Comments on: Job Market Stuff

By: JW Librarian

JW Librarian — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 20:11:13 +0000

I got into this profession because I was out of luck in all my other endeavors. I got tired of waiting tables and partying too hard. I have a philosophy degree I was able to get into library school easily. Now I work for a large public library, and have for years, and have done very well considering my modest talents.

I’ve yet to hit my level of incompetence, and from what I can tell, that is a long, long way up there away from me in the galaxy of administration. The sky’s the limits for me as far as I can tell.

I mean, I would have never survived as a pilot with all those expectations and skills, but as a librarian? Hmm, it ain’t brain surgery. I’m certainly not brilliant or a genius, but I excel as a librarian because of hard work and an average IQ. That is simply all it takes; I doubt there’s an effective meritocratic certification process that could accurately measure what it takes to be a good librarian. You either have a good work ethic and the ability to learn technology relevant to your job or you don’t and it’s the latter who don’t belong, but that’s not saying all that much.

By: me

me — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:28:41 +0000

Or, they could *gasp* allow an undergraduate degree in library science make individuals eligible for certain jobs. ALA means to tell me that a person with a bachelor’s degree is eligible to teach elementary aged children in the classroom but a librarian needs a MLIS to do story time and plan children’s programming?

By: Dane

Dane — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 23:40:16 +0000

Here is the actual text, so, make of it what you will.

http://www.valdosta.edu/mlis/documents/April2012UpdatedConditionalAnnouncement.pdf

By: Dane

Dane — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 23:33:16 +0000

Okay then let me say that if they keep up to the standards at which they are currently operating, and follow the guidelines which have been set, then they should be out of conditional status by 2014. I know that it doesn’t have an expiration date. I am not an idiot. I do know that losing it is a possibility, but I don’t think it is likely, because I think that the program is on track to have the status removed. Is that better?

By: Pseudonym Anonymous

Pseudonym Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:46:57 +0000

Conditional status does not have an expiration date. VSU will have to pass a comprehensive review, and losing accreditation is still a possibility.

By: Penny

Penny — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:55:44 +0000

@Jean-now I see what you were saying. I am right there with you about the ability to weed out those employees that are incompetent. As things stand now, in a library with civil service positions, weeding out those folks is pretty close to impossible.

By: Dane

Dane — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 22:35:11 +0000

The status will cease to be conditional as of 2014. I’m a VSU graduate. I found a job about a month after graduation. As far as the instructors at VSU, yes they are realistic about job prospects. They are realistic about the difficulties, and they have a lot of opportunities to gain experience working in the field. I’m a reference librarian currently at a small liberal arts college. Other friends of mine have also found positions although it took a while to get something full time. I think to find a job now you have to be willing to relocate, or try something outside the box, so to speak, just to get your feet in the door.

By: Jean Costello

Jean Costello — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 02:59:19 +0000

Hi Penny – I referred to the article in response to Joey’s suggestion of a graduated training program for librarianship.

A program modeled after pilot training & certification might better match the content and cost of library training to employment opportunities. It might also help weed out incompetent library staff thereby freeing up positions for the abundance of library degree holders that have been unable to find employment.

By: Penny

Penny — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:49:31 +0000

I am a librarian and proud to be one, but I don’t think that being a librarian is comparable to being a pilot. Pilots literally are responsible for the lives of people; librarianship does not. Yes, you could say we improve the lives of people, but that is not the same as being responsible for the lives of passengers is a problem happens and you have to take drastic action to pilot the plane. Being a pilot is a highly desirable profession, and as the article says, many commercial pilots get their training in the military. In order to qualify for the flight hours required, many take low paying jobs and they know that eventually there will be opportunities for the skills they possess. The general public is fully aware of the skills that pilots have and wants to be assured that pilots have the necessary skills and training to do the job. I don’t think you can say that about librarians-most people think the person at the check-out desk is the librarian.

By: Jean Costello

Jean Costello — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:46:41 +0000

Joey - James Fallows has posited a competency-based model in The Atlantic. Here's an article summarizing some of his argument with a link to the full piece. Fallows draws attention to the way pilots are trained and re-certified. I can easily imagine it working in a range of professions, including librarianship. The pilot-licensing system was built on the premise that competence was divisible: people can be good at one thing without being being good at others, and they should be allowed to do only what they have mastered. As opposed to receiving a blanket license, the way members of other professions do, pilots must work their way up through four certificate levels, from student to air-transport pilot, and be specifically qualified on each kind of aircraft they want to fly. What's more, a pilot must demonstrate at regular intervals that he is still competent. To keep his license a pilot must take a review flight with an instructor every two years, and the pilots for commercial airlines must pass a battery of re-qualification tests every six months. "A small but regular percentage is washed out each time," John Mazor, of the Air Line Pilots Association, says. It is reassuring to know they are gone, but what about their tenured counterparts in the other professions?