Who should head the library? Well certainly not a librarian

(Found via here). Saw this post by Dale Askey entitled Librarians leading libraries. The opening sentence starts:-

Consider this: if we librarians have a profession, then we are professionals. As such, if libraries are to be operated professionally, they need librarians and should be run by those most qualified, i.e.- librarians. Why then do so many elite institutions hire unqualified scholars to lead their libraries?

He then points out that Yale President Richard Levin had appointed Frank Turner to University Librarian, even though a historian. Adam has a pretty relevant point. Are there no librarians to take on this role? After the recent discussion on the Agnostic, Maybe entitled The Master’s Degree Misperception, I think to some degree our qualifications are perhaps rarely needed.

One final point, loved this comment on Dale's blog

Interesting Msc Dissertation

I follow many blogs (and occassionally even get around to read them......but thats another story). One I do follow is edit subscription unsubscribe mark all new related feeds subscribers Joeyanne Libraryanne a 25 year old Resources Librarian at the University of Wolverhampton currently studying for a Masters in Information and Library Studies via distance learning.
Well, in a recent blog post she mentioned an interesting Msc theses she's hoping to write entitled Marketing UK Higher Education libraries: a current perspective. Sounds interesting, and to be honest one of my main bug bears doing my Masters is there was no Marketing module. Its good to see someone write on an important area of librarianship.