On Mon, 7 Dec 2009, Buzz Haughton wrote:
> I think I'm better than nothing.
And of course you are much better than that Mr. Haughton. Certainly the
arrangements of academic staff, clinical faculty, part timers, adjuncts
differ from institution to institution and the uses of these arrangements
to enchance, enrich, and advance our field through teaching, research,
service are benefits. And, thank you Suzanne Stauffer for your comments.
You made my points much better and clearer.
I am not sure why this conversation has turned into an "either/or"
conversation-- there are, in the example of the United States, ALA
accredited and non-ALA
accredited graduate library science programs that require cataloging or at
least offer cataloging. So somebody needs to teach these courses.
Sometimes it is adjuncts or clinical faculty. Sometimes it is full time
tenure track faculty. And this is not just true for cataloging--- it is
true for other portions of the LIS curriculum. But of course this list
concerns cataloging.
If a person is thinking of getting the PhD in the hopes of teaching
cataloging, then by all means pursue the doctoral degree. Is it absolutely
necessary to have in order to teach? In some cases, no. Ads will state
what the minimum qualifications are.
And as Suzanne Stauffer has pointed out, if you are hired in a tenure
track appointment, the expectation is that you will teach a variety of
courses and some will not be in your research area/interest but likely in
your professional experience (yes, real librarians get the PhD and become
library school faculty).
To get back to the original point of this thread, if you are interested in
earning the PhD with the hope of teaching cataloging, by all means do so.
I think this discussion started by an individual asking about online PhD
programs. San Jose State U was mentioned as having one. On another list
that I follow, a person mentioned earning his PhD online through the
Department of Information Science, Faculty of Engineering,
Built Environment, and Information Science. The individual consulted
"Professor Tom Wilson's World List of Schools and Departments of
Information Science, Information Management and Related Disciplines, which
the ALA recommends as a source of LIS education" (Frank Exner, Little
Bear, on StanleyK Yahoo Groups, September 15, 2009).
If you can teach cataloging, offer yourself to a library school. One isn't
near by? Offer to teach online. Will the offers be answered right away?
No. Scheduling, finances, and a host of day to day stuff may bog down the
process. But again, if you want to teach cataloging, just get started.
Maybe put on a workshop to get your name out there.
lp
On Mon, 7 Dec 2009, Buzz Haughton wrote:
> I'm one of those MLS-only cataloging instructors working as adjunct faculty
> at the School of Library and Information Studies at the U of Alabama. Before
> I came on two semesters ago, there had been no cataloging teacher at SLIS
> for nine years, according to the full-time faculty member assigned to
> instruct me in online software, etc.
>
> I've been a cataloger for almost thirty years now. If someone had asked me
> about the theoretical underpinnings of cataloging fifteen years ago
> (metadata, etc.), I would not have known what they were talking about. I've
> since then educated myself, but I can't say that learning the theory has
> enhanced my cataloging. It has enhanced my understanding of what's on the
> horizon, i.e. RDA.
>
> Reactions to my class are mixed. Those who want theory don't get enough; I
> spend the first and second weeks of the once-a-week-for-three-hours course
> discussing theory, and then I delve right into what I'm dating myself by
> calling the nitty-gritty. I barely have enough time in a semester to go over
> descriptive cataloging, subject analysis, classification and then books,
> serials, sound recordings, videos/DVDs and web pages. (I usually don't have
> time to say anything about maps.) But some of the students have remarked
> that I'm the only instructor they had during their library school tenure who
> actually does what he teaches on a daily basis, and they appreciate that.
>
> If I could get a Ph. D., I think I would like doing so, and I have no doubt
> it would make me a better instructor. But in the world-of -today library
> schools, where cataloging is no longer a required course and it appears
> there are not enough willing instructors, I think I'm better than nothing.
>
> Buzz Haughton
> 100 NW Quad
> Davis CA 95616-5292
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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