Unresolved: ACRL, 'Debate'; Over MLS Finds No Resolution

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Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 03/20/2009

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Academic Newswire
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Hirshon: success in class not success in workplace
Bishoff: MLS is education, not training
Commenter: MLS needed for better pay

(This article first appeared in the March 19 issue of the LJ Academic Newswire.)

Is the MLS degree a fundamental and beneficial credential, or an unnecessary anachronism not linked to library success? That was the topic of a formal debate at the ACRL 14^th National Conference in Seattle, moderated by Columbia University’s James Neal who coined the term “feral professionals” to describe the rise of non-MLS professionals working in academic libraries at ACRL’s 12^th National Conference in 2005, and in a Library Journal article.

Staked with arguing against the MLS, NELINET’s Arnold Hirshon offered a spirited indictment, arguing that the MLS education was “devoid of anything unique to librarianship.” Combined with library schools’ lack of solid admittance criteria and their lack of training people for the workforce, that made the degree not relevant to working in academic libraries—and any position. “Library schools admit students who can meet success in the classroom, rather than on the job,” he argued.

Education, or training…
Arguing for the MLS, Liz Bishoff, director of digital preservation services at BCR, argued that the MLS was necessary because it fosters shared values—values essential to the transition to the future of the digital library. Library schools, Bishoff said, rightly “focus on educating rather than training.”

Overall, the session lacked the humor and pop of previous ACRL debates—and the debaters—staked with arguing positions not necessarily their own views, as Neal noted—seemed somewhat reticent to hammer their positions home. Commenters, however, had no such reticence, and stepped to the microphones to deliver their thoughts. Graduates “are expected to be sheep,” noted one. “No two libraries are alike,” noted another.

One commenter made perhaps the most potent observation of the day about the MLS and the job: “The only way to get better pay is to get the MLS.”