Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Fri, 11 Dec 1992 13:28:14 CDT
From:         Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Subject:      Why MLS?

2 Messages, 108 Lines
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From: "William J. Pardue" <pardue@iitmax.iit.edu>
Subject: Re: Why an MLS?
I still have this need to believe that my MLIS (the degree name keeps
getting more and more elaborate) is worth SOMETHING.  Perhaps this is
because I'm still seriously in debt.

Let me suggest that when we face the question of who would be better
qualified (the MLS w/no experience or the non-MLS with plenty of
experience), perhaps we can look for the best of both worlds...
the new MLS with prior experience.

I'm suggesting we consider that the MLS is most useful to someone
who already has a working knowledge of libraries, but would like
to get a more formal grasp on the field.  I could have worked for
years in my LA-II position and never had more than the most rudi-
mentary understanding of cataloging principles.  I'm still not a
cataloger, but I have an inkling of what is necessary to be one.
True, I could pick up some of this knowledge just by talking
with catalogers in the library, but I would learn only by hearsay
in that case, not by actually having to crack open AACR2-R and
catalog a book from beginning to end...after all, that wasn't my
job.

Still, it was my previous experience precisely in dealing with
catalogers that gave me a basic acquaintance with the field
before I took the classes.

It seems that the combination of previous experience and formal
education is also becoming more common in the MBA field.  We
all remember the glut of young $55,000 hot-shots with no practical
experience in the 1980's.  Businesses seem to have finally realized
that the MBA is a much more meaningful experience when the student
body is an older group with more previous work experience, people
who treat the educational institution not merely as a stepping
stone to a job, but as an enrichment process and a chance to
share ideas with workers from other companies.

I'd certainly say that some of the most valuable experiences I had
in Library School were discussions with other previous library
"paraprofessionals" (excuse the term).  It turned the classroom
into a forum of ideas rather than simply a lecture hall.

I'm not quite ready to suggest that library schools only accept
students with previous work experience, but I do suggest that
if you want to be able to have a more useful experience when
you get your MLS, have a couple of years in the library under
your belt.
****************************************************************
     BILL PARDUE-Librarian/Information Researcher
   Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions
           Illinois Institute of Technology
              176 Life Sciences Building
                  Chicago, IL  60616
                    (312)-567-6913
                    (312)-567-3017
*****************************************************************
*-----
From:          <PEMMONS@WCU>
Subject:      Re: Why an MLS?
 >In general, "educated" people living in the late-20th century United
 >States believe that book knowledge or the labor of the autodidact
 >haven't been properly "certified" or "endorsed".

 Agreed.  There should be more opportunities for the autodidact to become
 certified by examination.  In can see two paths to this: (1) Library schools
 could allow "testing out" of more courses. (2) Full membership in the
 profession could require passing a library science equivalent of the bar
 exam.

 I would support at least the first idea.  Those who hold that a modern
 university degree must entail several years of life amidst diversity
 might, however, object.  The benefits of consciousness-raising are surely
 too intangible and ineffable to me measured by such philistine devices as
 examinations.

 The second is intriguing, but I can't form an opinion as to whether it
 would be a good idea or not (quite aside from the logistics of how we could
 get from here to there).  If such an examination were to come about, it
 would have to be tough.  For every wide-awake, eager, experienced para-
 professional who deserves removal of the "para", there are a hundred
 members of the public ready to declare that there's nothing to librarianship
 but putting numbers on books and mailing out overdue notices.  Most of these
 worthy taxpaying voters are not even aware of any distinction between
 "librarian" and "someone who works in a library."  The day they could cite
 the (lack of) content of such an examination to prove their point would not
 be a happy one for their children's freedom as worthy taxpaying voters.
 Taxpayers do not take kindly to paying $30,000 for a $15,000 job, and why
 should they?

 In our commitment to extending, rather than restricting, our clientele's
 access to information, librarianship is unusual and well-nigh unique.
 We are, at our essence and our finest, not closed doors but windows.
 This characteristic so distinguishes us from many professions that
 public skepticism as to our status among them is an indicator of our success,
 just as a good window is invisible.

 But let us not doubt ourselves for a minute.  We have something of importance
 to offer society which is more than a collection of well-oiled clerical
 tasks.  If we get suckered by the public or ourselves into equating a
 pane of glass with the emperor's new clothes, perhaps all concerned would
 be better off if we applied our intelligence to earning twice as much in
 some other field of endeavor.

 Paul Emmons, West Chester University
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