Comments on: The Master’s Degree Misperception

By: B

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:56:26 +0000

This is not a particularly good example. If you ask many good builders, landscapers, etc they will tell you that often the architect is impractical and creates a building visually appealing but in practice is not necessarily possible or even soundly designed..

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By: Aaron Rogier (@aaronrogier)

Aaron Rogier (@aaronrogier) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:26:06 +0000

With a few of the degrees you cite, graduate level certification isn’t quite as new as it may seem. Speech pathology and pharmacy are both advance practice fields, and have been historically.

Honestly I’m probably more comfortable investing in a company whose CEO worked their way up from being an engineer with the company. When I want medical advice though, I greatly prefer a professional with 20-30 credit hours of pharmacotherapy to one with up to nine credit hours. What we get from an ALA masters in Library Science is different than a research intensive masters in a particular field, but the morsels of knowledge acquired are in line with a serious professional education.

By: Aaron Rogier (@aaronrogier)

Aaron Rogier (@aaronrogier) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:09:11 +0000

Or to consult. This happened upthread on the subject of reference, but not every position in the library that benefits from professionalization is management. Management is indeed one track, but even public and children’s libraries benefit from experts. Like any other field libraries benefit from the synoptic focus by some in management and the myopic focus of others in fields of expertise.

By: Aaron Thomas

Aaron Thomas — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:34:03 +0000

I am a Youth Services Librarian and I have an MLIS. However, I am very very confident that a paraprofessional could do my job, as long as that paraprofessional doesn’t scare the kids during storytime (along those lines, any Joe Blow could do storytime). I think the fact that we actually have to defend our advanced studies means that it may not be necessary. For the general public Librarian, there isn’t much actual work that requires a Master’s degree. As far as I am concerned, the only thing it shows is the level of commitment an individual has to the field.

By: Bikes, Branding, and Bellyaching « Agnostic, Maybe

Bikes, Branding, and Bellyaching « Agnostic, Maybe — Tue, 10 May 2011 04:51:13 +0000

[...] first glance, it reminded me of the quagmire that was my post “The Master’s Degree Misperception” which elicited a very strong response both for and against the points I was making there. The [...]

By: value of the mlis degree « librarianaut

value of the mlis degree « librarianaut — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 06:15:17 +0000

[...] it’s possible to address this situation and sound a little privileged and snotty about it. The thing I dislike about that Agnostic Maybe article is that somehow helping people damages the [...]

By: Is She Crazy to Want to Work in Libraries? Advice for a Potential Librarian. | Librarian by Day

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:42:41 +0000

[...] The Master’s Degree Misperception [...]

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:52:07 +0000

Lot of professions do not really require a ‘degree’, does a lawyer really need a 5 year degree or does a teacher really need a teaching degree? I studied teaching (secondary) and what I studied did not help me for a second in the classroom. The librarian profession is in the transition years and in the future librarians would be coming from IT and computer science backgrounds rather than the traditional humanities background, or the library degree would become highly technical and technologically connected.

My personal opinion is that there should be a degree requirement for librarians since it limits the job competition.

By: Dr. Who

Dr. Who — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:13:37 +0000

I must say that the MLIS is something that really puzzles me. I’ve been working in a library for the past six years. During my tenure I’ve been in IT and Library Instruction as well as “helping out” in circ, ILL, reference and cataloging. I don’t have an MLIS. What I do have are an MBA, an MS in IT and an MA in Linguistics. I’ve worked with many MLIS holder who do IT and many who are in management. Let me tell you, an MLIS holder who does IT is generally pretty bad at it. An MLIS holder in Management is also pretty bad it it (caveat: unless they’ve had previous training or job experience in it – but most don’t)

Making an MLIS degree a management degree, a requirement for the upper-echelon of the library while keeping other types of degree holders out (other types of degrees that are more relevant to the job) is a bad move for the organization. It just serves to add to the confusion on whether an MLIS is really needed or not.