Most of us will often have encountered discussions of whether librarianship is or is not a profession, which sometimes go on, and on ..., on the question to what acknowledged professions it can then justifiably be compared. Many are adduced, but rarely or never mentioned is the one profession to which I myself believe that librarianship can best be compared -- that of the clergy. I could never see librarians as being in essence very much like physicians, or nurses, or engineers, or lawyers, or pilots, or good teachers, or even architects, though perhaps a little like accountants, but they *are* very much like priests, it seems to me, in very many respects. Fletcher was pretty much on the mark in his inclination to look at library systems and services as a kind of religion. And indeed, if they were already a religion back then, such may well be even more the case now than it was in his time.
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.libraries.ngc4lib/8780
ReplyDeleteJames Weinheimer wrote:
ReplyDeleteThis may be correct, although I still prefer to think of catalogers, at least, more as mechanics or plumbers, but that betrays my working class background since I consider this a compliment. I have had the opportunity to get to know some wonderful clerics here in Rome, so the idea of librarianship as a religion doesn't seem that bad to me.
Remember the history of Western libraries - the mainstream was Christian monastery libraries. It is normal that many librarians behave like nuns. They are not agnostics or atheists.
ReplyDeleteLibrarianship will not die out until religion itself will be ended and a new social reality is created.
But we have a solution: construct the Holy Xxx Xxxxxxxxxxx Monastery or the St. Xxx's Monastery, define functions such as "Abbess", "Sisters", "Indexers", "Reference Nuns", etc., and put all "religious" librarians in the monastery. This way, the non-religious librarians can serve easier and better.