Library education

When I first explored the idea of attending library school I was amazed to find there were so few accredited programs around the country. Having earned my Bachelors degree at the University of Maryland, which has a fairly large Library Science program, I got the impression that Library Science programs were pretty standard, like education only with smaller graduating classes. It wasn’t until I started looking at different programs that I even thought about what might be taught in library classes. It is interesting to see how different the programs can be.

We seem to be at this time in the middle of a change in the way librarians are taught, as can be seen by the many MLS programs that are changing to MSLIS. There is no doubt that computers have changed the way people access information and the way libraries function. But how are librarians to be educated in this new era? Some are advocating a shift to a completely technology focused curriculum. But I don’t think that is the best way to go. As Richard J. Cox points out, libraries still possess books and “despite the impact of e-books, e-journals, and the Web on our profession, library-school students still need to learn about printed books. After all, there's little sign that the 500-year-old information revolution started by the printed word is losing its significance.”(2006) The demise of the printed book has been predicted since the advent of the computer but has yet to materialize. I think that it is as important today as it has ever been to learn the fundamentals such as cataloging.

Another argument against moving to a curriculum with an emphasis exclusively on technology is the speed at which technology itself it developing. When computers first came into the home you have to learn another language in order to use them. I don’t argue that it isn’t important to learn about the technology in use today but I think that by focusing too much on the technology of today we run the risk of becoming quickly outdated. I like how Leonard Kniffel explains it in “As Library Schools Struggle, Change Happens Anyway”:
“There's an argument going-around that we should be educating students not for today's jobs but for jobs that do not now exist. But it seems specious: Is it possible to educate people for jobs about which we know nothing? Instead, we have to ask ourselves if we are educating people or if we are training people. In recent years, library education seems to have moved toward the latter. But graduate school programs ought to be educating, which does not mean equipping students with a set of skills that will be obsolete in three years but with a set a professional values and ethics that will serve them for an entire career.”(Kniffel, 2003)

Another aspect of Library education that has been getting some attention is the question of how much real-life experience is being offered in current programs. As we saw during our search of job listings in our last class, most employers desire some experience. One solution is the addition of a practice element, something that would offer the equivalent training experience that a teacher or nurse is required to complete during their course of study. Some programs, such as the University of South Florida, offer a graduate assistantship as a way of providing hands-on experience. “By offering pre-professional, broad-based library experience that can easily be combined with a graduate-school class schedule, the USF Tampa Library s graduate assistant program offers valuable opportunities for library-school students.”(Silver, 2008) Most of the people I know in the Clarion program already hold jobs in the library world but I think it would be interesting to explore other types of libraries or other departments within libraries to get a more comprehensive picture of libraries and library science.

I like that more programs are including “Information” in their Library Science programs. However, I think the emphasis should be more theoretical; more the study of how people interact with information and not so much the systems used to organize, store and retrieve it. I have the same problem in general with Library studies programs as I had with my undergraduate education; I had the idealized notion that my time at university would be some grand intellectual experience. For most the most part I got the feeling that students were just being “trained”. If we really want to be taken seriously as a profession we need more than just training. “Higher education is about more than employment protection and benefits. In the classic university model, learning prepared students for the real world. That idea needs resuscitation, particularly in library education.”(Cox, 2006)


Cox, R. (2006, June). Why Survival Is Not Enough. American Libraries, p. 42, 44. Retrieved June 16, 2008, from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.

Kniffel, L. (2003, December). As Library Schools Struggle, Change Happens Anyway. American Libraries, 34(11), 44-44. Retrieved June 16, 2008, from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.

Silver, S., & Cunningham, V. (2008, Spring). Preparing Future Librarians: the Graduate Assistant Program at the University of South Florida Library. Florida Libraries, 51(1), 12-13. Retrieved June 16, 2008, from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database