Comments for Standards Review

Comment on 4. Final Report of the Presidential Task Force on Library Education by admin

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:04:27 +0000

We have reorganized this site. The following comment was left on a now deleted page that contained the COA Response to the Final Report (now included on this page). It was left by Kathleen de la Peña McCoo on 08.10.09 at 11:31 am:

“The Schedule of formal calls for comment on revisions: 15 Dec 2010; 15 Dec 2011 is thorough. I look forward to the wide-ranging discussion this will gather.”

Comment on 2. 2008 Standards by Carl Paulson

Carl Paulson — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:19:26 +0000

The several references to diversity serve no useful purpose. What we should be doing, to serve all populations, was codified a long time ago by S. R. Ranganathan. All we need to do is to change “book” to “information source,” and “reader” to “user.” We don’t need to beat this concept verbally to death. It is implicit in our profession.

Comment on 4. Final Report of the Presidential Task Force on Library Education by Bernie Sloan

Bernie Sloan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:49:03 +0000

Maybe someone can clarify something I just don’t understand about the reactions to the final report of the ALA Presidential TF on Library Education.

From what I’ve read, the ALA Executive Committee referred the TF report to the Committee on Accreditation in mid-January. Despite the perceived controversial nature of the report’s recommendations, it seems to have languished in some sort of limbo for four or five months.

The TF recommendations don’t seem to have been highlighted in American Libraries or Library Journal until May. Two organizations directly involved in LIS education (the iSchools and ALISE) did not submit responses until late May (iSchools) and late June (ALISE), despite the controversial nature of the recommendations. If I remember correctly, ALISE didn’t contact its institutional members for comments until early June.

The very earliest traffic I can recall on this topic on the jESSE list, which is dedicated to LIS education, is dated 5/20/09.

So, why did it take so long for this important report to hit the radar screens of LIS practitioners and educators, when it was referred to the ALA Committee on Accreditation in mid-January?

Just wondering…

Comment on 2. 2008 Standards by Ann

Ann — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:36:14 +0000

Linda and Lori’s comments compelled me to take a second look at Section II.5. Accreditation standards as they relate to school librarians need to provide for obtaining background, if not complete licensure, as educators. After 34 years as an educator who had been licensed in 3 states, 22 of them as a certified library media specialist and one who received National Board Certification, I moved to another state,granted temporary licensure, only to be unceremoniously dumped before I could complete this state’s LM certification and was subsequently replaced by someone who wasn’t nearly as qualified as an educator.
I am hoping that this revision will encourage schools of library/information to work in concert with state boards of education to help determine who is really best qualified for school library positions.

Comment on 2. 2008 Standards by Mary

Mary — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:50:03 +0000

An undergraduate library degree is important for small libraries. This would provide a trained, or at least informed, workforce for small and rural libraries. Since many librarians receive their Masters degree online, they can work in the field with a background of knowledge that would be a winning situation for both them and the library they work at.

Comment on 2. 2008 Standards by Ibironke Lawal

Ibironke Lawal — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:13:00 +0000

I commend your task force for the work already done on Library
Education. I have gone through the report and read the comments of the
deans of iSchools.I tend to agree that some flexibility is needed in
this fast moving technological world and a solely prescriptive core
curriculum may not serve the institutions or profession well. However,
the Committee on Accreditation could prescribe the number of hours that
should be devoted to certain competencies in the curriculum. For
instance, three credit hours of exposure to research methodology for
both quantitative and qualitative research methods are grossly inadequate.

I wish you happy deliberation.

Sincerely,

Ibironke Lawal, Ph.D.
Associate Professor/Engineering & Science Librarian
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA 23284-2033
Phone: 804-828-8739
Fax: 804-828-5672

Comment on 2. 2008 Standards by Kathleen Stipek

Kathleen Stipek — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:25:11 +0000

As long as library schools are concealing themselves under rubrics like Information Studies, there is no way that an emphasis on library services is ever going to ‘take.’ Right now library schools are so eager to be Anything But Library Schools that they seem almost ashamed of libraries. Academia needs to face the fact that most library school graduates work in libraries and get over their desire to become a pseudo social science.
Then, perhaps these ideals will be implemented, and American librarianship can be restored to its roots in public service.

Comment on 4. Final Report of the Presidential Task Force on Library Education by Judy Tapiero

Judy Tapiero — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:54:03 +0000

I am neither a library school professor nor a librarian of renown or academic achievement. I am an MLS consultant and have just celebrated 21 years of working mostly with special libraries: non-profits, corporate, business and consulting firms to turn their libraries and information centers into functioning, PROFITABLE, information assets for their organizations.

We are lacking in teaching any of this at iSchools. I looked in vain in the Recommendations document for any hint of change or recognition of the importance of MARKETPLACE and BUSINESS SKILLS having a prominent place in the curriculum and for addressing the real situations that librarians face in the workplace. Many of the competencies are the same as when I went to library school nearly 40 years ago — except for tech of course. But the world has changed, the profession has changed, libraries have changed and we are still teaching the same old same old.

