The Acade~nic Job Crisis: A Unique Opportunity, Or Business as Usual?

ic Libraries") ivarns that the profession is slow to accept suggestions from outside sources, but perhaps this article can best come from someone who stands midway between teaching and library service. The paper not only evokes the dimensions of the academic job crisis, and the resulting opportunity for library recruitment, but calls attention to the danger of permitting the librarians ' otv'n job market to.be overrun by candidates who may not have a genuine com-mitment to library service. As a "think-piece " it is deliberately gen-eral and suggestive, with footnotes and statistics kept to a minimum. Editor's Note-Subject specialists, some have contended, do not require a general founding in the principles of librarianship to succeed as librarians. Library directors have been overheard to observe that a sub-ject Ph.D. minus the MLS actually en-hances their library's status within the local academic community. But now that the job market has changed radically, are these views still held, or for that matter had they ever gained broad acceptance? Mr. Moffett's piece raises several intrigu-ing questions. Has the attitude toward the recruitment of individuals possessing sub-ject Ph.D.'s changed? Moffett views the current job market as an opportunity for the library profession and, indeed, his per-ceptions may be correct. The editors be-lieve that the issue merits a hearing. We would like to hear from our readers regard-ing their perceptions on the role of subject The. author, who received his doctorate in English history at Duke University, is a