As of midnight this Friday, Western’s librarians and archivists will be in a legal strike position. With Western’s libraries remaining open even if a job action occurs, questions may be raised as to whether Western’s students will even notice or care about the strike.

Librarians may play the largest undocumented role at university campuses across the country. As more of librarians’ work is conducted behind the scenes, student interaction is often left to RefWorks lectures and being reminded not to eat in the library.

Now that a research essay can be written without any direct contact with a librarian, many students have a perception library staff do not play a major role in their academic experience.

This is unfortunate, as librarians play a vital role in making research an easier task by organizing and uploading digitized resources. Be it through selfishness or ignorance, students may not realize all the hard work librarians do.

While an undergraduate science student is unlikely to have much direct contact with library staff, they most likely take advantage of the various medical and scientific journals available online through Western’s libraries — the acquisition of which leads directly back to library staff.

It’s a sad fact many students would be more willing to involve themselves in this debate if there were actual disruptions to services, which may occur if the London Transit union follows through on their pledge to support fellow strikers by not providing service to campus. But short of this step, many students are unlikely to be very interested in the issue.

In actuality, Western lags far behind other “research intensive” universities across North America when it comes to salaries for librarians and archivists. Though one could argue the library staff at Western should be realistic and not expect to be paid on the same scale as Ivy League universities, we claim to compete at the highest levels of academic excellence. How can Western sell itself on merit if it’s unwilling to put the money behind its words?

Administration may wish to bring the economic climate into debates about pay equity, but it is unlikely they’ll find a sympathetic audience. It is hard to understand how Western’s library staff salaries can fall over $10,000 behind the national average when our school’s many administrators, including our new president, are paid so well.

It is for these reasons students must realize even if this strike doesn’t directly affect their daily activities, the role library staff play in a university, especially one as purportedly “research intensive” as Western, should be respected. Though technology can make it seem like we do more research ourselves, librarians make these things possible.

Please see “Library” on Pg. 1 for further details on the librarian strike.