You're right - it's been discussed for years & the idea of certification
rejected but our profession as well as so many other things, has changed
dramatically ....
I don't feel comfortable w/ a consensus that is the same one as 20-30 yrs.
ago.... If we have held that same consensus & yet we still have not
progressed beyond the same problem, then perhaps our current ops. are not
working & a different approach is in order, IMHO
Karen
>It's interesting that Bryan Carson brings up the issue of certification.
>This was tried by AALL in the 1960's and 1970's and then ended in the
>1980's.
>
>I'm not sure where I stand on the issue but in reviewing the recently
>released AALL report Toward a Renaissance in Law Librarianship
>in preparation for a program on the future of librarians and library
>education California that I participated in as a panelist, I came across
>comments by Peter C. Schank which were seconded by Richard Danner and
>William Mills agruing against law librarian certification.
>
>Richard Danner said in the divergent views section of the document, "I
>would be stronger than Peter in expressing opposition to a rebirth of a
>certification program for law librarians. The issues facing us
>individually and as a profession are too large and too important for any
>of ur energies to be consumed in consideration of this issue. I think
>that few outside our own field would consider certification as a law
>librarian to be a meaningful credential, and that many would consider an
>effort to promote it now to be simply an attempt at self preservation by
>a group doubtful of its future." Toward a Renaissance in Law
>Librarianhsip, 65 (1997)
>
>I would recommend reading the report, recommendations and other
>materials as a way of continuing thinking about some of the issues that
>Bryan Carson and others have brought out in the last week or so.
>
>
>Bryan Carson wrote:
>>
>> I think that there are people who are in the positions now who are doing
great work. I don't want to cut them out of the profession. However, I
also think that perhaps we do need some kind of a professional test.
>>
>> There are bad librarians with the M.L.S. degree. I also know that those
who are fresh out of library school are often not as good as someone who has
been in the position for several years but doesn't have the degree. I do
think library school was good for me. I learned things that came in handy
after I had been in my career for a little while. However, when I first
arrived, many of the things I learned were not yet in context.
>>
>> We need to make use of the highly trained and skilled people who are in
the profession now who don't have their M.L.S. degrees. At the same time,
we need to make sure that we value the profession adequately. At one time,
not that long ago, teachers did not have to have education degrees or even
bachelor's degrees. In the early part of the century, a person with a
two-year degree or even a high-school graduate could turn around and teach.
The increase in status and (albeit small) increase in
>>
>> Here is my suggestion. Lets institute a professional test. Those who
pass it would have the right to put the title "Certified Librarian" after
their name. If they don't pass, legal action can be taken to enjoin others
from using the title. (We can do this by trademarking the term "Certified
Librarian.") I dare say that people like Bob Ryan and Amy Comeau would
easily pass that test, or perhaps (like the teachers) the people who are in
the positions now can be grandfathered in.
>>
>> New M.L.S. grads are a little more problematic. Some may say that they
are qualified by virtue of their degree. Others may remember that not all
M.L.S. people are good, and want them to take a test right away like the bar
exam. Still another model is to take a page from the accounting and
actuarial profession, and require a combination of work experience and tests.
>>
>> The only way to stop the decline in our profession is to formalize the
requirements. (This will benefit those who don't have M.L.S. degrees too,
since as "Certified Librarians" they will be able to command a higher
salary, as well as ending the feeling that some M.L.S. people look down on
them.) I think we need to form some sort of a certification committee to
look into the possibility of doing something about this. If the AALL, the
ALA, and the SLA got together, along with other groups such
>>
>> Just my two cents' worth (and probably not my employer's position). Lets
now stop shooting arrows at each other, and use the energy to benefit the
profession.
>>
>> Bryan M. Carson, J.D., MILS
>> Reference/Computer Services Librarian
>> Hamline University Law Library
>> 1536 Hewitt Avenue
>> St Paul, Minnesota 55104
>> 612-641-2063
>> bcarson@gw.hamline.edu
>>
>> *********************************************************************
>> "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves,
>> or we know where we can find information upon it."
>>
>> --Samuel Johnson
>>
>> *********************************************************************
>> All opinions expressed are my own and not my employer's.
>> All original content © 1997 Bryan M. Carson. All rights
>> reserved.
>>
>> >>> Karen Mahnk <karenpdo@mailhost.netrunner.net> 03/31/97 08:41am >>>
>>
>> But one is not an attorney merely because she/he has attained a JD - but
>> only after passing the bar..
>> The same example can be applied to medical school graduates - they may not
>> practice as Drs. w/o passing a board exam. And accountants as well...
>> Nearly every well compensated profession demands more than an educational
>> degree.. perhaps because it is well
>> known that a "sheepskin" alone does not reflect competency..
>> Only my HO..
>> Karen Mahnk
>>
>> >Mr. Ryan, if you went to work in a hospital, would you expect to be called a
>> >doctor? Nothing in my message suggests or was intended to suggest you are
>> >inferior to any other human or any other profession on earth. You are not
>> >a librarian because you lack the professional credentials of a librarian,
>> >period. People with M.L.S. degrees but no JD, but yet work in law firms,
>> >are not lawyers because they lack the professional credentials of lawyers,
>> >however high the quality of the work they do. Would you argue otherwise?
>> >
>> >Ann Puckett
>> >Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law
>> >University of Georgia School of Law Library
>> >Athens GA 30602-6018
>> >Phone (706)542-5078
>> >Fax (706)542-5001
>> >apuckett@uga.cc.uga.edu
>> >http://www.lawsch.uga.edu
>> >
>> >
>
>--
>********************************************************
>David McFadden Southwestern University
>Senior Reference Librarian School of Law Library
>(213) 738-6726 - voice 675 S. Westmoreland Avenue
>(213) 383-1688 - fax Los Angeles, California
>email - dmcfadden@swlaw.edu 90005-3992
>********************************************************
>
>
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