Why does a librarian need a masters degree

This is what it all boils down to for me — the fact that this is a professional field and not just a job. How do you respond? What should we tell the naysayers? Feel free to tweet me your thoughts: alexismarlena.

Why does a Librarian need a masters degree? From Librarian to Cybrarian. INALJ is expecting a baby! To have a degree or not to have a degree? That is indeed the question … for our panellists and also clearly for many of us in the library profession. When we put out the call for folks to participate in our first-ever Open Shelf panel, we hoped for at least four colleagues to come forward; instead, 12 have chosen to participate. As a result, we are going to hold one panel a month for three months in March, April and May.

We have a good mix of soon-to-be grads, librarians who are at the beginning, middle or end of their careers, as well as at least one participant who has degrees, but not a library science degree. I think we are going to have three very good conversations about the need for certain credentials in our field. The subject specialists in my department are required to have a degree and a library tech diploma.

However, the degree requirement is not exclusive to the MLIS—it can be a degree in any discipline. And traditionally, the professional staff holding these jobs have undergraduate degrees. When I took this role, my then department head and I agreed that I would finish my MA in history and then would enroll in a master of library science program.

Am I glad that I did the degree? I have had more doors to walk through than if I had not completed the program, and because I worked while taking courses, my job effectively became a co-op placement.

As a result, every assignment choice I made, every chance to study abroad or to do an internship, every conversation I had could all be applied to and integrated into my work. But do I need the degree to do the job? Certainly not to perform my core duties of teaching, collecting, and liaising. I was doing those already. Going to conferences and presenting your work is encouraged at the undergraduate level, but for graduate students it stops feeling like an extra credit activity.

Every grad student somehow sits on three committees, one of which they co-founded. At first this struck me as excessive and privileging of folks headed for a career in major academic libraries, but eventually it sunk in that participating in the community is most of the point in getting the degree.

All of the sitting around and talking happens for a reason: improving the field of librarianship. You can learn to shelve books using the DDC, or assign catalog numbers according to its rules, without formal library education. Graduate school gives you the tools to fix or replace the DDC, and to understand how complex a task that really is. Last but not least, the point of going to graduate school is to speed up the process of promotion.

Featured image by Museums Victoria on Unsplash. Emily is a rising second-year graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is not taking any summer courses and has already forgotten that homework exists. Tagged as: library school , library school curriculum , master's , professional librarianship , professional life , professionalism.

Well said, Emily! Like Like. Like Liked by 1 person. I think it ultimately depends on what you intend to do with it. I have a library tech diploma and it has served me well.