Today I was required to write a formal essay summing up my entire learning experience in graduate school. In December I will graduate (if this essay doesn't piss them off to much) with a master's degree in library and information science. As summed up below I feel it was a waste of time and money. I can't be the only one to think so. Here I try and summarize the reasons why and why I will probably not use my degree.
Let me know what you think.
It
is difficult to sum up my entire learning experience at SIRLS in one essay. I
find it strange that one is required to do so for graduation. Sure I’ve learned
a few things, found a few databases I’ve never heard of before, read a few
books, and written a few papers, but I really don’t think that adequately
measures what I have learned. For the past 3 years I’ve worked at an elementary
school library. First as an assistant with a certified teacher-librarian in the
library every-other day, then as an assistant with a certified
teacher-librarian once a week, and then this year as an “assistant” with no one
to assist. I run a 25,000-volume library for 650 students and 100 faculty
members. Since this has coincided almost entirely with my time at SIRLS I would
have to say that I have learned more about library science working, than I have
learned in my classes at SIRLS.
I
am not a believer in the fact that library science is in fact a science. I am
also not a believer that it should be a profession since it does not protect
the health and or safety of its clients. We are not doctors, lawyers, or
architects. Most of the classes at SIRLS seem to focus on the information
element of library science and try and convince us students that we are
gatekeepers to a difficult and highly scientific cache of information. I really
don’t find it to be so.
In
several of my classes that involved searching and databases I was taught that
databases are the be-all-end-all of information. Most of the information that I
was looking for could have been found much easier with a simple Google search
without the need for an expensive subscription to a database or aggregator. I
think most professors are so tied up in the academic world that they forget
that the majority of information seeking does not require the use of a
database. For a thesis or a doctorate degree, or anything else in the high and
mighty world of academia, sure you need databases, but for most regular people
Google works just fine. I just frustrates me to no end how it seemed during
most of time at SIRLS that the professors were desperately trying to hold on to
the ideals and force us to accept that this profession is an exclusive club.
It’s not. Information is so pervasive that almost anyone, with the appropriate
books and web sites could find anything that they wanted. It doesn’t take 2
years and 36 course work hours.
As
I proceeded through the program I was more and more frustrated and disappointed
in the program that I had selected. I conducted interviews with librarians at
my local library, spoke with teachers in my school district and read all the
industry news on the ALA web site. This
is a dying profession and by profession I mean job market. I found out that with
my degree I would be able to secure another $10-12 an hour job in a ‘real’
library at either the public or academic level. Then after working for maybe
8-12 years I would know enough to be elevated to an actual librarian position
with an enviable salary of $35-40,000, but only after one of the many
librarians ahead of me had either died or retired at the age of 70. When I
started I was under the impression that after I graduated with a master’s
degree I would be considered a librarian. But after applying for many jobs the
past few years and following hiring in my community I found that just wasn’t
so. Apparently all my years running an architectural firm and two family
businesses as well as running an elementary school library do not qualify me to
do anything but shelve books and work check-in and check-out software even with
a master’s degree in library science. Needless to say I feel that my time has
been wasted as well as my $36,000.
I
am really curious to know if you get many Final Reflection essays with content
like this. I have found the whole experience with graduate school a
disappointment. The online learning system is spotty at best. Working on group
projects was a nightmare of missed emails and botched attempts at coordination,
which strangely enough still resulted in ‘A’ grades. I don’t feel the
experience was worth the money I had to spend. Online courses should cost a
fraction of the price of real degrees that require face-to-face interaction. I
feel I will have just written a check for $36,000 in exchange for a piece of
paper that entitles me to nothing.
Now
I don’t know what the future holds. I might stumble across the perfect job that
will actually make my time at SIRLS worthwhile, but that might be years in the
future when the economy has picked back up again. Maybe I’m too close and too
frustrated to see the value of the education I received. Maybe with time and
space and a good job I’ll change my thinking. Overall I think everything that I
learned at SIRLS I could have learned by just picking up the textbook list and
reading along.
What
made me most disappointed in the program is the lack of classes that focus on
reading, literacy, and books. When I was
first looking through the course catalog it seemed as if there were plenty of
classes that coincided with my interests, but as I signed up for these classes
they were inevitably cancelled due to lack of interest. Or like what happened
last semester, I was really looking forward to the Multicultural Children’s
Literature class, only to find out that I would be required to volunteer 30
hours in a culturally diverse library. While an interesting idea, it hardly
seems possible to a mother of three who works full time and runs a few
businesses, as well as already working in a culturally diverse library. I was
informed that my time working in my library would not count. I could not take
the class.
To
me literacy and reading are the bread and butter of libraries. It seems odd
that these are topics are not found in the SIRLS curriculum. There are so many
required classes on multiculturalism, ethics, organization and technology but
where is the requirement for literacy? Where is a class that teaches teaching
skills? I spend more time instructing and teaching as a librarian than
explaining the Dewey decimal system of the Library of Congress cataloging
system. These are skills that would extremely valuable to any librarian. I just
wish there had been more options for me. This is why I think I chose the wrong
program.
I
love libraries, but more importantly I love books. They are my life. I am never
without a book and I tell everyone I know about all the great books I read. I will continue to be a huge supporter of
libraries in the future, but I think I was confused when I chose Library
Science as a graduate program. I think I should have chosen English Literature
or Publishing instead, but hindsight is 20/20. The greatest thrill I get out of
my job as a librarian is when a child comes in and tells me that they loved the
book that I directed them too. I love it when I see a child who comes to
library every week and never checks out a book. I usually find them in the
first month or two of school. I go up to them and ask the why they aren’t
checking out anything and then have a conversation with them about the things
that they are interested in and find them the prefect book. What I see next is
a changed child. They will come to me every week after that with requests for
new books and new interests and will be a converted library user ever after.
That gives me goose bumps. I make a real difference in these kids’ lives by
opening up their world to books and imagination and possibilities. That is not
taught at SIRLS. Maybe it can’t be taught at all, but is something that has to
be experienced first hand. That is what I want to do with my graduate degree,
keep helping children to see what books can do and be for them.
What
I have learned at SIRLS is that I don’t need a graduate degree to do that. I
can stay right where I am and work at the bottom level of the library job chain
and make the most difference. If I was making $100,000 a year managing a
library I would not have the impact I do now. If I was making $50,000 a year as
a children’s librarian in a public library I would not have the daily
interaction that I do now with kids. I know all 650 of my student’s names. I
know what they like to read. I know what their reading levels are. I know their
income levels and their ability to pay for lost books or not. I can give hugs
and dispense caring words along with the books. I just wish I had known this
before I decided to go to graduate school.
