University of Alberta PLG on McMaster University Librarian Jeff Trzeciak’s rather open comments

McMaster University Librarian Jeff Trzeciak’s recently revealed in a talk at Penn State that he plans not to hire librarians in the future at his library, setting off a firestorm in Canada. (He said that he plans not to hire MLS holding librarians for professional positions but people with PhD’s in other fields instead.) The University of Alberta’s PLG Student Chapter has issued an insightful response to Trzeciak’s comments, summarizing them and putting them in the context of labor-management conflict. This management trend has been in the air for a while, but Trzeciak’s statement seems notable for laying the cards on the table. I have to say that I appreciate his candor in highlighting this issue before the library community in a way that may enable some further intelligent responses and strategy (though it was surely not what he intended to do). Thanks to Sam Trosow for posting the statement.