What is the value of a graduate degree? It is a calculation: time plus tuition minus the chance of getting the right job after graduation. When the costs far outweigh the return, a new question might occur to graduates: Can I have my money back? Most prospective graduate students run the math before applying to a program, but it is next to…

Resulting from the collaboration between five practicing professionals and an LIS faculty member, this article illuminates the experiences of librarians and archivists who engage with LIS students on a continuous basis as guest speakers in LIS classrooms. The phenomenological approach helps to elicit first-hand accounts that encapsulate…

In the United States, the occupation of law librarianship has existed longer than the American Library Association, and law librarians have their own professional organization that is now more than 100 years old. Throughout this history, however, the related issues of degree requirements and education standards for law librarians have been…

As makerspaces and hackerspaces pop up in libraries and museums, one little lab sits in the middle of an Information School, but it is not a maker-space, a gallery, or a museum. The MuseLab, at the Kent State School of Information, is something else, something new--or perhaps something familiar, but situated in a different context, making it less…

In this article, the author proposes to present a superficial view of what is being taught in the 32 American Library Association accredited graduate library schools. She briefly discusses and answers the following three questions: (1) Who is teaching reference?; (2) What is being taught?; and (3) How is it being taught? [For the commentary on…

Cheney's paper was the first major article on the subject of teaching reference in American library schools. In the article, she addressed three questions: (1) Who is teaching reference?; (2) What is being taught?; and (3) How is it being taught? In this article, Linda Smith discusses how the teaching of reference has changed in the more than 50…

The idea of "reading the room" borrowed from the business world applies to how school library professionals can identify and responsively meet the needs of users. By stepping up to do work even when it is not requested, and yet in alignment with our mission, we can help sustain our library programs.

Croft and Barnhart share their experience when learning shifted to online at the University of West Georgia and the LibraryDen, a library mini course, was developed and used in the Multiple Literacies for School Library Media Course. Particularly impressive was the transferability of skills between the academic and school library setting.

Sweden has made great strides in school librarianship, particularly in the area of legislation and policy. School libraries are now mandated, and curriculum indicates where school librarians should play a role. School libraries must be accountable to two sets of agencies, and oversight mainly occurs at the municipal level. The main challenge…

Few academic librarians ten or fifteen years ago would have believed that those days of flat-lined budgets and miniscule raises could ever seem a golden (or at least silver) age by comparison. It turns out that there is something even worse than uncertainty, however--the absolute certainty of budgetary constriction and unwise decisions.…

Although school libraries have changed greatly since the publication of the first set of school library standards in 1920 (National Education Association and North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools 1920), each subsequent iteration of the standards has sought to define the next incarnation of a profession undergoing continual…

In this article, two teachers describe their transition from pre-K-12 schools to higher education, where they teach college students to be school librarians. Both were at points in their pre-K-12 careers at which they were comfortable and felt good about their abilities, but both were ready for new challenges. While they no longer see the direct…

There's never been a more challenging time to find a position as an academic librarian, especially for those who have recently completed their library education. Whether job-hunters are jumping into the job pool for the very first time, or back in the water after a dry spell, Neely and her crack team of expert contributors have the information…

Over the past few years a troubling pattern has emerged, one that might be termed the trivialization of the Master of Library Science (MLS). As a result of several factors, not least the closing of library schools, low rates of pay for librarians, and high costs of living in many parts of the country, some college libraries have found it difficult…

Five initiatives launched during Cyndi Phillip's term as American Association of School Librarians (AASL) President (2006-2007) continue to have an impact on school librarians ten years later. They include the rewriting of AASL's learning standards, introduction of the SKILLS Act, the presentation of the Crystal Apple Award to Scholastic Library…