New Library School Graduates Must Tend the Spirit

摘要

Now that I have graduated from library school, I suppose I should feel preoared to face the challenges of the profession. Instead, I feel that something has been missing from this experience, and I hope to bring to your attention an issue that nibbledaway at my novice librarian's gut from time to time as I watched the progress of events in the world outside library school. It has been said that human beings pose the greatest threat to library collections. Even the most ordinary and careful handlingshortens the life of library materials. The touch of our hands, our very breath, and, certainly, slamming a bound journal into a photocopy machine, all speed the inevitable decay of our collections. Recently, libraries have also had to address the growing problem of intentional damage through theft and vandalism.