No wonder that the articles I have written over the last 15 years have all been rejected; that comments I made in St. Louis in 2000 to Jim Matarazzo of Simmons at the KM meeting about offering business courses or joint programs with any of the business schools in the area were met with “my Dean would laugh me out the door.”
And more recently, when I asked Stephen Abram about why there weren’t any professional examinations or (re) certification (exc. for school) that is the hallmark of a profession (MD, DDS, Acct., Eng, Arch), he said “most librarians would fail.” Now that’s a real show of confidence!

There are a few library schools (Syracuse, UNC, Drexel to name a few) that do gear their curricula to the real world and not the academic but first of all we need to get faculty who have actually worked outside academia to teach not just theory (even conflicting theories among those teaching the same course) but actual case studies on how to go about planning a library turnaround, for example, or how to merge three libraries; how to write a stratgic plan, a budget, a marketing strategy; or how to revisit and revise actual job descriptions to prevent someone from being fired, or how to embed the library so that its functions continue, albeit in a different form.

There are so many real-life situations that can be taught and must be taught before graduation so that a librarian has some idea of the challenges that await and doesn’t go into a job thinking “I will learn everything I need to know on the job.” Wrong. Does a doctor say this, or an accountant or an engineer? They are ready to apply the skills they have learned in a job for which they are qualified. I wish librarians thought this way.

The one accommodation iSchools have made to this are the hiring of a few Adjunct Professors. But they are just that, adjunct, to be let go at will, not to be considered full faculty with the same privileges. But they are the ones who teach the PRACTICAL and who impart valuable lessons about what issues and trends are happening in the marketplace. For the most part, their courses are also the best-attended because students crave their knowledge and experience.

The PRACTICAL is not taught in library school and “history of libraries” or “admin” in this case would seem totally irrelevant and not serve the interests of the students, current and future. Students should be required to spend 150 hours working during their MLS program. Many schools do require this but many do not. “Independent study” should change its name to reflect what it is: Work experience for credit.

To sum up, our library school students need:

1. Programs that offer courses with a business focus, either in house, or jointly with business/law and other graduate programs

2. Faculty who have real world experience working in libraries (or alternative settings) and who bring that experience to teaching

Judy Tapiero, President
The Organized Library
Baltimore Maryland
http://www.theorganizedlibrary.com

ALA Member

Director, Maryland Chapter SLA
2008-2010

Comment on 2. 2008 Standards by Lori Carter

Lori Carter — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:21:25 +0000

I would like to expand upon Linda Polak’s comment. I came to the school library profession after attaining a degree in elementary education. I agree that having an undergraduate degree in education is essential. If school library media specialists are expected to collaborate and work with education professionals – as well as show leadership as an educator – it is paramount to their success. Additionally, there is a vast missing component in school library education at the graduate level. Connections must be made to the schools of education that reside within collegiate institutions. Schools of education must link the standards, knowledge and competencies of exemplary teaching to the information literacy skills, knowledge, and competencies of exemplary school librarianship. Effective teaching requires the knowledge of available resources, ethical use of information, and the ability to integrate these skills (among others) in teaching and learning. When I obtained my degree in education, I had no introduction or explanation of how or why I should integrate my teaching with the library media specialist in my school. These connections are imperative, as classroom educators become school administrators. While the connection to another collegiate institution is implied in, “other fields of knowledge”, I believe the connections should be much more explicitly stated with regard to school librarianship.

Comment on 4. Final Report of the Presidential Task Force on Library Education by Tom Wilding

Tom Wilding — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:27:59 +0000

I routinely use the Library and Information Studies Education and Human Resource Utilization, a Statement of Policy, the most recent version of which was approved by the ALA Council in 2002 as ALA policy. In preparing for class tomorrow, I re-read this, and found several points in it interesting in light of the task force report and recommendations and of the recent conversations about them. I’ll quote them here so you don’t need to go find them:

#27. Certain practical skills and procedures at all levels are best learned on the job rather than in the academic classroom. These relate typically to details of operation which may vary from institution to institution, or to routines which require repetition and practice for their mastery. The responsibility for such in-service parts of the total preparation of both librarians and supportive staff rests with libraries and library systems rather than with the programs of library and information studies.

#28. The objective of the master’s programs in library and information studies should be to prepare librarians capable of anticipating and engineering the change and improvement required to move the profession constantly forward. The curriculum and teaching methods should be designed to serve this kind of education for the future rather than for the practice of the present.

#30. In recognition of the many areas of related subject matter of importance to library service, library and information studies should make knowledge in other fields readily available to students, either through the appointment of staff members from other disciplines or through permitting students to cross departmental, divisional, and institutional lines in reasoned programs in related fields. Intensive specializations at the graduate level, building upon strengths in the parent institution or the community, are a logical development in library and information studies.

It would seem to me that there is at least a hint of disconnect between ALA policy as embedded in this document and the philosophy that parented the core competences and the policies that are recommended in the task force report.