ACQNET v2n019 (February 10, 1992) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acq-v2n019 ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 2, No. 19, February 10, 1992 ========================================= (1) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: Who's new on ACQNET today (17 lines) (2) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: New ACQNET directories to be sent (13 lines) (3) FROM: Diane Hillmann SUBJECT: Library education (32 lines) (4) FROM: Beth TenHave SUBJECT: Library education (22 lines) (5) FROM: Scott Wicks SUBJECT: Library education, acquisitions education (31 lines) (6) FROM: Richard Jasper SUBJECT: Library education (30 lines) (1) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: February 10, 1992 From: Christian Subject: Who's new on ACQNET today Mary Faust Acquisitions Fiscal Control Librarian Ball State University Libraries E-mail: 00MHFAUST@BSUVAX1.BITNET Lillian R. Mesner Head, Technical Services University of Kentucky Agriculture Library E-mail: LMESNER@UKCC.UKY.EDU Carmen Konigsreuther Socknat Acquisitions Librarian Victoria University Library E-mail: CSOCKNAT@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA and four more student from the University of Kentucky College of Library and Information Science: Michelle Godfrey Marie Ogle E-mail: MLGODF00@UKCC.UKY.EDU E-mail: MVOGLE00@UKCC.UKY.EDU Wanda Lomprey Deborah Boissonneault E-mail: WMLOMP00@UKCC.UKY.EDU E-mail: DTBOIS00@UKCC.UKY.EDU (2) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: February 10, 1992 From: Christian Subject: New ACQNET directories Last year we decided that I should send updated directories twice a year, following each ALA. I will send new ones this weekend. I warn you: They add up to about 6000 lines, so clean up your disks to make sure that you have enough room for them. As far as I know only one subscriber has a size limitation to deal with that will prevent him from receiving Part 1 of the directory. If you receive parts 2 and 3, which are small, and not part 1, it's because there was not enough room on your disk to receive it. In this case, make room and let me know so I can resend part 1 to you. (3) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 09:32:56 EST From: Diane Hillmann Subject: Library education Perhaps one answer to Barbara Boissonnas' provocative question about the value of library school is to cite my own experience on both sides of the MLS. I worked as a support staff person in three different libraries (8 years total) before finishing library school and finding a professional job. The jobs I held during those eight years were in acquisitions, cataloging, circulation and special collections. That experience was crucial for me, and has made me a better librarian. My library school experience was a real mixed bag, and I can think of only one course that unlocked any neurons at all. For years the memory of the inadequacy of my library education made it difficult for me to deal with the question of whether the MLS made the professional or vice versa. I finally decided that professional librarians are not made with an MLS and library school but just seeded by it. The vantage point of 15 years experience hasn't changed that opinion. There are people who make use of that year of graduate education, inadequate as it may be, and use it and the doors it opens to rise to a truly professional level. Others find their niche and pull the covers over their heads--and end up indistinguishable from the support staff. It's certainly possible to operate at the optimal level without an MLS, but difficult, at best. And, to be perfectly frank, sometimes the absence of an MLS coupled with the opinion that it may be unnecessary is interpreted as a lack of commitment to the profession--unfair, perhaps, but true. In the ideal world, library education would be good enough to justify the emphasis we place on an MLS--but in the meantime it serves as our best hope of broadening the outlook of the profession. (4) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 10:07 EST From: Beth TenHave <20676BPD@MSU.BITNET> Subject: Library Education Building on Lynne Branche Brown and Karen Schmidt's comments concerning the M.L.S. degree, I'd like to first say that I agree, in part, with both of them. Library school is not an intellectually challenging program. However, it provided me with a fairly thorough view of the profession as a whole. I was exposed to public, special, and academic libraries of various sizes and complexities. I had the opportunity to write a collection development policy and to develop a long range budget for a real academic institution. In my day to day life as an acquisitions librarian in a large academic library, I probably don't need this background to be good. But, having it provides me with a big picture view that I do use when I am working with bibliographers and approval profiles, planning for the future, dealing with automation, working with public services staff, developing technical services work flows, and I could go on and on. Seeing the big picture helps me make sound decisions and gives me a base with which I can reach out and understand more easily what goes on outside my unit. I have been out of library school for nearly five years. The investment of time, money, and energy I made in my M.L.S. has paid off for me. (5) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 09:48:52 EST From: Scott Wicks Subject: The magic of the M.L.S. Yes, the M.L.S makes a difference. No, the M.L.S. does not make you a good acquisitions librarian. I have never felt that what I learned in library school prepared me to take on the task of acquiring materials for a library. Sure, there was a course labeled "Acquisition of Non-book Materials." This was the only exposure I, or any other member of my class, had to the process that is acquisitions. Any guesses as to what might have been covered in such a course? We learned how to evaluate whether or not a title was appropriate for purchase. We learned about the effects of the environment on said non-book formats. We learned ... collection development. Oh, but wait! There was one class where approval slips were passed around and we walked through a flow chart of the acquisitions process--a many boxed diagram which included such steps as check the on-order file. I was, to be honest, overwhelmed by such an intricate process. I decided to become a reference librarian. What I did learn from my 18 months in library school was to consider the whole process of the library--how each part of the library relates to the others. I learned to look outward, beyond the walls (partitions) which separate Cornell Library's Acquisitions Department from Collection Development, Access Services, Cataloging, Reference, Special Collections. My M.L.S. taught me the WHY, not the HOW. I'm glad to hear that there are some M.L.S. programs which do take greater efforts to teach HOW we do the business of acquisitions. (6) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 09:39:10 EST From: Richard Jasper Subject: MLS I think it's interesting that on the one hand we complain about Acquisitions not being taught in library school curricula and on the other we say "well, maybe you don't really need an MLS to run an Acquisitions Department..." Do these two statements constitute (I will probably use these terms incorrectly!) a dichotomy or a corollary? As usual, I fall back on my own experience. I wouldn't be here without an MLS because, although I worked in an important segment of the information industry, it wasn't libraries, bookstores, publishing, or book wholesaling. The MLS, although almost completely lacking on nitty-gritty "how it's really done" information, did provide perspective, context, concepts, methodology, etc.; it was an acculturation process and, I believe in my case, a rather successful one. In my jobs at Michigan and Emory, of course, I have picked up a tremendous amount of detail regarding "how it's really done." It hasn't quite been seven years since I received my degree and I have managed to do acquisitions, collection management, reference, bibliographic instruction and supervision. I think I'm pretty thoroughly "reality-grounded" now; I've found my focus... But just because I had perspective first and focus second doesn't mean it can't work the other way round for someone else. Maybe this is more a function of my personality (generalist v. specialist) than of education for librarianship? ******* END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 2, No. 19 ****** END OF FILE *******