Comment

MY RECENT articles on ‘Our professional frustrations’ (NLW, January) and ‘Opportunities for librarians in public relations’ (NLW, March), were intended to show that mid‐senior librarians, and particularly the ‘old ALAS’, do not have to remain in jobs where prospects and satisfaction have declined, due partly to local government reorganisation drastically reducing promotional opportunities. Two reactions immediately following publication of the March article: one from a senior librarian, very comfortably placed financially, who described my views as ‘a policy of despair’; the other from a younger librarian closer to the type for whom the article was written, who was clearly interested in my views. As they say, it all depends …