Library personnel managers, SLIS recruiters, college and university guidance counselors, along with those considering LIS as a career, gain behind-the-scenes perspectives on the lives of real liberal arts-educated librarians who have chosen this service-oriented profession.In this seminal research, Watson-Boone, independent researcher and former academic librarian, investigates the relationship in the College Alumni Librarians Study (CALS surveys 431 librarians who graduated from eight liberal arts colleges (Carleton, Denison, Earlham, Grinnell, Kalamazoo, Lawrence, Macalester, and Swarthmore) from 1962-2000. Following up related studies and connecting to broader library career issues, this study complements prior quantitative studies with a qualitative approach covering 39 years.Library personnel managers, SLIS recruiters, college and university guidance counselors, and those considering LIS as a career gain behind-the-scenes perspectives on the lives of real liberal arts-educated librarians who have chosen this service-oriented profession.This study analyzes responses and shares the experiences of the subjects in their own words to capture: insights about schools' and families' influence on career choice; how librarians in general assess their careers; what life and work are really like for LIS professionals; and, ways librarians' functions have changed over 40 years. The study's findings describe values and attitudes that are similar to the overall population of LIS practitioners, answering the question, ""Exactly who or what are librarians?
