The same skills that can provide software which - if the right people tell the right politicians the right things about it - could save some amount of librarians' labor ... can also provide software that will wow a VC enough to throw enough money to far outweigh the librarians' labor.
On the other hand, if enough people tell enough of the right politicians the right things, then the number of librarians nationwide using the software just might become high enough to swing the comparison the other way.
But until then, nobody in their right mind should be paying a programmer enough to convince them to work for a library (presuming that the programmer is also in their right mind, which is generally required in order for the resulting software to not be dogshit).
The same skills that can provide software which - if the right people tell the right politicians the right things about it - could save some amount of librarians' labor ... can also provide software that will wow a VC enough to throw enough money to far outweigh the librarians' labor.
On the other hand, if enough people tell enough of the right politicians the right things, then the number of librarians nationwide using the software just might become high enough to swing the comparison the other way.
But until then, nobody in their right mind should be paying a programmer enough to convince them to work for a library (presuming that the programmer is also in their right mind, which is generally required in order for the resulting software to not be dogshit).