Judy Bird wrote:
any new entrant in the job market, aiming to pursue a
career in any profession, requires the credibility that comes with the
appropriate qualifications for that profession.
If we try to claim that this is not the case, we damage the credibility
of the profession itself, in relation to other professions which
require similar qualifications, something we can ill afford to do these
days.
----------End of Original Message----------
I think the problem that I am having with this discussion is that I work in a relativly small
private law library. I agree wholeheartedly that for a position as a "Librarian" in a
university or a large private library setting, an MLS should be a requirement. However,
as everybody knows, library schools don't grow on trees, and there are a huge amount
of small, private law firms, (or, in my case, non-profit associations), that need to have a
librarian on staff. Until there are enough MLS recipients, and it doesn't look like
there will be soon, we can't say that somebody should not be called a librarian, or
even a non-professional or paraprofessional librarian without the coveted degree.
Again, maybe I am missing the ppoint here, but I think this discussion is more about
semantics than anything else. Of course an MLS confers an extremely well balanced
education in the field of librarianship, but with the situation as it is, it is impossible to say
that without an MLS you can't be a librarian. What would you all propose as a title for
someone who say, works for a twenty-five lawyer firm, and is responsible for reference
questions, assists in legal searches on-line, and maintains all of the case reporters,
etc.? And I can understand that many will say that without an MLS, the person holding
that job may not have as extensive an education, and may not have as well-balanced
knowledge, but until there is at least one library school in every state, is seems to me to
be very difficult to say that such a person needs an MLS to be a librarian.
Patrick Burress
Assistant Librarian
American Insurance Association
Washington, DC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03/09/00 PST