Mr. Leonard is correct in his cynicism

Mr. Leonard is correct in his cynicism. Library and Information Science programs need to institute either shorter degree requirements, or look towards clinical education — a la medical or law schools — to give more hands on experience to their students.

Live interaction with patrons is the best experience a Library School can provide. The running joke among Librarians in practice is the “things they never taught you in Library School” experience.

These experiences are often more valuable than what they did teach you, and can only be learned on the job. Creating a clinical program would provide those experiences to students while still studying and can then be discussed with seasoned Librarians on what the best approach to the problem would have been.

A complete rethinking of Librarian education needs to begin.

Brian L. Baker, at 2:05 pm EDT on July 25, 2007

alternative library education path

I have suggested to several folks that professional library education be structured similarly to some states’ teacher ed programs: a preliminary credential or stage I (advancement to candidacy) certificate, which enables one to be hired as a professional probationally. It would have CORE courses for major operations/knowledge base. Then an additional year of training that would be specialized ALONG with internship/job. Only then would the person get the full master’s degree.

Lesley Farmer, Dr. at CSULB, at 1:20 am EDT on July 26, 2007

Training versus teaching

There are a few basics that MLS programs need to instill in their students. A service mindset. An idea of the range of possibilities for searching. Basic information on ways of organizing knowledge. This we could call teaching, because we impart a new way of thinking to our students.

Beyond teaching, there is a need for training: some of the specific and directed techniques and information that the prospective librarian will need in whatever field they choose. A smattering of courses, whether they be in storytelling and children’s lit, online searching, cataloging, budgeting, current technology, then should be available.

A problem arises after one hits the workplace. Whatever one has learned becomes so quickly out of date. We have a great need for all types of continuing education classes — and it is imperative that we make this need clear to our students. You can’t just go out there and do the job. You need to keep coming back for more — and we need to keep providing the more you will continue to need.

We need to teach. We need to training. We need to keep doing it — and keep looking for people who can help us continue to learn.

Andrea Gillaspy-Steinhilper, Adjunct Reference Librarian, at 5:55 pm EDT on July 27, 2007

More teaching not less...

One of librarianship’s biggest problems is the lack of respect that we receive from almost everyone, and in particular, other academics and professionals. I think that librarians are incredibly valuable and important to education and research efforts but try convincing a doctor or a lawyer or a professor of that when your main claim to fame is your 1 or 2 year master’s degree.

But it’s not just for show either. There are all sorts of things that I think librarians should be learning before stepping up to the desk: psychology, education, management, much more technology skills, and certainly more “information” theory. Yes, there are a lot of things that you can only learn on the job. But you’ll learn those on the job. Don’t teach the things that will be learned (or perhaps unlearned) on the job and don’t teach as many of the things that will obviously be out of date by the time you graduate. Learning about some of the reference books in my Canadian library school experience didn’t really help me when I went to work in an American library. Learning about TYPES of reference books helped me much more. I could have had more about that.

We as librarians know perhaps better than anyone else how much stuff there is to know out there. Maybe we could get more of that in school then? But sometimes I’m afraid that library schools are too afraid of scaring away the too-few students away with a more challenging curriculum. I don’t know. I just know that I would have liked to have had more “book learnin’” in my master’s degree before I was thrown to the sharks. LOL

Matthew Thomas, Public Services Librarian at Queen’s University, at 12:25 pm EDT on August 1, 2007