Students of Their Times

To the Editor:

A librarian is quoted in your article, “A Hipper Crowd of Shushers,” as saying, “When I was in library school in the early ’80s, the students weren’t as interesting.”

Maybe that’s because it was the ’80s, not because they were library school students.

Beginning in the ’60s (way before Craigslist), my generation of librarians compiled databases of local resources, expanded music collections, wore miniskirts, fought censorship, danced to the Grateful Dead, published alternative magazines, smoked pot and had library contingents in peace marches.

We were as “with” our times as these kids are with theirs, and more power to them.

Nancy Schimmel

Berkeley, Calif.

The Essential Librarian

To the Editor:

As a young (though by no means hip) librarian, I feel as if I should be applauding your article highlighting the “new breed” of librarians.

However, I can’t help but notice that the media hardly ever point out the deeper, more important issues in librarianship: encouraging literacy, helping people bridge the digital divide and finding elusive bits of information that aren’t accessible to the average Googler.

Christine Borne

Jamaica, N.Y.