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Are library schools failing to teach future librarians what they should know about what and why people read? Do library schools stress information at the expense of stories?
The most recent responses appear first
"As a lifelong reader for pleasure and a current Ph.D. candidate in history, I use different libraries for many purposes..."
"Until I worked at my current job, I thought the majority of library customers have been looking for information for work or school when the use the library. Stories are something they can buy at a bookstore. I have found out that stories can relieve boredom..."
"After reading Dr. Weigand's article, I reflected on the fact that what I know about reader's advisory, I've had to learn on my own..."
"I agree with Mr. Wiegand partially because I think that some people know why other people read..."
"We are students of librarianship at Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain)..."
"My own view of this is that librarians should know what people like to read..."
"My personal opinion about this essay is that the professor is right in his view about library schools..."
"We agree that librarians need information about what and why people read..."
"The writer asserts that librarians and library schools pay more attention to the 'access to useful knowledge' than the users' information needs..."
"My own view of this is that Mr. Wiegand is describing the obsolete and old archetypal of librarians. I think this is changing, in view of the fact that new librarians are educated people..."
"As librarians and information professionals we should be very interested in the evolution of that eye-brain-heart activity we call reading..."
"As a recent grad of a 'divided' (e.g. MLS/MIS) program, I wonder whether part of the problem lies with increasingly split focus of library schools..."
"I don't see anything wrong with losing the story knowledge basis of librarianship. Why? Because for too long, librarians have been known as 'people who like books,' not as intelligent people in their own right..."
"Another good book that discusses this topic is Doing "Women's Work": Men in Nontraditional Occupations..."
"As the only doctoral candidate 'on the market' that has thus far entered this colloquy, I note with amusement..."
"Indeed, library schools have been hijacked by computer obsessed people. I think that the super-literate "hippie" librarians of the sixties and seventies have been replaced by technoids who cannot think, write..."
"Wayne Weigand makes an important point. Not that librarians are not interested in the recreational reading of patrons, but that library schools ill equip us for the task..."
"If you cut a 'story' best does it not bleed 'information'? How is it one can believe that a story is not information?..."
"Ahhh...but the best LIS professors use librarianship's art/science of storytelling to teach technology..."
"Prof. Wiegand's essay has at least sparked some comment, allowing a forum to discuss issues that public librarians are facing every day. However, I disagree that public librarians are not in touch..."
"Funny, I had caught that article yesterday and thought about its assertions that libraries are 'unable to help patrons find just the right story to read'..."
"Dr. Wiegand is, as usual, a descant voice that rises above the cacophony!..."
"My MLS dates from Dec. 1977. I had a vague notion that library schools were buying into Dilbert-style management idiocy, but not that they had sunk so low..."
"Let it be known that I enter this response with extreme caution. I do believe, however, that I have a rather unique perspective to offer..."
"The first thing that needs to be said is that I'm a student of a library school and in my opinion the most important thing that a librarian can do..."
"As a professional librarian who has worked in public libraries for six years, I can say that the interest in reading is alive in many sectors of our service population. However..."
"I agree with Mr. Wiegand when he says libraries don't teach users 'to access to useful knowledge'..."
"I don't agree with Mr. Wiegand because I think that librarians usually are very interested in what people read..."
"We commonly think that the greatest problem of libraries is the financial support because it's often low..."
"I disagree with Mr. Wiegand's critique because I think that it's necessary for the user..."
"I think that librarians want to know about what and why people read; it is important, because people have needs..."
"Regarding Elizabeth Horan's comment on the gender stratification of librarianship and ongoing attempts to re-professionalize it as 'library & information science'..."
"Prof. Wiegand's article makes excellent points about how human beings' craving for narrative brings us to libraries and book clubs..."
"As a grad student in Library and Information Science at LSU, expecting to graduate this May, I was saddened when I read Wiegand's article..."
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Copyright © 2000 by The Chronicle of Higher Education