Hi all, I agree with the views of Mr. Arunachalam and Ms Vasumathi. As a school librarian , I face some unique problems regarding quality of librarians. For the past year or so , our school has been struggling to find well qualified interns. Most LIS graduates we interview are generally okay in terms of library science and technical skills, but their English language and communication skills are zero.We have noticed that it is easier to teach them our library software and other routines but when it comes to providing reference service they draw a blank since they cannot communicate well. Many people still come to us thinking that is a cushy desk job without user interface, not realizing that in a school you have to interact with students of all ages as well as well-read international faculty. A school librarian has to keep track of current affairs and resources which facilitate students and faculty in their research and projects, along with being alert about potential misuse of websites like orkut etc. If the librarian is not net-savvy he/she can be easily fooled by the students. Our education system , at the basic level(both English and vernacular) does not encourage good reading habits. In school libraries, if the librarian has not read and relished classic and contemporary authors like Dickens or Murakami , how can we expect that person to suggest good reading material for different levels of students? Children are then exposed only to racy ( not necessarily good) bestsellers. They in turn miss out on good literature and good reading habits, and may grow up to be ill-informed librarians continuing the 'vicious circle'. Such Librarians give a very bad impression about the profession to our students. In fact they come up to us and say " Ma'am if I don't get a job elsewhere I will become a librarian ". Till date, quite a number of students who join this course do so after failing to secure admission in other professional courses.The problem is further aggravated by the fact that most Universities offering this course do not have stringent admission criteria as compared to other postgraduate courses. It is urgently required that universities and colleges offering LIS courses make English Language and Communication Skills a compulsory part of their curriculum. While Library software unique to each organization can be taught on the job, internet surfing and information retrieval skills should be part of LIS training. LIS students should be given compulsory reading lists which could include magazines, journals , literary works , scholarly LIS articles. All Institutes conducting LIS courses should have entrance examinations to select the best candidates. There must be so many more ways in which we can improve the quality of training in LIS. Saying no to mediocrity is the first step in that direction.(We still don't have an intern inspite of staff shortage , but our fingers are crossed) Warm Regards Mrs. Ananda Vartak Assistant Librarian Dhirubhai Ambani International School --------------------------------- Check out what you're missing if you're not on Yahoo! Messenger -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.