The Guardian published this article, "Bangor Librarians Face Internet Threat," about Bangor University (part of the University of Wales) who last month proposed a £300,000 cost cutting that would layoff 8 of the current 12 librarians at the University. Surviving the cut would be one cataloguer, an acquisitions expert, a chief librarian and a law librarian.

In regards to keeping the librarians, a University document said, "The support to the academic and student communities from the qualified subject librarians, whatever its contribution to the teaching and research roles of the institution, is hard to justify in value-for-money terms at a time when the process of literature searches is substantially deskilled by online bibliographical resources."

Huh, this is just hot on the heals of my blog Information Literacy and Students which was in regards to the article in the New York Times, Teaching Students to Swim in the Online Sea.

Like or not administrators and doctors think that everything is on the internet and that they can find it just as easily as I can. Hrmpf.

These two articles actually come at a time when I must create my library's yearly action plan. So for part of my action plan I am making it a goal to meet with at least one hospital department/month to help educate them as to what the library can do for them. I am really looking forward to this for a couple of reasons. One, it is just another good way to illustrate the library's worth. Two, I am the new head librarian in this community hospital, this will give a perfect excuse to get to know my patrons better and for them to get to know me. I will let you know how this all works out.