Last weekend at NASIG I attended a panel session at which several librarians discussed their career choices and described their jobs at organizations such as consortia and subscription agents. It was a pretty good session, and one which I understand pops up at NASIG every now and then.
One phrase that kept coming out of the mouths of the panelists, however, was “the dark side.” Now I like a good Star Wars reference as much as the next person, but as someone who just made the switch from working in a library to working for a library software company, I found it a bit perturbing. When I started telling people about my new job, the only people who used that phrase were in sales, and I don’t recall anyone who works at a library using it during the panel session.
I’m sure there are librarians working in libraries who do think those of us in industry have gone to the dark side, but for the most part that has not been my experience. If we want to change perceptions about what we do and why, we should at least give ourselves a little credit and leave the “dark side” comments to, um, the Harrison Fords of the serials world.