Yes, there are librarians, yes, there are teachers. But from what we've seen, the majority of the Tower Aes Sedai have just been sitting around, absorbed in inter-Ajah politics and playing their own little games.

Those who are NOT, those who are actually doing something helpful, are often acting on their own agenda. Moiraine, Siuan, Verin, Cadsuane, Verin, Egwene (both pre-Amyrlin when she wandered off to the Aiel Waste, and post-Amyrlin when she makes everyone swear secret oaths to her) all do things on their own.

It's to their credit- they did well. But I'm focusing more on the fact that it's less a point in their favor than it is a point AGAINST the White Tower.

The only proactive things that have been done with full White Tower approval in the book series are:

1)Fighting Logain and Taim
2)Deposing Siuan
3)Attempting to subdue Elayne (the forkroot incident)
4)Abolishing the Blue Ajah
5)Sending a group to Rand (with orders to kidnap him)
6)Holding Mattin Steppanos
7)Publishing that letter saying the world can only come to Rand through the WT

Note that I only listed things that were done in the open, with full approval of the Tower. The hunt for the Black Ajah doesn't count, because 1) It's secret and 2)Elaida wasn't trying to get the Black Ajah anyway, she just hated Alviarian. (Gotta look up these spellings...)

#1 is admirable, though they did end up letting both escape. #3 makes a little sense from Elaida's POV. The rest just show a shocking level of disconnection with the real world, and most Aes Sedai seem perfectly happy to live in their little bubble of superiority and inter-Ajah politics.



tl;dr: The only useful Aes Sedai are the ones who ignore the organization and do what they believe is right.