The MLS and library technology
Karen Coombs responds to Ross Singer, re: requiring an MLS degree in library technology positions.
I'm torn on the issue, as an erstwhile systems analyst who went through library school primarily for letters after my name. I've seen both sides of the divide and have seen IT positions that might have benefited from the MLS — a particular non-MLS comes to mind who had no sense of which battles were winnable and ultimately wound up leaving — and also seen jobs with a totally unnecessary MLS requirement that accomplished little other than watering down the candidate pool.
If a position will need to interact with librarians or act in public services capacities, the MLS is very useful; folks from IT (or elsewhere in the extrabibliosphere) do not necessarily know our culture or our values — hell, they might not even speak our language. And there is something to be said for this sort of familiarity. Librarians hold the reins in libraries and if you can't speak to their values in a language they understand, you are likely to spend much of your career tilting against windmills (and getting nowhere fast).
On the other hand, we librarian folk think that libraries are a hell of a lot more special than we actually are. Our needs are sometimes esoteric, but many times they are not, and so an MLS requirement probably does more harm than good. And too often "web librarian" and "systems librarian" are euphemisms for "underpaid IT workers." Earning a master's degree should not reduce your earning potential, and yet that is precisely what happens.
In summary, I guess my views align with Karen's but I appreciate what Ross is adding to the dialogue (having experienced much of the same nonsense). We need more Rosses in library-land, and ought to treat them very well in order to keep them around. Library technologists are (read: "should be") first-class citizens in libraries and will play an active if not vital role in our future, whether they have the MLS or not. We'd do well to keep that in mind.
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Since I'm one of those Library employees without a degree, I must throw in my two cents. To me requiring a MLS for many IT positions is asking an individual to be a Jack of All Trades, Master of None. As you know, I've been kicking around the thought of getting an MLS and honestly, other than adding a few letters to my resume, I don't know why I'd bother. Sure, I'd learn some things, but would I learn enough to warrant taking a big chunk of my life away from me over the next two years? Certainly a large portion of the information processing, searching and analyzing would be helpful. But is this something I could learn via a different course track? At least in my current position and in most of the ones I've seen advertised that match my qualifications, I'll never be asked to help a student find materials.
Wouldn't it make more sense to hire true IT staff, and send them to a 1-2 week "Library Camp", where they essentially learn the basics and more importantly the jargon.
Why does an IT person have to learn to speak Librarian? But an IT person has to dumb down his Geek to speak to a Librarian? I've seen Librarians who don't know how to copy and paste a file from one directory to another. Yet a prospective candidate for an IT position has to not only understand a few things about how Libraries work and are organized, but have to a MLS to prove it.
[...] I found that out when I tried to follow a link on Technosophia about a post on Library Web Chic about a post on code4lib regarding an MLS degree for library technology postings. Since this is something I have some opinions on and am thinking about for a post, I was very interested in what others had to say. But when I tried to access code4lib.org, the site (and all related sites) were completely down. [...]
[...] Web 2.0 – What does an Organization Really Need to Get There? July 28th, 2007 — smmellott This was originally written to update my "About Me" page. But it turned into this. These are the posts that prompted this post - MLS and Library Technology, a post on Why require an MLS for library technologist about a post on code4lib regarding an MLS degree for library technology postings (which unfortunately is currently unavailable since all code4lib.org sites are down). And here is an interesting post about an opposite perspective called I Didn't Get an MLS to do That and another about the MLS degree in general called The Embattled MLS in the Library Journal. Which begs another question about whether or not an IT degree should be a requirement for librarians. But that is a post for another day. Anyway… [...]
Do you know another place to view Ross' post? dilettantes.code4lib.org is all messed up and didn't appear to come back when code4lib.org was restored.
Not that I know of, Susan. Neither the Internet Archive nor Google's cache appear to have a copy.
Much of the code4lib community's resources are back online, but the personal and experimental stuff is taking longer. We're trying to come up with a solution that's sustainable and secure. Stay tuned!
