Comments on: Why I’m a library professional

By: walt

walt — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:58:47 +0000

To B. Fatima Abedi:
You have an MLIS. That makes you a professional librarian by education–something I’m not. This blog is an unlikely place to look for advice on jobs or career paths, particularly given my history. Sorry.

By: Fatima

Fatima — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:33:23 +0000

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am library professional but not a professional librarian.. I want to become professional librarian. I have degree of Masters in Library and Information Science from Indian based university and i have IT skills also. I am working in agricultural research based institute as a cataloguer. I would like to know how i can become Professional in this subject and also I would also wants to join a good Job. Please suggest/advise me.

Many thanks

Yours faithfully
B. Fatima Abedi.

By: walt

walt — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:46:28 +0000

Abbie: Three responses.

1. I’ve been an ALA member for 34 years, and choose to support their stance on the appropriate degree for professional librarians.

2. Some positions are advertised as “…or equivalent experience.” I would feel free to apply for those positions. Some, particularly tenure-track positions in public institutions, explicitly require an advanced degree. I would neither apply for those nor, in most cases, consider the restriction unreasonable. (Well, actually, there was one job I wanted…a lot…that did have a Master’s requirement. Almost enough to convince me to go back to school–but not quite.)

3. In fact, there are only certain library areas where I believe I am qualified based on experience. Reference services, collection development, and several others: I lack the theoretical and practical education and really wouldn’t be qualified.

I could casually call myself a librarian, and (at my wife’s urging) I’ve generally stopped demurring when other people call me that. But professional librarian: Nope, I’ll reserve that term for ML[I]S holders…at least for myself.

By: Abbie

Abbie — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:26:26 +0000

I think you are a professional librarian – MLS or not. Why isn’t your experience as important (or more so) than an MLS? When people asked my CEO/COO dad where he got his MBA, he always said, “The School of Hard Knocks.”

By: Steve Lawson

Steve Lawson — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:11:52 +0000

Thanks for answering Walt. I like the story about the IBM Collator.

I’m not usually much for meme-tagging people either, but I’m glad I did this time.