Why the Name 'Renaissance Man/?

The 'Renaissance Man' of old was an expert in every field. It's been a couple of hundred years since the human brain was large enough to store all of the knowledge necessary to have any real competence in more than one or two fields at most. That's why they invented library science. The closest thing to a renaissance person of today is, of course, a reference librarian. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot get your hands on any old piece of information you want just by googling for it. A disproportionately large percentage of information remains hidden in vaults, databases requiring paid subscriptions, etc. Reference librarians to the rescue. If you need to find it, we can help. We are trained to. We don't know everything, but we can find almost everything the government hasn't classified. Sure, we come closer than most people to knowing everything. We're the best at cocktail parties. Trying to make us feel stupid by engaging us in discussions about economic theory, French cinema, architectural fads, and cutting edge research in mathematics is difficult. Sure, we slip and have to plead ignorance once in awhile, but that's only because we're human. I think $148,000 a year is a fair and adequate compensation for our knowledge and abilities.