The R in Rutgers Stands for Ridiculous: SCILS Wants to Abandon Library From Its Name

I went to Rutgers for my MA in English. While I enjoyed my time there I always felt a coldness; an air of superiority which comes from a school that so wants to get back into the private sector (RU was originally when it was Queens College back in day). But still everyone in Jersey has a love for Rutgers because unlike all other states that of a "university of _fill in state_here" we have Rutgers.

So in a brilliant move once again to show its either elite status or superiority complex the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS) wants to remove the "L" in the name of the school. Seems like instead of being a fighter for libraries and places that collect information for users' needs it wants to follow the rest of "i" schools that have removed Library from their names too. Students as well as alumni are in an uproar, as they should be. Even the New Jersey Librarian Association posted a resolution condemning the proposal.

What's the uproar all about? Well basically I believe there are people who enter our profession who want to work with things as opposed to people. I tend to belivee that hardcore librarians care about people and want to help them in their information needs. I make the comparison all the time that librarians have the same love for wanting to serve as teachers do want to teach.

No one has convinced me otherwise that our profession is a dying one. With the changes in information technology and the creation of new media types librarians are the go to people to educate the masses on how to find good and reliable resources.

The idea of just being information school conotes, at least to me, the negation of the service of people to other people. It denotes humans beings and the interaction with things like information systems, machines and media. Maybe that's wrong but what are going to call libraries in the future? Information centers? Information buildings? I could throw up right now.

A library to me will always connote the feeling a place where things, like books, movies, etc, are stored. But mostly it connotes a place where we can run away too, explore, discover. Computer operating systems, itunes and other software programs continue to use the word "library" as the place where we store our literal files that we shelve and need for later. Figuretively, the library stores memories and the past where we can collect images of a time gone.

Maybe Rutgers wants to erase the idea of the library from its memory(impossible of course). Certainly the board of trustees of the school want to part ways with it. Maybe they think they are being innovative. By doing this I think it is doing a disservice to its community, students, faculty and alumni.