MLIS

Having THREE people attending my workshop yesterday with MLIS degrees, my interest has been renewed... I often see librarian positions that seem interesting, but they pretty much all require Master's degrees. I think the work of a Librarian would be similar to that of a Terminologist in many ways: research, evaluation of sources, analysis of a subject field, classification of concepts.

Finanacially, I'm not sure an MLIS degree would be worthwhile, because librarian jobs are few and far between (hence the three librarians in my group currently working as translators/editors), and don't pay that well. But still, I've always dreamed of working in a library... I still regret not applying for the job I saw a few months ago, as director of libraries for a school board in the Gaspé region. They didn't actually have the MLIS as "required"... although of course it would surely have been a plus.

There are several MLIS programs that I could do online, including one from San José State University: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/slis/mlis_mlis.htm The program requires about 14 courses, which have to be completed in seven years.

On the LibraryThing forum, someone shared their experience with the San Jose program:

"I am in Canada and completing my MLIS from San Jose (I'm on courses #11 and 12 of 14 required). [...] I will be completing the program in December having taken one course per term originally, then a couple in the summer and two courses plus an internship in our local public library last fall.

I have found the profs to be diverse but have had excellent experience with them, a wide array of courses and applications [...]. There are three Core courses which are taken first, at whatever rate, along with a technology course and Research Methods.

[...] I really enjoyed Online Searching, Cataloging and Competitive Intelligence with Amelia Kassel who has her own business in the field. A number of the profs are Canadian including Cheryl Strenstrom from Nova Scotia who teaches Reference. There are at least 50 Canadians in the program right now and I am in touch and meet regularly with a few of them. Every year at the OLA conference, they sponsor a wine and cheese reception for students and interested people -- I just saw one advertised that is upcoming at the Library Conference in BC where there are also a large number. If you look on the SJSU SLIS website, it indicates where students are located. Ken Haycock [the school director] is a very progressive leader who initiates new endeavours on a regular basis and they recently received a 7 year ALA designation (required every few years)."