NextGen: Library Student Bill of Rights

Like every other librarian, I've had to teach myself countless things on the job in order to function professionally. Librarianship is a craft, and crafts are best learned by experience. Librarianship is also contextual: much of what we do is about developing relationships to the users we serve and the organizations we represent. That said, the skills that are becoming increasingly essential in the demanding, complex, and collaborative world of librarianship should be better addressed in our library education.

As the field responds to mounting internal and external pressures and innovations, experimentation, rather than tradition, often motivates our actions in the workplace. This has resulted in a widening gulf between what we are taught in library school and what we actually do in libraries. Today, too much of the library school curricula fails to reflect the reality of the profession.

Systemic reform of the MLIS curriculum is critical if libraries are to survive. Consensus is growing that the foundation upon which our profession is built must simply mean more. It should be stronger, broader, and better rooted in the tools and techniques librarians use daily. And it should better connect us to the information needs of society. Further, as strong library advocacy is becoming increasingly crucial, every librarian should emerge from her/his training as more skillful champions of the field.

From the perspective of a recent student and, now, a new professional, and in full recognition that it is far easier to tear down than to build up, I submit this impractical, idealistic template for a more practical, realistic library education. In order to create a more vibrant and resilient profession, the students of library and information studies programs are entitled to the following:

Students should receive training in learning theory, pedagogy, instructional design, and assessment methods regardless of their areas of focus.

Rigorous, realistic, and applied instruction in action methods as well as techniques in environmental scanning and user needs evaluation should be available to all.

Debate and critical inquiry among library students should be encouraged, while information activism should be considered alongside impartiality as one of the unique contributions librarians make to the information world.

Technology evaluation, selection, experimentation, development, and planning should be woven throughout the curriculum, rather than sequestered to the “information” side of learning.

Students should have access to formal apprenticing/mentorship programs in order to learn skills actively and in ways that benefit institutional stakeholders and community partners. Programs should be available throughout the MLIS experience.

Interdisciplinary coursework should be required in order to invigorate new librarians' skills, and MLIS students should be encouraged to draw on the strengths of complementary fields and share their own strengths in return.

Librarianship is becoming increasingly generalized; the lines among collection development, public service, technical service, and education are blurring. As such, information science and library science should not be strictly apportioned into tracks or cohorts, and a more productive recognition of the complementary pursuits of specializations within librarianship and information studies should be established.

Librarians are changing as fast as their users. In order to learn what is truly necessary to thrive in the library environment, faculty and administrators should partner with those new to the profession in evaluating curriculum, hiring faculty, and revising accreditation standards.

Students should have the opportunity to test, modify, and produce the tools and technologies they may be called upon to use in a variety of professional contexts and should further gain practical project management skills to help them sequence and evaluate said tools and technologies.

In recognition of the growing importance of championing libraries to various stakeholders and educating users about library programming, students should be trained in public relations, message design, and marketing.