Library Science

Factual Questions
1

Please, please, please, librarians, don’t take this question the wrong way, but:

Why does one need a Masters of Library Science to work in a library? What do you need to know? How hard can it be? I can see needing to know a few classification systems, and some market research to be able to choose the books your patrons want, by why do you need a MASTERS degree? What can you possibly spend two years learning about?

(I’m ticked off because every time the Pasadena Public Library has a hiring spree, they require an MLS, yet they can’t seem to classify books properly. They put the only copy of “Good Omens”, and most of the fantasy, in the Young Adult section.)

2

From the libraries I’ve seen, the skill they need most is empathy. I have yet to find one where the signs on the ends of the rows have the correct numbers. Nor have I found one where they care that this causes confusion every day.

One answer I’ve gotten a lot is “sure they’re wrong, but we’re used to it.”
Another is “They are carved in stone (or painted on or cut in plastic, etc), so we can’t keep them updated.” Well, why not put them in with computer printouts, or in pen, or pencil, or chalk for heaven’s sake.

3

Look, in some ways, you could ask that question of members of many professions. Sometimes, a degree is an emblem of some qualities employers wish to see in their employees: willingness to follow through, ability to write, knowledge of one kind or another. But that issue aside, a good reference librarian, who can help you find sources and track down information, is a godsend to someone doing research. Some of them know so much about arcane, rare, and esoteric references - you’d be amazed. They have wonderous ways of solving problems. They can take you to information you never knew existed, let alone was catalogued in any source. And I have to figure that studying the way information is organized and published is part of their training. Obviously, it’s possible to do a fabulous job with no formal schooling at all. But those that are good, they’re very good, and I suppose part of that excellence could have come from their graduate experiences. that’s all for now. xo C.

4

My wife is beginning her masters program in Library Science. She admits that it is mostly just to get the piece of paper, however she is doing a specialization on restoration and archiving… the restoration part would probably take some instruction.

Also, from what she has told me from her experiences working in libraries WITHOUT a degree, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on that has to do with the paperwork side of the library such as ordering books, etc. that she had no idea how to do and the people with the degrees did. And, of course, as CC said, they study the way information is organized in a way that you probably couldn’t easily learn without training.

5

A number of people who have worked at our library as paraprofessionals wind up getting the notion in their heads that they could get degrees in library science and suddenly get money and respect. It’s a trap. Don’t you be the next sucker.

6

I have a friend doing his MA in Library Science. I was amazed at all the specialties involved that require extremely specific training. For example, how do you index foreign language books, especially those in Chinese or Japanese? How do you arrange a collection of maps for easy retrieval by location or subject? How do you convert a multimillion-card index to computers? How do you arrange the logistics of just putting books back on the stacks (incredibly enough, sometimes just adding more stackers SLOWS the process).

Even with the new computer era where all our answers seem to be a web-search (or a SDMB post) away, there is actually a resurgence in library studies, and it is projected to be one of the hottest careers of the century. Someone has to get a handle on all this information. There is an old saying that information is useless by itself, but information plus analysis equals knowledge.

I guess it depends on what you want to do with your life. Do you want to stack books on shelves, or do you want to be a professional who assists people in getting ahold of information? Information is power. One of my favorite quotes:

“Beware the scholar in his library, he destroys worlds with the turn of a page.”

Gosh I wish I could remember who said that. Probably someone like Aleister Crowley…

7

The Library degree exists so I can be remunerated at a salary which I enjoy. :slight_smile:

The MLS degree exists because there is no other way for librarians to distinguish themselves and their work from paraprofessional work. There isn’t a “Librarian Credential” or “Librarian License” exam you can go pass from some government.

As for getting the degree, it’s not that hard to get. At least mine wasn’t. I went to Berkeley’s Library School back in the 1980s and the program was only one year long (2 semesters and summer school). The classes I took then are mostly useless to what I do now, but I could write simple programs in PASCAL and work in dBASE. I don’t think that’s been too useful, but I suppose the background was helpful.

Classes in basic reference skill and introductory cataloging used to be staples of library schools, but they are declining as most schools are pushing the “information science” part of the education.

The problem with this is that most of the library job openings are in public libraries where you really need to know basic reference skills or cataloging (few people do both). You also don’t get taught very well how to manage a library. So, a lot of nuts and bolts problems of libraries are never fixed, e.g. surly employees, ineffective signage, poor communication among cataloging, accesssions, and reference. Another problem you may encounter in using a library is that the librarian you meet at the reference desk may not be the best at being a public library reference librarian, but they may be a great cataloger, but couldn’t find a job doing that. Librarians are not all the same. They usually have some area of specialization, just like attorneys. However, like attorneys, they still know something about all the aspects of the profession.

Another aspect of librarianship you have to learn through the school of hard knocks. That would be how to deal with the public. It’s not easy. If you work in a public library, the operative word is “public”. Anybody can come in and not everyone is easy to deal with. Somedays I think I’ve stepped into the pages of the DSM-IV. A lot of people I help are also very nice and easy to deal with.

