I agree. I remember a discussion in library school about librarianship as a profession: what is considered a profession and do we measure up? This is one issue we fail on and I disagree with Gillian’s comment… The majority of librarians I’ve worked with do seem to feel that being a librarian is more than a job. When I go home at night, or if I’m between positions, I’m STILL a librarian.

No, librarianship doesn’t do the things that other professions do. But it could. And it should. Or rather WE should.

If we mislead patrons, no one may notice the difference. Right away. Or directly. But it does have an impact and it could have a huge impact. Reaction time or degree can’t be the measure of worth. It’s the value of the service that counts. Everything everyone does is reliant on information and we play an important role supporting it.

I compare librarians with doctors and lawyers AND teachers and social workers. We’re all professionals. And I think using that label can help if only we actually used it to guide what we do and how we train. At least we need more promotion of what we do and how it is important. I fear that our importance is being drowned out by how “easy” getting information through the Internet is. Sometimes I think that we’re only surviving through social inertia. lol

I became a librarian because I like information, organization and technology. I never thought about the “professional” aspects of being a librarian when I signed up but I certainly do now. Of course, being an academic librarian, it also blends in with my thoughts about our status as faculty: very similar to professions like medicine and law and education where, in academic institutions, professionals are called on to become academics as well.

Jeff (Who has known you for 11 years from Hong Kong)

Gillian – good point about the professional ethics course. I don’t believe there was one offered at my school and I would be curious if there are any offered at other schools. A foundation is definitely important before swearing an oath would be of any consequence.

Overall I struggle with the “professionalization” of librarianship and am leaning more and more towards forgetting about that side of things and just doing my job

And I’m not sure we even have the monoply on ‘intellectual freedom’, copyright, access – these are highly dependent on our law makers anyway. We are dependent on government for funding – and we know how quickly funds (and thus access) can be taken away.

I think the ‘purpose’ of librarianship should be education-focused. Rather than compare ourselves constantly to lawyers and doctors, I think we are more comparable to teachers and social workers – but this is less glamorous, right?

Do library schools even require a course either in professional ethics or in the broader social impacts of librarianship? without that foundation are you doing anymore than paying lip service to these ideals with some form of oath?

Further, is it useful to take an oath you can’t possibly be accused of breaking? Do librarians associated with the Harper government get kicked out of the profession because their government has broken all the rules of freedom to information in some people’s eyes?

It is horribly shortsighted to eliminate services like this.