Good explanation of the difference between an archivist and a librarian from a preservation perspective –

From- Digital Archiving: What We Preserve, Not How by Abby Smith –CLIR - Number 13
January/February 2000

“Among the greatest challenges to ensuring the long-term accessibility of digital information is determining what it is that must be preserved. By now, most librarians and archivists are well aware of the technical challenges of saving bits and bytes, and those challenges are daunting indeed. But beyond technical problems, there is a range of preservation issues that are in flux because they depend upon common understandings that have not yet been created…“Because there is no universal mandate about what must preserved and for what purpose (for example, an archivist's emphasis on records that bear evidence vs. a librarian's emphasis on content that could serve multiple purposes over time)…”

 

And please let’s not open that can of worms - librarian vs. library assistant. After 30 years in the library field, it’s an argument without end.

 

Joy Ketron - Outreach Services

Watauga Regional Library 

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read." ~Groucho Marx