This story is from China. First, I doubt it’s that simple and second, what is the definition of “librarian” in this context? Are we talking trained individuals with degrees or clerks that fetch books?
Ebooks might be convenient, but they come at a cost. The spread of ebooks has driven circulation down in China’s university libraries, and even caused some librarians to lose their jobs.
Li Zhongping, a librarian in Hankou University, Wuhan told a local newspaper, Chutian Metropolis Daily, on Friday that the number of the librarians had been cut from eight to three recently, because the empty reading rooms reduced their workload.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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This story is from China. First, I doubt it’s that simple and second, what is the definition of “librarian” in this context? Are we talking trained individuals with degrees or clerks that fetch books?