Dear Sharon, et al.,
At first, I was going to reply personally to Sharon, but I decided to
share my experience with you all.
I know from my "final research project" that there is great variance
among the schools in terms of requirements and offerings (the title of
my project is "Cataloging Course Requirements in ALA-accredited Master's
Programs in the U.S.", but was much more involved than the title
implies, covering the program requirements and offerings at all the
schools and the entire history of LIS accreditation standards and
education, in addition to the cataloging course requirements and the
contents of those courses). At my school (GSLIS at QC, or Graduate
School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College in Flushing,
NY), a "final research project" was, and I believe still is, required.
But, just as the schools vary in their requirements and offerings, at
QC's GSLIS, at least when I was enrolled, when it comes to the "final
research project", there is also great variance in what is required, and
my experience is a perfect example. My professor required me, who was
working on the project by myself, to do a project so comprehensive and
involved that it took me years to complete and at the end I had what was
the equivalent of two "final research projects" plus a Ph.D. thesis, yet
was only granted an MLS. At the same time, the general requirement was
merely to produce the simplest of "final research projects", working in
groups as large as six. Need I say more?
As you can imagine, I still harbor anger over my experience. Had I had
the courage to stand up to her, and had it even occurred to me to do so
(though I do remember questioning her about it), I would have refused to
do what my professor instructed me to do, i.e., adding the equivalent of
a Ph. D. thesis to my "final research project". Thank you all for
letting me vent.
Paula Abisognio, Catalog Librarian (and Accidental Unicorn System
Administrator)
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor, NY
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Sharon Foster
> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 7:08 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Three years of NGC4LIB - reflections?
>
> This is an area that definitely needs an overhaul. At my school--and
> maybe at some others, I'm guessing--a one-semester research and
> evaluation class takes the place of a master's thesis. At least one
> paper gets published almost every semester, so I know it's not
> impossible, but in general I think it's very difficult to come up with
> a topic that is interesting, important, useful, and doable in one
> semester. People I've spoken to who graduated 10 or more years ago
> were not even required to take the research and evaluation class.
>
> Can we take a quick straw poll here? How many of you who have an MLS
> (or variations thereon) had to write a thesis, or, if it wasn't called
> that, do a major research project? How long did you get to complete
> it? Rather than clutter up the list, you can reply to me and I will
> aggregate the results.
>
> Sharon M. Foster, 91.7% Librarian
> Speaker-to-Computers
> http://www.vsa-software.com/mlsportfolio/
Received on Thu Mar 12 2009 - 21:03:00 EDT