I found this article extremely interesting (not inflammatory) and thought
provoking, and circulated it to some librarian colleagues as well as to a
colleague who is thinking of going to library school. I appreciate the
fact that Art Documentation printed this article which raised very
important issues (just as the book Double Fold, on the microfilming of
materials does) about the state of librarianship.
We are both a profession and an occupation, a federated profession so to
speak, and Mr. Ditchburn discusses very well this slippery slope. And I do
think he is onto something very important when he says "a profession that
values skills and experience over knowledge ceases to be a profession."
So I hope that as you prepare to go to library school you are ready to
seriously contemplate the issues he raises as part of your educational
activities. Perhaps you can even make a study of your educational
experience.
Ruth Wallach
University of Southern California
>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]
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Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
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