Redhaired Librarian

Wasting Time, Revisited

A few months ago, I wrote an entry about an article in the August 2005 “American Libraries.” (On My Mind: Academia’s Two-Culture Dilemma, by Mary K. Chelton. p. 41) I was bothered by the implication that school library students are a waste of time for youth services professor. It turns out the article was heavily edited, and that wasn’t quite what she said in the original article, which I was lucky enough to be able to read. There is a lot of paperwork that comes along with school library students, and a lot of frustration, and I think some schools are starting to realize that initial certification is better carried out in a different way. My own school has switched to a plan to give non-certified school librarian students an MLS and then refer them to another school for the rest of the credentials. I’m still on the old plan, but in the new plan, the extensive paperwork can be handled in a system set up for that.