You might shoot an e-mail to Ross, though.
I think every library needs technology people who have significant _interesting_ and _expertise_ in libraries specifically and generally. (Specifically libraries rather than other technology domains; generally library's overall business, not just the tech end).
Now, the three (or four) letters after one's name is of course an imperfect proxy measurement for that quality. Like all academic credentials are, but ML(I)S maybe especially so. Both false positives and false negatives.
But I do think it's important for there to be such people.
There may also be other tech workers in a library who _don't_ have special library interest/expertise, they are tech specialists brought in to solve particular tech problems. But there defintiely need to be a core of staff who _do_.
But yeah, there are other ways than requiring a degree to evaluate that quality. That really goes for degrees in general—I'm not a believer in assuming degrees correspond one-to-one with expertise or qualification.
PS: And it goes without saying that I think that Ross is a person who has that significant interest and expertise in libraries specifically and generally, and should not need academic credentials to prove that.
I'm a bit behind on my blog reading … in case you couldn't tell …
"If a position will need to interact with librarians or act in public services capacities, the MLS is very useful; folks from IT (or elsewhere in the extrabibliosphere) do not necessarily know our culture or our values — hell, they might not even speak our language. And there is something to be said for this sort of familiarity. Librarians hold the reins in libraries and if you can’t speak to their values in a language they understand, you are likely to spend much of your career tilting against windmills (and getting nowhere fast)."
Don't think it's possible for an IT person to learn the library culture and language without having to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for a degree? I feel that I learned plenty in my 6 years at Jenkins and my MLIS hasn't changed my knowledge of libraries, librarians, or their thinking and culture. The only part of libraries that I have learned more about was cataloging – and that's cause if you don't catalog then you don't learn cataloging … very profound!
Howdy Nicole,
Welcome back to the blogosphere!
I absolutely think it's possible for folks to take alternative routes to library familiarity. Your example is a good one, as is Ross's, as is mine.
It does require search committees to do a bit more work on their requirements — namely to acknowledge these alternative routes and articulate them — and will require convincing some folks that while an MLS is a good indicator of library familiarity, it is not the only one. I see it as a potentially hard sell to some audiences, but I may be more cynical than some of the other folks in this conversation.
I was very careful to say that the MLS is useful, rather than necessary, in situations such as these.
I have to ask, though: if you already felt fully library-fied, why did you decide to shell out the tens of thousands of buckareenos for an MLS? :)
Sorry for the long post… this topic is close to my heart and mind…
As a current MLIS student, working in IT at an academic library, I'm concerned that moving into a librarian position would mean a pay cut. I agree with you, Mike, that this fact can only harm the future of the profession. Librarians need the ability to quickly assimilate any number of technical skills. It's in libraries' own interest to hire technologists and programmers who also have experience with critical thinking in this area AND ARE ALSO familiar with (and use!) current reasearch, which usually means an MLS.
It's my assumption that in academic libraries "system librarians" or "web librarians" are expected to conduct, or at least confer with, ongoing research in library science and information behavior, but I may be way off base. Libraries need to attract librarians with an interest not just in technology, but with the desire to understand how different technologies work to evaluate the limitations of current solutions and propose better solutions.
The main reason behind the need for libraries to hire librarians who have experience as programmers is that the staff managers at libraries are almost always librarians. In a way, it is like having a union card because there's not much upward mobility in a library without an MLS. The problem this creates is that good managers need to understand the perspective of their staff, which is accomplished by having stood in their shoes, or even better: standing in their shoes. Good managers gain respect of their staff if they are involved with some of the programming and have an interest in current research in programming. Managers of IT staff should not be guided by buzzwords, which is what happens when the manager has little experience, yet tries to be the leader.
[...] I found that out when I tried to follow a link on Technosophia about a post on Library Web Chic about a post on code4lib regarding an MLS degree for library technology postings. Since this is something I have some opinions on and am thinking about for a post, I was very interested in what others had to say. But when I tried to access code4lib.org, the site (and all related sites) were completely down. [...]