Since I am the one that started it, I should be the one to say, please stop,
especially with the anger between members of this list.
My original anger was directed solely towards academic libraries and their
special collections departments. I realize that bookdealers have far
smaller establishments and much greater need to lift and carry. Being
corporate entities and not part of any government, they are entitled to set
up their workflow in whatever way pleases or profits them.
But in a large university library, whether public or private, it is usually
the pattern that only the special collections librarians are expected to be
able to do heavy lifting. I've never seen an advertisement for a college or
university librarian that required this.
And despite the very lamentable decline in the number of student workers or
book pages or general helpers, in a large university library there is almost
always someone else around. As one person put it to me offline, it is only
kindness and common sense that a librarian should be able to ask of a fellow
employee, could you please reach me that box up there, and I will gladly
oblige you with some task that I can do better or easier than you. This is
usually the way that it works.
But codifying it like this not only means ignoring common sense and
kindness, it also both reduces the applicant to a physical rather than
mental entity, and gives a very cold-hearted reason to dismiss an employee
whose physical health is lagging even if their mental acuity remains. It's
both stupid and mean-spirited, and it is the worst of this otherwise
wonderful profession.
I hope that at least my offhand comment has given those in the position to
hire a reason to rethink such criteria. Thank you to all who contacted me
to agree and support.
----Shelley Cox
scox75@verizon.net
PS This new incarnation of ExLibris removes the personal address of the
sender, so it makes private response difficult unless you already have saved
the address.