I would agree that publishing  for its own sake
"doesn't make us better librarians."

However, I know that if I need to undertake some
new and complicated process at work, such as a
serials recon project or a development of a policy
for managing electronic journals or microforms, I
consult professional literature before starting
the project. That way, I can benefit from the
experience and research of others.

Certainly, there are situations in many
institutions where librarians MUST publish in
order to get tenure. But I would hope that at
least some of the people who publish are doing it
to help their colleagues (and ultimately, the
users of libraries)

So I would encourage librarians who tackle
difficult problems to share the results with their
colleagues by publishing, whether it is required
for tenure or not.

Best wishes,

Faye Leibowitz
General Languages Team Leader
University Library System
University of Pittsburgh
frleibo@pitt.edu