Putting it all into context
Fellow ClosedStacks blogger, Paige Turner, has recently entered the world of defending the MLIS to random people in social situations. The question, “You need a masters for that?” has come up, though she hasn’t yet had to list out the courses we take and the relevance of them as I did at a potluck in my first year of school.
I admit, I forgot about the library for a while when I was younger. My family moved from a town where I had been in the library all day every day, to one with very short hours, and a rather rude (fake) librarian. Also, I was entering my snarky pre-teen years, and the library didn’t stock most of the vampire fiction, or trashy romance novels I couldn’t live without. Even when I was in my least library-centric phase, I never thought it was a position that didn’t require education.
The bigger problem that trickles down from people not understanding librarians is that they then feel that they don’t need them. One of the first people I told I was going to library school was my mother’s cousin’s wife, she just scoffed and said, “That’s what google is for.” If people don’t understand our role, how can they value it? If people think that all you need to do is google it from home, how can we insert ourselves and say “Perhaps you need to be a bit more savvy and not trust everything you read.”
I was in Niagara Falls over the weekend, and I saw what may be the only PSA I’ve ever enjoyed, and actually thought about after seeing it.
I would like to thank you, Canada, for making this PSA. Now please make one about the internet.
Filed under: A Day in the Life, By: The Librarienne, Fun Finds, MLIS | 7 Comments
Tags: House Hippos, diseminating information, being smart, relevance of librarians
Now I really want a house hippo.
Love to read your insights Andria! I can’t help wonder though if those questioning the degree aren’t questioning the need for an education in library science, but rather why a librarian needs a master’s degree as opposed to a bachelor’s degree. Couldn’t those same courses be taken as an undergrad? After all, as the argument goes, teachers are only required to get a bachelor’s degree to spend the entire day with our children (and augment that through the years with continuing ed). Those interested in an administrative position (principal, superintendent, etc.) go on to get the masters. Conversely someone seeking a director’s position would do the same. I suspect you’ve already hashed this out in one of your other pieces and perhaps settled the argument. ; ) Just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to restart the discussion!
Oh, we LOVE the House hippo commercial! So happy to see it again
How did they get Bud (my cat) to behave for so long during the shoot? LOL!
That totally rules, but it makes me think more about how cute a tiny hippo would be than about information literacy. Still, they definitely need to make one about the Internet.
The best argument I’ve heard as to why an MLIS is necessary for librarianship was when I witnessed the following conversation:
“Wait, you need a Master’s degree to be a librarian? How come?”
“Well, considering all the people who graduate college today that know absolutely nothing except which direction to pass a joint and how to funnel Natty Light, are you really surprised?”
“Hmm…no, I guess not.”