Librarians = Is End Near???

[Dick Ramey <rramey@surf-ici.com>]

This summer something has been happening in Indiana. For the second
straight year, the supply of Librarians may not be meeting the demand of
available job applicants. Last year, 36 job postings happened in
Indiana,,,,,,... and this year postings include Noblesville-2,
Washington Twp. 2, Rushville 2, South Newton 2, Highland 2, Warren Twp.
2, Jac-Cen-Del, Evansville Mater Dei,
Silver Creek, Westfield, Shelbyville, Greensburg, Greenwood, Lebanon,
Logansport, East Central, Tippecanoe Valley, Wes Del, Covington, and
Bloomfield (I listed to document my sources.).

   What has been evolving is the fact that large numbers of people are
not going into School Library positions. This year schools are now
posting jobs for "Technology Education" or "Technology Applications".
What some of those jobs are coming down to is simply teaching students
how to research on the Internet. The research that is being done is
simple "library research" via. a school network & Internet. Where we
once did the research with CD ROM, some of the schools on the cutting
edge of technology are doing it via. "the INTERNET".

1.  My question is,,,,if more and more school administrators are
becoming frustrated in finding  " Librarians ",,,,,, then are we verge
of seeing the death of the "Librarian" position and the birth
of "Technology-Information Retrieval" position?
2.  Is this a national trend or an Indiana happening (This is the first
year for the postings of "Technology Education" in Indiana.).
3.  Should we be concerned?

Please backchannel me with feedback.
again, thank you for help
Dick Ramey
Mooresville HS Library