Dear Professional Friends, Greetings. A recent employment notification for the post of Librarian at IIM-Amritsar at Pay Level-10 has prompted me to write this email to the forum and share some of my thoughts with you. Don’t you think the LIS Jobs are slowly getting downgraded by the elite institutes like AIIMS, IITs, IIMs in our country? If you don’t think so, you are probably in a deep sleep. A walk-in interview was conducted for the prestigious post of Librarian at AIIMS (!) , New Delhi; the Chief Library Officer’s post was filled in IIT- Bombay with GP 7600 (!) ; Some IIMs have recruited the Librarians on the Pay Level- 13A (!). And now, on top of it, the IIM- Amritsar has advertised the post of Librarian at Level-10 (!). The differential treatment shown to the LIS Professionals in elite institutes and universities is not just limited to the Pay Scales but also to their working conditions. In many universities, the Library Officers are being treated as non-teaching staff in-spite of them being the Academic Staff as per the UGC Guidelines. Is it due to the decreasing standards LIS Professionals working in different institutions? Or any systematic effort is being made by some unknown persons to degrade our profession? Whatever the reason may be, one thing is for sure…. our identity as ‘professionals’ on academic campuses is under serious threat. Those who are already occupying the higher positions such as Chief Librarians/ University Librarians are not really bothered about it. And those who are working as Deputy Librarians are happy with what they are getting. The Assistant Librarians are busy in making their careers. The Professional Associations are engrossed in conducting workshops, seminars which they think are more important than working towards the upliftment of the status of our profession. So who will raise the voice??? We are very much aware that we are slowly losing ground to other professionals in the academic institutes but are doing nothing serious to regain our status. The situation reminds me of the words of Dale Carnegie who said, *“the trouble is not ignorance but inaction”. * The views expressed here are my personal and belong solely to me. Regards, Anand Dodamani Mumbai -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.