes!' 'Librarians will save the world!' Contemptuous ignorance
and broad-strokes adulation are two symptoms of one pervasive problem:
as a society, we have a woeful understanding of what librarians do, a
side effect of which ignorance is that librarians frequently try to do
everything with two years (part-time) of formal training, a median
salary of $59,050, and shaky public standing. The ostensible praise,
then, is no less troubling than the smirking denigrations."</div> <div><br></div><div>Thank you,</div><div>Charles Wood</div><div>OLA Communications<br></div>
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