There is a solution to your problem, Karen. You need to find a cataloging
job in an academic institution that has a doctoral program you can pursue
part time. I worked at Wayne State U full time as a librarian while taking
my classes. I grant you that my degree is in higher education and not in
library science, but it is an earned doctorate. I did not go into debt
while getting the degree for we have a tuition benefit. Yes, it was
difficult to balance the demands of both environments, but it did allow me
to accomplish my goal of an earned doctorate while being able to support my
family in the style to which we had become accustomed.
The Marx article is exactly why my course covers theory in the lectures but
the term project is actually cataloging some books. Unlike many of you on
the list, my last assignment was providing system support to some 20
libraries that were sharing an automated system. Many of the staff were my
former students who never thought they'd ever need to know anything about
cataloging. ......
Anaclare Evans
Librarian IV/Lecturer
Library and Information Science Program
Wayne State University
Detroit MI
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-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion List for issues related to cataloging & metadata education
& training [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karen Letarte
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 3:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: On My Mind (AL, June/July issue)
Hi, All--
As a practitioner who used to teach as an adjunct, I have been very
interested in hearing your perspectives on these critical curricular
issues. I loved teaching cataloging/IO and wish I could do more of it.
I agree with Dr. Carlyle that recruitment among the doctoral ranks is a
significant problem. I apologize for sounding mercenary, but I think
part of the issue is that it is so costly to get the doctorate, when you
think in terms of lost income, and then on top of that having to make a
5-year commitment to being on the tenure track is a daunting as well as
costly prospect for many. The salary issue is a huge challenge. It
simply isn't financially feasible for many people to consider a career
in academe compared to the compensation one could expect while rising
through the ranks as a practitioner. I keep hoping to see some creative
grants that might help to alleviate this situation.
-Karen M. Brown (Letarte)
Allyson Carlyle wrote:
> Hi all,
> Although there are more courses in IO & cataloging being offered (yay), an
informal survey of school websites that I did in the Winter this year shows
that fewer than 50% of schools have full-time doctoral educated faculty who
specialize in IO teaching cataloging classes (I'm planning on writing this
up for publication later in the summer). This situation seems to me to be
at the level that could be called crisis.
>
> I'm concerned that we do not have enough doctoral students who are
pursuing cataloging and who can take leadership positions in schools (as in,
leading curriculum development, etc.). I have only one student who will be
qualified to teach cataloging and who has it as her dissertation topic (I
have several other doctoral students who are IO but not cataloging). How
about the rest of you? Do you have students who will want to be cataloging
faculty when they graduate? Are you finding it as difficult to recruit as I
am?
> Allyson
>
> Allyson Carlyle
> Associate Professor
> iSchool, University of Washington
>
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Karen M. Letarte
Interim Head of Metadata and Cataloging
NCSU Libraries
Box 7111
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
(919) 515-5696
Fax: (919) 515-7292
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