A recent article in the New York Times highlights the grim job prospects for law students at Big Law firms. This goes hand in hand with the trend I’ve seen this year of law firms laying off librarians and cutting the library’s budget.
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Filed under: discussion
Certainly, it means that library resources will be directed toward reference (billable) and that KM, training and education will continue to be reduced or cut entirely. There may also be an attempt to roll research librarians into other departments in the effort to reduce overhead. Many professional librarians will find this a less than inspiring situation in which to work. But the work itself will not go away.
Sounds like the news is even more grim for those who want to be lawyers. Having a debtload of over $100k is bad enough, but I can’t believe there’s someone who has over $200k, ouch!!! That’s the kind of debt you amass going to med school, not law school. My heart goes out to that person.
I agree that law librarians won’t go away but they will definitely have to work harder to show their worth and earn their keep.