5 ms·

I don't understand why a librarian needs a master's degree? Is it just due to competition for a limited number of positions? Or are there skills gained from pos

by knz 10y ago

I don't understand why a librarian needs a master's degree? Is it just due to competition for a limited number of positions? Or are there skills gained from post graduate study that are essential to being a librarian?

FussyZeus 10y ago
I don't understand that either but for the purposes of the question it isn't really needed. The library has decided these are the requirements yet is paying a salary to a worker that doesn't sustain those requirements, and I'm wondering why this is allowed.
- epalmer 10y ago
  FuzzyZeus you are correct. However the free market is dictating that an MLS is required. this may change in time. Many librarian jobs are going away with the advent of great search engines and robotic book stack pickers. She got 4 years of experience in the college library doing digital library work (scanning, tagging, metadata, etc.). We are hopeful this will sustain her once she is a librarian for ten or more years. Part of this is we notice in our little world that non-digital librarians don't want to learn digital library skills. Their loss her gain. Wow this world is complicated.
  - knz 10y ago
    Sorry I did not intend for my comments to be disparaging - if the market demands that level of education then it's necessary to enter that field. I understand that and can relate (my wife is a teacher who was required to obtain a master's degree in her specialty). I just find it interesting that post graduate education is now required in many fields. I suspect it's partly due to demand for a limited number of positions but also due to shifts in expectations about on the job training and entry level positions. I also suspect that the evolution of hiring and professional HR staff has some role in it.
    - epalmer 10y ago
      I did not read your comments as disparaging. All is good.
  - cableshaft 10y ago
    The more she gets involved in library community event planning and digital work, the better, I think. I have a librarian friend who has been running a 20s and 30s social events group (they do book discussions, game nights, movie nights, adult coloring nights, mug painting, etc) through her library and has been slowly taking up more and more of the libraries resources and become more prominent in the library as the program has been expanded.
packrat 10y ago
I had one library manager admit to me that it was a bit of a guild system: really, the only place you use the proprietary bits of a library science degree is in a library. If they hired anybody who showed proficiency in Dewey Decimal System, processing books and conservation, who would ever get a Master's Degree in it ever again? and of course, these are not a significant portion of the equation anymore.
- epalmer 10y ago
  Packrat I think this is very accurate. My daughter read your comment and agrees.
erikpukinskis 10y ago
You can search "library science masters curriculum" and see what courses they are taking. Librarians do a bunch of random stuff, from helping people with research projects to book preservation to running literacy programs.

by knz 10y ago

FussyZeus 10y ago

I don't understand that either but for the purposes of the question it isn't really needed. The library has decided these are the requirements yet is paying a salary to a worker that doesn't sustain those requirements, and I'm wondering why this is allowed.

epalmer 10y ago
FuzzyZeus you are correct. However the free market is dictating that an MLS is required. this may change in time. Many librarian jobs are going away with the advent of great search engines and robotic book stack pickers. She got 4 years of experience in the college library doing digital library work (scanning, tagging, metadata, etc.). We are hopeful this will sustain her once she is a librarian for ten or more years. Part of this is we notice in our little world that non-digital librarians don't want to learn digital library skills. Their loss her gain. Wow this world is complicated.
- knz 10y ago
  Sorry I did not intend for my comments to be disparaging - if the market demands that level of education then it's necessary to enter that field. I understand that and can relate (my wife is a teacher who was required to obtain a master's degree in her specialty). I just find it interesting that post graduate education is now required in many fields. I suspect it's partly due to demand for a limited number of positions but also due to shifts in expectations about on the job training and entry level positions. I also suspect that the evolution of hiring and professional HR staff has some role in it.
  - epalmer 10y ago
    I did not read your comments as disparaging. All is good.
- cableshaft 10y ago
  The more she gets involved in library community event planning and digital work, the better, I think. I have a librarian friend who has been running a 20s and 30s social events group (they do book discussions, game nights, movie nights, adult coloring nights, mug painting, etc) through her library and has been slowly taking up more and more of the libraries resources and become more prominent in the library as the program has been expanded.

packrat 10y ago

I had one library manager admit to me that it was a bit of a guild system: really, the only place you use the proprietary bits of a library science degree is in a library. If they hired anybody who showed proficiency in Dewey Decimal System, processing books and conservation, who would ever get a Master's Degree in it ever again? and of course, these are not a significant portion of the equation anymore.

epalmer 10y ago
Packrat I think this is very accurate. My daughter read your comment and agrees.

erikpukinskis 10y ago

You can search "library science masters curriculum" and see what courses they are taking. Librarians do a bunch of random stuff, from helping people with research projects to book preservation to running literacy programs.