Position posting

[Carolyn Wilson]

At 07:51 18/11/96 -0800, Temple Hoff   wrote:
  Having a degree does imply that 
>one has achived a certain level of mastery.  Where I hiring someone, I 
>would tend to look harder at non-grad applicants and assume that those 
>with degrees must know something.  However, to get snooty about it, and 
>claim some superiority that cannot be attained by mere mortals is, well, 
>laughable, and shows some amount of insecurity in your own skills.

This method of communication has such wonderful possibilities for
misunderstanding!! :-) 

I certainly don't suggest that a degree is the answer to everything, and I
believe that experience is the greater teacher of all, and I am delighted to
work with people who are self-taught and have a very high level of skills in
their area of expertise, especially in the the new areas of technology. I
simply used my own case as an interesting example which allows me a view
into both areas, as I have both qualifications and experience in both
professions.

I believe the issue  is not one of skills, I accept that you don't need a
degree to become highly skilled in a particular area, but rather one of
approach, understanding, attitude, ability to see the wider implications...
We also have some highly skilled people who don't have a librarianship
qualification who know our systems upside down, who have been here 20 years
and we would struggle to survive without them. But if we employ a
professional librarian, we expect them to have a librarianship
qualification. The library profession has fought for many years to gain this
recognition. Why then should librarians not accord the same recognition to
other professions?

My main point which I will repeat is that the distinctions are fading, and
that as librarians move more towards becoming electronic information
providers and trainers, we - both professions - need to look more at what
skills and training such people - whatever they might be called - will need,
and work out how best to provide them. It is fine to say that new graduates
have them, but they don't have the wealth of experience, and the more
experienced do at times find it difficult to move to a new paradigm.


>	I work with a library assistant that was been with our library 
>for 22 years.  There isn't a library on our staff that would question 
>where library skills.  She has no degree.  I have heard from some of our 
>librarians that they feel their library skills are not up to her level.  
>Not being a librarian, I can't judge her.  I can only say that her peer 
>librarians feel that she has "acquired the same level of expertise" as 
>they have, or greater.

Carolyn Wilson
Library Systems Officer
Murdoch Library
Murdoch University
Western Australia
phone:(09) 360 6556
fax: (09) 310 2780
c_wilson at portia.murdoch.edu.au