{"id":24861,"date":"2017-07-11T10:30:01","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T15:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=24861"},"modified":"2017-07-11T10:27:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T15:27:40","slug":"why-do-you-need-a-masters-degree-to-be-a-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=24861","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhy do you need a master\u2019s degree to be a librarian?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexis Waide, former Head Editor, INALJ Minnesota<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you need a master\u2019s degree to be a librarian?\u201d
\nCrowdsourcing an answer for an irritating question<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"alexiss\"<\/a>Recently, I went to a party attended largely by librarians and\/or friends from library school.\u00a0 Several of us were discussing the minor annoyances of our respective jobs and one friend asked what everyone\u2019s response is when we get that dreaded question: \u201cWhy do you need a master\u2019s degree to be a librarian?\u201d\u00a0 (This often goes hand in hand with that other cringe-worthy exchange, \u201cYou\u2019re going to school to be a librarian?\u00a0 So what do you do?\u00a0 Learn how to alphabetize?\u201d)\u00a0 Sadly, all of us stood there, scratching our heads, hemming and hawing.\u00a0 No one seemed to have a ready answer.\u00a0 Oh, we all had the sarcastic answers: \u201cBecause we made it that way,\u201d \u201cHonestly, you don\u2019t, but it means we can get paid more,\u201d etc. but obviously nothing that really validates our education and our position.<\/p>\n

The further we got into discussion, several great points were brought up but we didn\u2019t arrive at the solid, concise, and brief response to give to those doubters we might be faced with.\u00a0 I\u2019m currently working on formulating my own answer but below are some ideas that came out of this conversation:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cLibrarians find information and get information to their patrons, yes, but they also have to do things like write budgets!\u00a0 And balance them!\u201d\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t figured this out already, and as cliche as it may be, librarians wear many hats, some of their own design and choosing, but many that are foisted upon them by a boss or board or circumstance.\u00a0 Sure, many of us are serious specialists, dealing with one small aspect of librarianship, but I\u2019d say a vast many more wind up doing a couple of things, often things that don\u2019t overlap.\u00a0 In my own job I am responsible for ILL, reference, supervising students, creating LibGuides, cataloging, other random projects as they come up, and more.\u00a0 Did getting my MLIS help prepare me to take on these varied duties?\u00a0 You bet.\u00a0 With the exception of ILL, I had at least one class that covered some aspect of what I\u2019m doing now.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t even hit upon non-library information professionals and how the varied education one receives with an MLIS opens many doors beyond the library world.\u00a0 Tech classes pave the way for information architects and user experience specialists, information organization classes develop taxonomists and indexers, database courses to resource managers, and so on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to understand our past to know how to proceed in the future.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Most MLIS programs cover the history of the field, if not comprehensively, at least in bits and pieces in the classes dealing with sub-fields.\u00a0 You\u2019ll hear names like Ranganathan, Cutter, Gorman, Dana, and more.\u00a0 You\u2019ll learn about theories that shaped the work we do and how some continue to do so, and ideas and processes that were once commonplace that may now be collecting dust.\u00a0 These names and ideas are important in the choices we make today, since we recognize they will impact the future.\u00a0 Need further proof?\u00a0 Look at how technology has impacted our profession over time, not only in the types of materials we have in our collections, but also the operational technology.\u00a0 Looking back at previous technologies helps us see how new technologies might impact our daily work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a FIELD, not just a job.\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n

This is what it all boils down to for me – the fact that this is a professional field and not just a job. It isn\u2019t the type of work that someone can just walk in off the street and perform well, with or without basic knowledge of how libraries work.\u00a0 Specialized training is necessary to succeed or indeed even to excel in a position, and a master\u2019s degree is conferred on someone who has studied both deeply and broadly in his or her chosen field.\u00a0 That\u2019s what an MLIS\/MLS program is supposed to give us – the depth and breadth of the library and information sciences discipline.<\/p>\n

Does anyone else get asked this question, either because you\u2019re in school now and people don\u2019t get it, or you work in a library and people don\u2019t get it?\u00a0 How do you respond?\u00a0 What should we tell the naysayers?\u00a0 Feel free to tweet me your thoughts: @alexismarlena.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you need more ideas for your own response, check out these excellent articles and blogs:<\/p>\n

What People Don\u2019t Get About Working in a Library by Derek Thompson<\/a> (The Atlantic Monthly)<\/p>\n

Why does a Librarian need a masters degree?<\/a> (From Librarian to Cybrarian)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need a master\u2019s degree for that?\u201d\u00a0 In defense of the MLS.<\/a> (Librarified)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

previously published 6\/6\/13 under her former name, Alexis Stapp<\/em>, and on 6\/21\/14<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexis Waide, former Head Editor, INALJ Minnesota \u201cWhy do you need a master\u2019s degree to be a librarian?\u201d Crowdsourcing an answer for an irritating question Recently, I went to a party attended largely by librarians and\/or friends from library school.\u00a0 Several of us were discussing the minor annoyances of our respective jobs and one…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":72791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[3916,3917,443,6904,233,3592,3643,4597,303,4542,4793,4509,4596,4508],"class_list":["post-24861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-advocacy","tag-advocate","tag-alexis-stapp","tag-alexis-waide","tag-articles-2","tag-blog","tag-inalj-minnesota","tag-masters-degree","tag-mlis","tag-mls","tag-recent-keeper","tag-what-do-librarians-do","tag-what-to-you-do","tag-why-do-you-need-a-masters-degree-to-be-a-librarian"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/alexisstapp.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-6sZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}