Dear Rebecca, Andrea and anyone else who takes issue with Gary Ditchburn's
provocative article,
As a regular reader of Art Documentation, I'd love to see your points of
view expressed in a future article. I hope one of you has already talked
to Betsy Peck Learned, Art Doc editor, and is writing a rebuttal at this
very moment!
Karen
Karen McKenzie
Chief Librarian
Art Gallery of Ontario
E.P. Taylor Research Library & Archives
317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON
Canada M5T 1G4
At 08:44 AM 05/25/01 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi all,
>
>I was also surprised by some of the comments in Mr. Ditchburn's article on
dual
>degree programs. I have an MLS and am part way through my MA from Indiana U.
>which is
>one of the few places to offer a dual art history/library science program. I
>am now a
>visual resources librarian.
>
>I disagree very strongly with him on many of his statements. I think the MLS
>program
>offers a combination of very practical skills as well as theoretical ideas
>about the
>nature of information. This combination has served me well as I think
about how
>best make the information I am cataloguing available to my patrons. I would
>rate what
>I learned in library school as more important than any course I have taken in
>Art
>History, because I know how to evaluate what I am learning and can use that
>information in more ways than the average Art History student can.
>
>If Mr. Ditchburn has lost positions because of a lack of experience, despite
>him
>having lots of subject knowledge, then I can see where he might have a
gripe at
>librarians doing the hiring. But that should not translate into doing away
with
>librarians in favor of subject specialists. Much of what you learn in library
>school
>cannot be acquired during on-the-job training. His comments on the value of a
>LIS
>degree certainly don't reflect my experience and I regularly encourage many
>of my
>student employees who are interested in a career in library science to think
>about a
>dual degree path.
>
>Rebecca Anne Moss
>Director of Visual Resources
>Department of Art History
>University of Minnesota
>[log in to unmask]
>612.624.2064
>
>
>"Andrea B. Cox" wrote:
>
>> I just finished Gary Ditchburn's article on Dual-Degree Programs for
>> Librarians. I am on the verge of applying for library school and I was
>> interested in hearing other people's reaction to this article. His basic
>> premise is that although he used to think that dual-degree programs were
>> the best educational program for librarians, now Mr. Ditchburn believes
>> that the idea of a MLIS is inherently flawed and that there should not be
>> any graduate library school programs, only continuing ed training.
>>
>> A few of the more inflammatory quotes:
>>
>> "A student curious and capable enough to earn admission into a genuine
>> graduate program should be deterred from the library school path."p.24
>>
>> "We no longer need and can no longer justify the LIS degree." p.24
>>
>> "Supply-side education, driven by a need to maintain university programs
>> and departments, seems to be producing pseudo-professionals who are too
>> expensive to do the practical work, but not, as a rule, really prepared
>> for intellectual work." p. 24
>>
>> Although Mr. Ditchburn has not deterred me from my path to library school,
>> I was curious what other people in the field thought of his ideas.
>>
>> Andrea Bailey Cox
>> Assistant Visual Resources Curator
>> x3331
>> acox2
>>
>
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>
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
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