462 Title Inflation

A young acquaintance is job hunting. She's 18 and just graduated from high school (looks about 12). So I looked through the OSU job postings on-line. No one is a file clerk, gardener or janitor anymore. There are no technicians or mechanics or waiters.

Now we have instructional aides and assistants, custodial workers, nutrition aides, patient care assistants and associates, communication coordinators and team members. We have classroom technologies specialists and restaurant servers. In one category a "worker" gets three cents more an hour than "attendant," but the job description isn't terribly informative. Only the wage scale tells me it is entry level.

Many departments have information assistants and associates. I think my field would do well to hang on to "librarian." Forget that "information specialist" and "information architect" nonsense. Stay with a term that has some class.