Should the ALA follow the Bar Association's example?

I have seen a lot of criticism among the online library community against both the ALA and library schools concerning the high number of students who are getting churned out every year in an unsustainable job market.

Here is some fodder for the fire: It appears that the American Bar Association has issued a warning about the potential risks of going for a law degree.

I first saw this on The Atlantic website, where the author provides statistics showing that the salaries for first year lawyer's have been cut in half since the recession started while the average amount of loans taken out by students remain ridiculously high.

My question is: Should the ALA follow the ABA's footsteps? I haven't seen any statistics about salaries or hiring rates for first year library professionals or recent MLIS graduates, but as my graduation approaches, I am certainly feeling the heat...

Why do I still care about Dewey?

Libraries are changing. fast. Why dedicate the title of a blog to some dead guy, especially when the card catalog has gone to the wayside?

Will the Dewey Decimal system be next?

Maybe, but not anytime soon.

Dewey is a pretty incredible figure, having birthed the American Library Association, founded the Library Journal and invented a book classification system that is still in use in libraries around the world 130 years after he invented it.

All by the time he was 25.

Makes me feel like a slacker. At least back then he didn't have the distractions of reality television, youtube and facebook. Without those I'd have multiple books written by now...

Oh did I mention he also was a staunch supporter of segregation and was opposed to women's rights? Which is kind of interesting these days, as most folks first think of a librarian as being as being a woman. When I was talking to people about going for my Masters in Library Science, everyone was telling me schools are always looking for guys to enter their program. I guess there are not a lot of dude librarians out there.... (To see where I dug up my info on Dewey, or if you're in need for a hilariously good book check out Scott Douglas' Quiet Please: Dispatches From A Public Librarian.)

...but I digress. Back to Dewey, and why I named my blog after him. I guess because I get the notion that so many people feel that libraries, now that the magical internet is everywhere, are no longer necessary. Unless you are a student. of medicine. who is curing cancer. But in fact just the opposite is true. Libraries are needed just as much now as ever before, to ensure that the access to information remains open to everyone.

So I look at Dewey as an allegory. Yes he is definitely dead. But libraries are not, and like Dewey, they're pretty incredible. They may not have the sweetest history, but they get better and better everyday...