Re: [CODE4LIB] Looking for your thoughts on the future of Libraries
The discussion of the value MLIS/MLS is interesting, and familiar. It is a discussion that always seems to go in one direction: namely, why do library technologists need MLS degrees? There are some pretty compelling arguments that they don't, but I'm curious what that means for librarians going forward. I went to library school during what I consider to be the Great Delusion of the Late Nineties. There was a palpable sense among MLS students and librarians that we were about to find our groove in the proto-Google web world. My intro MLS courses were chock full of readings about librarians being hired away by Fortune 500 companies to help them make sense of Information, and about these mystical skills that librarians possessed that allowed us some insight into Information that others could not possess without an MLS. What happened, of course, was that things changed quicker than MLS programs could adapt, and whether we liked it or not, our culture had moved beyond the need for librarians as gatekeepers. In the meantime, these amazing things are happening with open repositories, web services, and resource-oriented systems - things that should be front-and-center for emerging librarians, but often are skimmed because of the technical knowledge required. The result is that a lot of smaller academic libraries need to choose between enacting a really ambitious and forward-looking technology strategy, and protecting their MLS faculty lines. It seems like a doomed strategy in the long-run, but for a library director, I don't think there is an easy answer. So a lot of places try to have it both ways and fish for skilled technologists with MLS degrees. In my case, I went the other direction, currently working in a non-Library (but closely affiliated) technology group that is under the IT umbrella, despite having an MLS. So go figure... Andy On 11/24/08 3:05 PM, Jonathan Rochkind [EMAIL PROTECTED] and others wrote: interesting stuff
Re: [CODE4LIB] Looking for your thoughts on the future of Libraries
What is necessary, at least for some IT people in a library, is to have a particular interest in libraries, and particular knowledge of library's business and needs and directions. You can have some just straight IT people who happen to be working in a library, but I firmly believe that you also need people who are librarians in the sense of having special interest and knowledge in libraries. Requiring an MLIS degree is perhaps one way of trying to select these people. Of course, it's very imperfect, since you can easily be one of these people without an MLIS degree, and in truth just getting a piece of paper doesn't ensure you are one of these people either. But really, the same could be said for almost any librarian job in a library, not just IT jobs. The quality of most MLIS programs is, in my opinion, rather poor (even the best are generally only decent, not great), and I don't place much credence on this MLIS degree as any kind of an accurate gatekeeper of quality of applicants. But I think it is important that some (if not all) IT people in a library are not just IT people who happen to be working in a library, but do have a special interest in libraries, and have developed special expertise in libraries. Which is not to say that experience in IT outside of library land is not also helpful, whether in the same person, or among the mix of a library IT department or community. Jonathan Cloutman, David wrote: I have to say, I couldn't agree more with John's sentiments about the MLS not being as necessary for library technologists as the people writing these job description seem to think it is. Between the time I earned my MLIS and the time that I accepted my current position, I spent seven years as a Web developer outside of libraryland. The technical and communications skills I learned from my MLIS program helped me as a consultant, both in getting started learning the technology that I used in my practice, and developing a process in doing business analysis. However, the MLIS was simply one path to that career, and I think, based on the diversity of education I see in the IT and programming professions, it is one of many, including a formal computer science education. What I hear on the inside of libaryland to justify the MLIS requirement is something that I haven't heard as often on the outside. The core assumption seems to be, we're different, which is true, but the conclusion, which I find to be erroneous, is, therefore you must be one of us. Than means, a candidate must have a MLS. Of course this is malarkey. What makes a technologist good at their job in the vast majority of situations, in my opinion, is not the individuals knowledge of the domain that their client works in, but their ability to conduct proper business analysis in developing technical strategies, without applying too many implicit assumptions. In most cases, it is not necessary for a programmer to have specific domain knowledge to work for a particular organization or on a specific project. One needn't necessarily be a CPA or an MBA to write financial software, or to have a JD to write legal software, for instance. In some specific instances domain expertise can be helpful, but usually lack of domain expertise is successfully mitigated by a developer forming a working relationship with a non-technical domain expert. Personally, I don't see why this model, which is applied in most organizations and most situations, cannot be successfully applied in a library setting. In fact, I might go so far as to say that the MLIS in the hands of someone who's experience is primarily as a technologist, may be as much of a hindrance as a help. The fact is that they don't really teach you that much in library school that maps to the day to day operations of a library. The degree coursework generally involves a lot of information theory and reading of scholarly literature. The reality is more about maintaining regular operations and dealing with minutia of day to day decision making. If I had walked into my current job without my experience working with a diverse set of organizations (public, private, small, medium, large), and the experience of sitting down with a person who does something that I know nothing about, and then writing software for them, I would be about as useful to my current employer as a brick. If I had walked in with just the MLIS under my belt and some technical knowledge, I would have made too many assumptions about my organization, I wouldn't have asked enough questions, I wouldn't have engaged in rigorous business analysis, and I certainly wouldn't have seen the analogous nature of my library's operations with other organizations out in the world that are gasp not libraries. I'm not saying the MLIS degree is bad, or that a library technologist should think themselves unqualified for having the degree. What I am saying is libraries are unique, but that uniqueness is not in itself
[CODE4LIB] Looking for your thoughts on the future of Libraries
Call to all Librarians: I am a Master of Architecture student at Ryerson University in Toronto writing my thesis on the future of the Library amidst the flood of today's (and tomorrow's) digital technologies. I have compiled a short online survey and I could really use your thoughts and input by completing it: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pCDX5A6w8MOxvbvwaoQ7cSQ My first research deadline is coming in just over 1 week and I would really like to have some of this data included. If you could please also help me in distributing this survey to anyone else you know in the industry globally and ask them to do the same. Thank you very much for your time and assistance. Sincerely, Mark Friesner -B.EnvD (Architecture), M.IndD, M.Arch (candidate) http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pCDX5A6w8MOxvbvwaoQ7cSQ
Re: [CODE4LIB] Looking for your thoughts on the future of Libraries
mark friesner wrote: Call to all Librarians: I am a Master of Architecture student at Ryerson University in Toronto writing my thesis on the future of the Library amidst the flood of today's (and tomorrow's) digital technologies. Just a thought but perhaps a speculation on the future of libraries, especially in terms of the use of digital technologies, might consider how you worded your salutation. This list is called Code for Libraries, not Code for (or by) Librarians. Over the past several weeks I've taken notice of the many job opening descriptions that have been posted here. There have been many which describe positions which are essentially looking for developers of digital technologies but in many cases, the first requirement listed is a MLS, or basically is looking for a librarian with programming skills without consideration for a programmer (rarely do we see a degree in Computer Science in lieu of a MS) with library experience. As you might have guessed, I fall into the latter category. I've have been programming computers for over 25 years, working for a large computer manufacturer with a two letter acronym for 13 years, a stint at a well known entertainment industry company, and for the past 12 working for a library. Although the domain has changed, it's my skills as programmer/analyst/technology strategist that have led to my many contributions to the flood of digital technologies. Perhaps the future of libraries is a recognition of those that don't have a MLS degree (or a degree at all, in my case) as valuable contributors to the success of a library.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Looking for your thoughts on the future of Libraries
A second step might be to recognize that some of the most compelling uses of library-related metadata is taking—and if libraries take their role as information *providers* seriously, SHOULD be taking—place outside of the libraries and even the library world. So, perhaps we can change it to CodeLibraries ... ;) Tim On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 5:21 PM, John Fereira [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: mark friesner wrote: This list is called Code for Libraries, not Code for (or by) Librarians.
