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Re: Liberry Skule



Denise, (and all)

While I appreciate the difficulties we all face when asked such a question,
it's really no different than any other profession outside the "norm".  Even
a normal job like lawyer means you get strings of lawyer jokes in such
situations.  Doctors probably get treated as if they're all making money
hand over fist, even if they aren't.

My dad is a professional musician, and I actually had a conversation with
someone about it at an affair I was attending & he was playing (a Bat
Mitzvah if anyone cares).   I must have told him that was my dad, and he
said:

"that's your father?"
"uh-huh"
"this is his job?"
"yup"
"he doesn't do something else?"
"nope"
"and he makes a living from this?"

My point is we're all underappreciated, and misunderstood to some extent.
I've gotten that quizzical look when I say "archivist" more times than I can
count, and then you patiently explain what you do, realizing all the time
your listener doesn't really care that much anyway.  We all do our jobs
because we need to make money somehow, most of us don't want to be working
8AM-12AM as lawyers, and I'd guess that most of us love our work and
history.

Appreciation and reward (especially financial) is not coming from the world
at large, and getting our knickers twisted over a silly article is
pointless, and gives the author of that particular article more impact than
they deserve.  If Tom Daschle or George Bush get up in public to say
"librarians stink" and want to cut our funding, we can all get up in arms,
but getting into this particular fight is a waste of time & energy, not to
mention list & web resources.

One response to Chris Flynn, incidentally - I think the reason archivists
are involved is that many of us (myself excluded) have MLS degrees; an
attack on that degree is directly aimed at us as well, and if it were a
legitimate issue (a la dear ole Nick Baker), it would merit a response.

I've wasted everyone's time enough on this one.

DS

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu

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