From: Amy Comeau @ METLIFE on 03/28/97 03:20 PM
Cynthia said
"If we don't think it is necessary, why expect a lawyer, administrator, or
member of the general public to believe that it is necessary? Law firm
administrators are going to pay as little as they can get away with paying
to have someone maintain their libraries."
[snip]
" The weeding, collection development, budgeting, cataloging, space
planning, complicated database searching, and hiring support staff, all
take a degreed librarian. The ability to see the big picture as well as
the ability to focus on the small details are all part of our training.
The ability to evaluate which books or databases should be part of a
library and why those choices were made are also part of what makes a
librarian. The willingness to learn and the ability to embrace new ideas
and technologies are also what makes a librarian."
I was going to stay out of this round of the credentialist wars, but I had
to respond to this. As you all already know, I am a non-degreed
professional librarian, educated both on-the-job over 13 years, and by AALL
institutes, seminars, annual meeting programs, etc. I have also been in a
position over the years to interview and hire library school graduates and
students, and I can emphatically state that not one of them had the
training to which Cynthia refers. Not one of them saw more than the
briefest introduction to her laundry list of capabilities that only the
degreed can handle. I'd rather hire someone with 2 years of real law
library experience than the 2 year degree.
Come on... everyone here knows that it doesn't require an MLS to learn to
be a good law librarian. It can be valuable for those who know *nothing*
about libraries, but for those of us in the profession already, it offers
nothing. Mobility? Not even that, necessarily. I didn't find it an
obstacle to finding a new job, for much more money and prestige. And my
old firm didn't pay me one dime less than the degreed professional who
replaced me. So the "firms underpay the non-degreed" is a canard as well.
If AALL wants to establish standards for the profession, let us establish
substantive standards and not rely only on academic credentials. Even in
graduate schools, you can "test out" of courses with which you're already
familiar. Let us look to the Records Management world, and establish
something like the CRE, which is test-driven, if we want to add meaningful
letters after our names.
Not necessarily, but probably, my employer's opinion.
Amy Comeau voice 212-578-3112
Manager, Legal Information Resources fax 212-578-3916
Metropolitan Life Insurance email acomeau@metlife.com
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