A Return to School...

Today is the first day of Fall Semester classes at my institution, and the heralded the return of professors needing their LCD projectors activated for their classes and students desperately scrambling about the campus in near futile efforts to arrive at their classes on time. The summer was slow, but today is a stark reminder of the nature of the regular academic session.

I find myself reflecting on the nature of librarianship as we serve as the stewards of the university's knowledge systems. We maintain the very systems that allow for other scholars to conduct their work and we preserve that knowledge once it has been "found." It is a noteworthy shame that so many of our colleagues do not collaborate with us more in the educational endeavors of higher education. We librarians can do much to facilitate student success BESIDES finding books on shelves. We are the stewards of knowledge and as such know the best ways to access it.

As always, the first day back is a busy, but it is a busy that we do not mind as we librarians have returned to what we do best - helping others with their information and knowledge needs. It is far more preferable to being in committee meetings under the weight of university bureaucracy, perhaps one the last vestiges of feudalism in the known world.