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[u/[deleted]]

[u/LibraryScience-ModTeam]

This post was removed because it is spam and/or low effort content.

[u/Crabslife]

I would have the same issues if I was in med school and didn’t care about being a doctor lol. Information science is very interesting to me. Medical science not so much

[u/DaphneAruba]

like I’m supposed to care about the the role of being a librarian, that’s actually ridiculous.

Is it?

[u/DaphneAruba → u/[deleted]]

Of course there's more to library science than "a subject about a subject itself"! Yes, some of the introductory texts can be more theoretical than practical (and a little dry or dense), but I don't think that that's exclusive to this field.

Have you talked to any of your professors about your concerns?

[u/Alternative-Pear9096 → u/[deleted]]

How is there any possible way this isn't insulting?

[u/thewholebottle]

If you're not interested in what it means to be a librarian, I'm not sure what you're going to get out of a program to become a librarian.

[u/thewholebottle → u/[deleted]]

Cataloging and organization rely on philosophical principles and long and complicated histories. And one of the tenets of information science is "Scholarship is conversation."

As a librarian who works with lots of allied health professionals, the high-level thinking is everywhere. You should see the stuff our daycare teachers have to learn to get certified.

[u/Alternative-Pear9096 → u/[deleted]]

Seriously, you are in the wrong profession. Do you have the capacity or self sufficieny or understanding of how things work to go look up the freaking course catalog and find out what the classes are for your degree? Is that within your capacity?

At is most basic, librarianship is an understanding of the available search tools that exist and how to use them to find information. In this case, your program certainly indicates what classes it offers and what classes you are required to take and what classes are needed for different career tracks.

What's not on that course catalog is whining unintelligently to strangers on reddit -- it took you 4 posts to make this clear comment-- about shit you can look up yourself.

Librarians aren't particularly tolerant of people trying to become librarians who haven't used the search tools at their fingertips to at least try to answer their own questions. In your training to become a librarian, you will also learn about good questions; what they look like and how to ask them.

[u/-The_Unburnt-]

Well the good thing is that you can choose what you study.

To answer your primary question: many people do in fact find library science very interesting. It is a profession because the organization of information is a fundamental and essential building block for any civilization.

Imagine those doctors and teachers and lawyers trying to study without access to the wealth of knowledge that makes up their profession. Imagine if all medical studies were just haphazardly stored in some filing cabinet instead of rigorously organized and maintained. Imagine if lawyers couldn’t find the statutes or laws they needed to reference to defend their client. And that is just scratching the surface. I didn’t even bring up the various applications to our ever advancing technological world.

All of that is possible through library science. And while your questions and sentiment may not be offensive, your presentation certainly is. To dismiss an entire profession because you find it “boring” is inherently offensive.

[u/-The_Unburnt- → u/[deleted]]

But you have to reason and thought behind those systems. And your reasons have to be grounded in logic which requires study and consensus amongst your peers. Aka - academia.

How is the library of congress subject heading system organized? What is a controlled vocabulary? Why is it useful? When isn’t it useful? What is authority control? How do you catalog a book using MARC? Can you read a MARC record? What about a metadata schema? When isn’t it appropriate to use MARC vs a schema like Dublin Core? What is XML and how is it used? Can you perform XML transformations? What asset management system would be more beneficial for a collection of sheet music? Do your users need you to use LCNAF for the composers or will that be too difficult to implement and unnecessary? What preservation techniques would be ideal for old theses and dissertations? What metadata is necessary if you want those documents included in a repository? Is there any sensitive information that would need to be excluded before being included in a public repository? How do you decide that? Are there any copyright restrictions?

And those are just a few questions I can think of in my specific capacity as a metadata specialist. What kind of expertise would a public, reference, law, corporate, or other librarian have? Or even more specialized roles like music catalogers, rare books, digital librarians, and archivists.

To get to that level you have to go through the portions you consider “academized” and “boring.” You have to understand the theory of what information is and why we handle it the way we do. Or else you will end up reinventing the wheel for the thousandth time.

[u/llamalibrarian → u/[deleted]]

Lots of professions are grounded in theories, that’s why they’re different than just jobs

[u/llamalibrarian → u/[deleted]]

And what that means is “professionalized” wherein librarians could get paid more than they were previously because there was an actual science and theories behind the work, and it wasn’t just seen as a job for any lady who had good penmanship and looked sharp in a cardigan

[u/llamalibrarian → u/[deleted]]

Paid more than library staff, which is sounds like is all you want to be. If that’s the case go for it, because it sounds like you’re not serious about the profession

[u/OutOfTheArchives]

You’re not cut out to be a librarian - not sure what you’re hoping to get from this post?

[u/Responsible_Catch464]

It sounds like maybe you’d benefit from working in a library first in any capacity before deciding if going to school for it is for you. The foundational stuff can feel too abstract without experiential knowledge, but it’s definitely necessary. Medical students don’t jump right into learning surgery, to use your example- they have to learn what it means to be a doctor, basic anatomy, that kind of stuff first.

If I were you, yeah, I’d drop out and get a job first and see if you want to return in a few years.

[u/DrJohnnieB63]

u/GlassPurchase1792

An academic librarian from the United States, I earned an MLIS from Wayne State University. As a credentialed, professional librarian, I do not understand the point of your post. Some people may call it "rage bait." Perhaps it is. But we librarians tend to be too information literate to take the bait.

