Me? I was cleaning toilets with a PhD in physics. I have no patience for people who think their education makes them too good to do something that needs to be done. That education and higher pay means they have more responsibility, not less. And one of their responsibilities is to identify what needs to be done and make sure it’s getting done, even if they have to do it themselves.

(That’s a lesson from the business world, too: whatever it takes, keep the business moving and the customers happy. I’ve never had a manager that wouldn’t join in the scut work with everyone else.)

Several issues come to mind with getting an MLS: money, limited access and responsibilities at home. That is my story.

I have seen where some unprofessional MLS holders have treated support staffers like slaves. Setting them up for failure because the MLS holder does not know how to train them. The turnover in those jobs are high, pay so low it is laughable – welfare gives more.

I think you have some good points here. The degree should make the tasks performed beyond that of someone without the degree. Should such a leet librarian get their hands dirty in the trenches (shelves) or check out books? I think so. I went from student worker, to staff, to librarian at 3 different institutions. Each had a different feeling for how to divide the labors of the library.

Does this degree make us a “master” of the library? Sadly no, as it more often than naught should be seen as a admission ticket to a rather elitist club.

The real question shouldn’t be about degree level but why we still attach science to this qualification.

On the other hand, the reason I put off going to library school for so many years is that I worked with far too many librarians who abused their professional status, mostly by bullying the paraprofessionals. These so-called professionals delighted in regularly reminded us that because they had their degrees they were better than the paraprofessionals could ever hope to be. Never mind that they were making questionable decisions that made the library look bad or took years to correct. As far as I’m concerned, the idea that possession of an MLIS is an indication of competence is one of the biggest shortcomings of the profession. Having the degree absolutely does NOT make you a good librarian; it’s what you do with the opportunities afforded by an MLIS that define your status as a professional.

The archives classes I took were usually more academically rigorous than the classes that I was required to take with the library students. It was frustrating. I find it embarrassing to be associated with the librarians just because I share, in name only, the same degree. There was little overlap in the classes taken by the librarians vs. the archivists outside of the handful of classes required for everyone. I would LOVE to be able to say that I have a “Master’s Degree in Archives and Preservation” rather than a MLIS or MSIS or whatever they want to call it. I don’t consider myself a librarian.

However, I do read the AL because its fun to see people bitching (justifiably) about the degree!

yes, the MLIS is an “emperor’s got no clothes” sort of thing. No, I don’t like that the value of the MLIS seems to be that it’s a “badge of honor” which indicates we spent money, and suffered…. rather than being an indicator of having learned a body of knowledge. I don’t think it makes much sense to say, “you need to get the MLIS just to suffer as the rest of us suffered, and then you can join our club.”

BUT in this particular case… where she started it and then dropped out to pursue a degree in another field… I do have to say, “if you wanted to be a librarian so much (and not a teacher, presumably) then why didn’t you finish the degree? You made a very clear choice that you wanted to work in ANOTHER field (not that there’s anything wrong with that, perhaps a wise decision) so why would we want to consider you to be a librarian?”