Dear Moderator, Grateful for publishing the following in lis-forum. I wish to draw the attention of our professional colleagues to an article under the Musings, entitled "What are your bonafides?", by Mr Ranjit Lal in the Magazine section of the Hindu of 9 April, 2006. I think all of us should read this and ponder over the implications. I'm sure many of us must have already done so. The gist of the article is the author, obviously not a member, approached the librarian of the National Museum library in Delhi for help and the librarian promptly asked him to prove his bonafides. Ranjit Lal contributes articles to the Hindu and probably does so to many other renowned newspapers and journals. In any case he told the librarian that he uses the Teen Murthi library and the British Council Library in Delhi and he is working on a book for which he needs help. According to the article, this did not cut ice with the librarian. This article, I believe, is a damning indictment of the unhelpful and bureaucratic attitude of the librarian of one of the premier institutions of the country. It should rouse the collective conscience of the LIS profession and force us to think if in today's competitive world we can afford to have this kind of unhelpful attitude. Even otherwise, isn't service to the user at the centre of our profession ?. The aurthor rightly says the public pays for librarian's salary, allowances and the innumerable cups of tea, justifiable and just righteous indignation!!. How do we change this attitude?. I was under the impression that things have changed and we all swear by service. All the works of SRR emphasise this aspect. Because of instaces like this,( I hope they are isolated) the whole profession gets the stick. And this is why society does not give us the status that an intellectual profession like ours deserves. We need to do something here. Sankaraiah, K Immediate past President of the Madras Library Association (MALA) Dear Moderator, Grateful for publishing the following in lis-forum. I wish to draw the attention of our professional colleagues to an article under the Musings, entitled "What are your bonafides?", by Mr Ranjit Lal in the Magazine section of the Hindu of 9 April, 2006. I think all of us should read this and ponder over the implications. I'm sure many of us must have already done so. The gist of the article is the author, obviously not a member, approached the librarian of the National Museum library in Delhi for help and the librarian promptly asked him to prove his bonafides. Ranjit Lal contributes articles to the Hindu and probably does so to many other renowned newspapers and journals. In any case he told the librarian that he uses the Teen Murthi library and the British Council Library in Delhi and he is working on a book for which he needs help. According to the article, this did not cut ice with the librarian. This article, I believe, is a damning indictment of the unhelpful and bureaucratic attitude of the librarian of one of the premier institutions of the country. It should rouse the collective conscience of the LIS profession and force us to think if in today's competitive world we can afford to have this kind of unhelpful attitude. Even otherwise, isn't service to the user at the centre of our profession ?. The aurthor rightly says the public pays for librarian's salary, allowances and the innumerable cups of tea, justifiable and just righteous indignation!!. How do we change this attitude?. I was under the impression that things have changed and we all swear by service. All the works of SRR emphasise this aspect. Because of instaces like this,( I hope they are isolated) the whole profession gets the stick. And this is why society does not give us the status that an intellectual profession like ours deserves. We need to do something here. Sankaraiah, K Immediate past President of the Madras Library Association (MALA)