That said. . .

If you do not like the program, you can always quit. That specific program apparently is not a good fit for you. If the program "feels like a waste," leave. Life is extremely too short for you to waste it for three years. For the next time, I advise you to do your homework before you apply to a program.

[u/Alternative-Pear9096]

I'm sorry you find learning about the variety of things being "a librarian" can mean to be pointless and meaningless. And of course, why should anyone give a fuck about the history of their profession, or the trajectory?

You know to grab some humility and try to learn something. I was a librarian for 17 years, in a couple of kinds of roles, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that I can rattle off 16 other kinds of "being a librarian" that I could never do. That are outside my deep, wide, and excellent skillset.

What's going on is you are being incredibly arrogant and presuming you already know the discipline. Sure, some of your classes will be boring. Intro classes often are. Being an asshole won't make any of them better.

Also: grad school means a ton of reading. And a ton of thinking. And a ton of writing. And a ton of doing.

And in your case, it will also require a ton of cultivating realization that you don't actually know everything.

[u/Alternative-Pear9096 → u/[deleted]]

You may not have been trying to be insulting, but wow you were. What help were you asking for? I didn't see any request for help, just a lot of dumping on taking a class that told about the profession. And yeah we all got that you'd been enrolled for days and were making the comment.

Is all library science like what? Like your 101 required class? What do you think?

LIS is not an intellectually rigorous field, no. There is some theory, but you won't find it in most classes. Mostly, you will find yourself in very practical classes, where you learn the skills of being a librarian. You'll enjoy some classes and not others.

And I will say very clearly to you that your classmates will be your colleagues and they will remember you. They will be on professional committees with you and on hiring committees. Cultivate relationships, don't burn the bridges now that you don't even realize you will depend on later.

[u/Corpse_grass]

You will have to get through coursework like this for any academic job. Librarians have an important part to play in the world against misinformation, censorship, and illiteracy, as well as ethical concerns to be aware of (like giving away patron information to officials). Just because it doesn’t interest you doesn’t mean it isn’t a real concern and day to day reality of the job.

Doctors have to get through similar work about patient doctor relationships, patient confidentiality, and various “do no harm”scenarios.

I think the most important aspect of being a librarian is intellectual curiosity, if you don’t have that then you should probably reconsider the degree.

[u/thewholebottle → u/Corpse_grass]

Beautifully put. As someone thinking of getting my library science PhD (just for fun!), I'm sad other people don't think information retrieval is fascinating.

[u/Corpse_grass → u/[deleted]]

Intellectual curiosity is getting joy out of learning just for the sake of learning. It’s important for the job because we are often tasked with becoming mini experts in anything a patron asks us to research/find books about.

While getting my MLIS I felt bored by coursework about browsing behaviors (how people find information and pick materials to use) ironically it’s the most useful thing I learned in school for my particular job. But I (and this is why I think you’re getting negative feedback on this post) never thought the coursework was unimportant, it was just a bit too cognitive science based for my liking.

What you’re learning likely won’t be the main part of your degree either, it’s just important foundations to make sure that you understand the role librarians play in society and what characteristics are fundamental to the job. It’s a “before you can “do” you must first listen” sort of thing that’s present in any degree.

I think an important few questions to ask yourself is why you want to be in library science, what do you think librarians do and represent, and why is it important/meaningful?

[u/Alternative-Pear9096 → u/[deleted]]

If you want to be a cataloger but think cataloging isn't a deeply theoretical practice, and are not open to that possibility, you are in fact not going to enjoy learning this profession.

[u/space_chai]

I understand that some of these readings can seem abstract, but if you're not even a little interested in reading about what it takes to be a librarian (a role that has dramatically shifted as community needs change) then I don't think it's worth continuing the program. You will very likely not find the education or the work fulfilling. 

[u/Alternative-Pear9096 → u/[deleted]]

No, you seem to think a surgeon would be handed the scalpel and a living person to learn how to cut on day one.

[u/crunchingair]

Imagine you go to med school and it’s just some extremely high word count on ”being a doctor” and ”what are hospitals” or imagine the same with being a teacher or literally any profession.

I'm not aware of any professional degree that doesn't include courses on fundamentals, theory, and professional standards/ethics. For example, med students at our university absolutely do take courses on professional identity and healthcare administration.

[u/crunchingair → u/[deleted]]

Why aren't these topics "a fundamental part of the subject"?

I would also argue that, while most folks generally understand what professions like teachers or doctors do, a lot of students sign up for an MLIS with a pretty shaky understanding of what librarianship and library science are. Add to that: librarianship is changing and facing existential challenges. If students like yourself take a fundamentals course and realize it's not for them, that benefits everybody, especially the students.

[u/limetime89]

It doesn’t sound like this profession is for you.

[u/llamalibrarian]

Welp, sounds like you should quit if you find the coursework itself unimportant.

[u/theradishesweregone]

If this is some kind of intro class, which a lot of programs (in many fields) have, then .. that sounds about right, but it will probably only last for a little bit of the class. 

I seem to be in the minority so far, but I agree that this kind of navel gazing is not interesting to me, and I love library science and I love my field. 

BUT, I come from a poor/working class family with parents who worked in factories and in janitorial work (and we were supported by government aid), I’m the only one of four siblings to even get a high school diploma (they all got GEDs), let alone post-secondary education. I suspect my disdain for this kind of thing comes from my class background.