Very Special Librarian

“USC Closes the Book on Library Sciences” by Tom Chorneau (May 1) contains an apt description of the work of a special librarian. USC library graduate Edward Szynaka, director of the Pasadena city library system, states that his department is now called the Department of Information Services and that it emphasizes the dissemination of information. For that is exactly what special librarians have been doing for years, that is to say not only getting the books on the shelves but also actively going beyond the library walls, reaching out and touching someone with the data on those shelves.

I speak as a lifelong special librarian and an activist in the Southern California Chapter of the Special Libraries Assn., which I served in various capacities, including the presidency. The association’s motto, “Putting Knowledge to Work,” describes our work in a nutshell.

SHERRRY TERZIAN, Director

Mental Health Information Service

Neuropsychiatric Institute, UCLA