Down among the Morlocks
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ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
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| Natura: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Lingua: | en |
| Pubblicazione: |
2012
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| _version_ | 1867181129175400448 |
|---|---|
| author | Lonergan, David |
| author_facet | Lonergan, David Lonergan, David |
| collection | Education Resources Information Center |
| contents | Down among the Morlocks Lonergan, David Library Schools College Libraries Libraries Librarians Academic Libraries Library Education Library Science Tenure College Faculty Few academic librarians ten or fifteen years ago would have believed that those days of flat-lined budgets and miniscule raises could ever seem a golden (or at least silver) age by comparison. It turns out that there is something even worse than uncertainty, however--the absolute certainty of budgetary constriction and unwise decisions. Fluctuations in enrollment and other sources of institutional income have long served as justification for growth in the proportion of part-time employees. Over the past few years another troubling pattern has emerged, one that might be termed the trivialization of the MLS. Some college libraries have systematically lowered the requirements for "librarian" positions until (in some cases) there is not even an absolute need for a bachelor's degree, much less an MLS. Library operating staff members are allowed to count years of experience as somehow equivalent to years of undergraduate and library school education. It is evident that many libraries have tried to deal with the very real problems facing them by carrying out variations on the techniques used by teaching faculty: change (lower) the requirements for librarians, hire fewer full-time librarians, and withhold benefits from part-time academic employment. It is evident that librarians can do nothing to solve the problem of graduate program excesses, but they can and should do something about their version of this issue, the exploited part-time or quasi-librarian. The forward-looking library can purposefully hire "associate" types--but then pay them decent salaries, work to make benefits available, and provide training and experience in many areas of librarianship. One may complain that benefits do not grow on trees, and certainly this is a time when health and other benefits of full-time workers are under attack. One way to deal with this problem would be to take both librarian and operating staff positions, when opened by retirement or resignation, and create an equivalent number of associate positions with full benefits, and salaries intermediate to both. Tuition in online MLS programs could be paid, at least in part, in order to help the associate become a trained librarian if s/he wanted to do so. While some have reservations about the online MLS, many of its issues are related to lack of library experience. If part or all of the tuition could be paid, it would be possible for experienced library associates to become fully trained librarians; not all would care to, but the option should exist. (Contains 13 footnotes.) |
| format | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| id | eric_EJ970412 |
| institution | ERIC Institute of Education Sciences |
| language | en |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| record_format | eric |
| spellingShingle | Down among the Morlocks Lonergan, David Library Schools College Libraries Libraries Librarians Academic Libraries Library Education Library Science Tenure College Faculty Down among the Morlocks Lonergan, David Library Schools College Libraries Libraries Librarians Academic Libraries Library Education Library Science Tenure College Faculty Few academic librarians ten or fifteen years ago would have believed that those days of flat-lined budgets and miniscule raises could ever seem a golden (or at least silver) age by comparison. It turns out that there is something even worse than uncertainty, however--the absolute certainty of budgetary constriction and unwise decisions. Fluctuations in enrollment and other sources of institutional income have long served as justification for growth in the proportion of part-time employees. Over the past few years another troubling pattern has emerged, one that might be termed the trivialization of the MLS. Some college libraries have systematically lowered the requirements for "librarian" positions until (in some cases) there is not even an absolute need for a bachelor's degree, much less an MLS. Library operating staff members are allowed to count years of experience as somehow equivalent to years of undergraduate and library school education. It is evident that many libraries have tried to deal with the very real problems facing them by carrying out variations on the techniques used by teaching faculty: change (lower) the requirements for librarians, hire fewer full-time librarians, and withhold benefits from part-time academic employment. It is evident that librarians can do nothing to solve the problem of graduate program excesses, but they can and should do something about their version of this issue, the exploited part-time or quasi-librarian. The forward-looking library can purposefully hire "associate" types--but then pay them decent salaries, work to make benefits available, and provide training and experience in many areas of librarianship. One may complain that benefits do not grow on trees, and certainly this is a time when health and other benefits of full-time workers are under attack. One way to deal with this problem would be to take both librarian and operating staff positions, when opened by retirement or resignation, and create an equivalent number of associate positions with full benefits, and salaries intermediate to both. Tuition in online MLS programs could be paid, at least in part, in order to help the associate become a trained librarian if s/he wanted to do so. While some have reservations about the online MLS, many of its issues are related to lack of library experience. If part or all of the tuition could be paid, it would be possible for experienced library associates to become fully trained librarians; not all would care to, but the option should exist. (Contains 13 footnotes.) |
| title | Down among the Morlocks |
| topic | Library Schools College Libraries Libraries Librarians Academic Libraries Library Education Library Science Tenure College Faculty |
| url | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ970412 |