Writing about librarianship eventually gets into lengthy discussions of professionalism, ethics, and assessing skills of others in the profession. And even before discussing that, you’ve got to assert a few things:

•  a degree does not make a professional – true a degree is the bedrock of starting your life in a profession, but it does not make you professional. Active pursuit of the infrastructure of libraries removes you from the core part of librarianship: helping the client one-on-one. Some think that librarianship is where you hide out behind a book or desk. The creative nature and art of it, is meeting the need before the question gets asked. Thus paying attention to news reports in multiple fields and venues.
•  Ethics are acquired in the field and off the clock; – Sharing personal information about clientel is an obvious no. Balancing out the amount of time spent on projects, or preferential treatment to task and person can damage most egalitarian services. Independent information professionals can cater and craft the “desireables” in a way that is detail designed for the assignment. The initiative to go an extra mile is a matter of courting regular and steady business.
•  your co-workers can sometimes be the best reflection of the state of a profession. During the yearly performance plan is when you’ve got to reason with your supervisor about the goals you’ve reached and exceeded to get a raise. And in some cases plead task by task for keeping your position. If you are a steady producer, in some cases a high provider, you may get frustrated at how laid back and staid the profession seems. Productivity in circulating knowledge and providing information by direct contact with the same, makes for a miniature mobile university. It is said the public library is “the poor man’s university”. Mobile universities are likened to independent information services. Interpret independant services as a lending library, research center, think tank and critical consultant (in some cases) by free delivery.
• surveying the face of librarianship is a bit like talking to an individual with multiple personality disorder: there are so many faces and types that become iconic in the profession, we miss the point of the profession: connecting users with their desireables. That in itself is simple for the staid type of bookish librarian that knows a literature genre inside and out. “Can you recommend a book?” “Yes, I can” Thisis the type one might think has always been the pillar of librarianship, Owl rimmed glasses, jean jumper, plaid shirt, comfortable shoes with supports and all. Then there’s the reference librarian. To some the “needy-know-it-all-loner” for the sheer fact that no one else participates in the round of investigative research and personal complaints that all others on staff rather bolster the “New Arrivals” become deafening. This type would be better suited at a democratic think tank. And of course, the loner’s voraciousness for books and colleagues means, they know they don’t know it all. For this one, intelligence can be a lonely endeavor in their staid field to defend every piece of paper. This one comes into direct conflict with the “everything web” type librarian who is frequently in their office plugging away. Often distanced, by choice, from the milieu at the service desk.
• Considering all of those types, and their are others, there is a service point that each of those type meet. Some poitns are softer than others and covering for soft and hard people skills is something that all librarians vary, excel, and lack.
• excellent librarianship, not necessarily administration, means knowing your client, knowing your service area, and knowing your own skill sets in delivering the “desireables”. Sometimes ”desirables” are just having an experience such as direct contact. Nothing need be consumed or an object exchanged. 
• Librarianship also involves a street degree in running a community center. Wait. Some libraries are quiet tombs for books. Other libraries are way stations for the internet. Some libraries are a community fixture and maintain crafts programs for children, writer’s workshops, family activites, chess classes. Some libraries are not buildings at all, but completely virtual. Still its all about soft and hard people skills, which mean learning how to interface virtually and directly.

~tHE uNDERGROUND lIBRARIAN