ARE YOU MORE IMPORTANT OR BETTER THAN I AM JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE A DEGREE?

Library Administrator's Digest, Apr 2005 by Eldred, Heather

Every once in a while there is a spate of articles about the importance of degrees in the library world. Of course I recognize the value of advanced training in the profession of my choice, but I also recognize the extreme value of the life experiences of those I've worked with during my career. If running libraries were only left up to those with master's, and doctor's degrees in library and information science, I think there would be far fewer libraries in the world ... and those that did exist would be far duller places. I read on a listserv recently that an evangelist once said "we walk around with our titles on a tag attached to our forehead. They mean nothing. If you get to heaven, they'll all be torn off. If you go to hell, they'll all be burned off!"

M.L.S. or masters of anything ... B.S., Ph.D., high school diploma ... the title doesn't make you. YOU make you. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Advanced training is important in any field and I wouldn't want the library community as a whole to operate without the general direction of folks who have received those higher degrees ... and I do at least somewhat agree that advanced degrees are "worth" a higher salary - at least to start with. But, having the piece of paper only means that you were in a life situation that allowed you to go to college and you took advantage of it. It doesn't mean that you are smarter or more devoted to our common task of providing open access to information.

I'll assume that readers grasp the idea that I get really upset when I hear that people are sometimes kept from offering their skills and creativity to our field - just because they don't have the recognizably "right" piece of paper hanging on their office wall. By my definition, those who act in a way that shows they care about our mission are "professionals" and deserve the respect of all who work with them.

-Heather Eldred, in The Lamplighter, Wisconsin Valley (WI) Library Service, February 2005