In my experience, in public libraries, the professional staff (the librarians) and the paraprofessional staff (the rest of the staff) usually get along fairly well and don’t draw any sharp class lines between themselves. In academic libraries and special libraries (e.g. a private library in a company), there is a greater distinction between the professionals and paraprofessionals.

Anyway, getting back to the OP which I don’t think I answered, I don’t know exactly what you learn in library school. It’s definitely something, but it’s rather hard to quantify and unless you want to subject yourself to the incredible tedium of reading professional library journals, I don’t think you’ll need to know.

8

When I told my wife this morning about the OP, she added another reason to go to library school… apparently, there is an art to ordering periodicals. Large books have been written about the subject. I asked her if she ever did it (since she hasn’t gone to school yet but has worked in a library) and she turned pale and didn’t speak very much after that.

9

I used to work for a company that took care of periodical subscriptions for libraries. The amount of work involved in periodicals is mind-boggling. Some of the larger clients had orders through us for over 3 million dollars a year, as I recall. All those thousands of journals have to be delivered and accounted for, missing ones identified, and bound. Our company was in charge of paying the bills and taking care of the problems, mostly missing issues.

Mainly I tried to take care of duplicates that the libraries sent back to us. This involved calling professors that publish obscure academic journals, trying to find records of the correct or most relevant order, deciphering reciepts in foreign languages, finding the correct publisher’s address to return them to, and trying in vain to get Gale Research to not send separate issues of Childrens’ Literature Review for every possible permutation of our clients’ addresses. Any large library trying to take care of all this themselves would be in big trouble.

10

Is there a book for laymen that describes the nuts and bolts, the ins and outs, the Deweys and LOCs of the librarian’s trade? I for one would find that interesting to read.

11

I hold the MLS degree myself but have since undergone a career change–if you really want to know more about the vicissitudes of my career you can email me.

Anyway, you have to keep in mind that we don’t spend five or six solid years of higher education studying librarianship. We come to the masters’ program with bachelor’s degrees in every specialty. Mostly, our undergraduate degrees are in liberal arts, psychology, and
similar areas, though we do also get some science and engineering majors too. The only thing we don’t get is
undergraduate libary science degrees (if any schools still offer them, which I doubt). All the reputable masters’ programs do NOT accept students with bachelor’s degrees in librarianship, because they want their students to have the
breadth of education in other areas which the bachelor’s degree should embody.

So why don’t we just get associate’s degrees in library science straight out of high school? Well, because a full
college education prior to embarking on one’s library education adds value to that experience, and it adds value to one’s job performance once one actually begins working as a librarian. You have to show that you know something
about the world before you can guide others, or that you can
quickly learn what you need to know, and undergraduate degrees can be the best evidence of this.

In fact, the philosophy of library education parallels that of business education. MBA programs, too, discourage or
summarily reject applicants who already hold an undergrad degree in business, for reasons similar to those I’ve outlined above. And the question why MBA’s don’t just get an associate business degree after of high school elicits
a similar answer.

In closing, let me add that I personally never approved of
the term ‘library science’. I don’t believe it’s a science,
but that ‘librarianship’ is itself an honorable enough profession as not to need a dressed-up title.

12

Wow, someone who wants to know how libraries work! And enough to want to read a whole book on it, yet. Can a new
TV series about librarians, along the lines of ER and L.A. Law be in the offing? :smiley: Jim, MLS.

13

I don’t think there is ONE book you can read on being a librarian, but if you want to sound knowledgeable around a librarian ask for one of three things:

  1. Sheehy
  2. Katz
  3. AACR2

Afterwards ask the librarian how you can get the catalog to display the full MARC record. Then you will be one of us.

14

It’s already been done (sorta). Go watch the movie “Party Girl” featuring Parker Posey. It’s about a girl in NYC who runs underground nightclubs, gets busted, and then turns to her aunt (a librarian) to get a real job. I especially like the montage about how she has to catalog and stack a huge pile of new books entitled “The Myth of Sysiphus.” A very funny movie.

15

I know this sounds pretty radical, but how about reading something like “Introduction to Librarianship” by Jean Gates?

BTW, did you ask your librarian these questions?

16

I’m not offended by you wanted to know why you would need two years in library school to be an official “librarian”. Mostly what I learned was the ten zillion different reference sources that I would need to answer all the questions I would get. Plus choosing, purchasing, cataloging, maintaining, circulating a useful collecting of many different types of resources is no easy task. That said, I know many paraprofessionals who are excellent and better than some librarians I know. But either way, it isn’t a job you can learn in a couple of days. It takes a good professional reference librarian (in my opinion) about six months to get really familiar and comfortable with a collection and the library.

17

Oh, I forgot. If you want good books on what librarianship is really like, try anything by Will Manley.