Roma Harris's article was just another example of someone screaming at the top of their lungs about librarianship going the way of the caveman. Well, as chicken little found out the sky is not falling down and libraries will always need librarians to staff them and to keep up the professional work that they are doing.
Great pain was taken to point out how new technology has changed cataloging yet its interesting to note that in the majority of independent libraries cataloging is one of the few places where a paraprofessional is seldom used or if they are its under the eye of a true cataloger.
The other thing that struck me as wrong about this article is that although the author keeps saying de-skilled what they really mean is a non-MLS librarian rather then someone who is unskilled in the area that they are working in, at my library there are people who have been working in libraries longer then I have been alive and I would not call them unskilled or diminishing the library in any way. Para-professionals will always be used in libraries because few libraries can afford to completely staff themselves with MLS's so reserve a few key positions with in the library organization
In summery librarians are going to do just fine and Roma Harris is a MLS snob.
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