ABSTRACT
This chapter explains why those libraries that are particularly important cultural institutions are not entrusted to librarians, and why a learned society did not involve librarians in so crucial an issue as the preservation of its source material. The American Library Association has not helped by focusing on organizational imperatives at the expense of crucial support to libraries and librarians. Librarians also produced reading guides, but not for the public. Instead, librarians emphasized indexes or buying tools for librarians. Another aspect of librarianship that has been seen as central and as beginning with Even Melvil Dewey is the opening up of librarianship to women, which ultimately led to a "female-intensive" occupation. Librarians' emphasis on practice and technique has, however, worked to reinforce the sense that knowledge dissemination is inferior to knowledge creation, for it has limited the librarian's role in knowledge dissemination.
