Several months ago in the CLIC consortium Reference Community of Interest group, of which I am a part of, I asked what our local library school, the College of St. Catherine’s, was doing in keeping up with what is happening in academic libraries. I thought it would be interesting if our group would have a discussion with students and some faculty and have a dialogue with our group and any other librarians who wanted to be a part of it. As a graduate of that program in 1998, I kept thinking about what classes or advising I wish I would have had and what would have better prepared me for our profession. For those of you who do not know, the College of St. Catherine’s program is actually through Dominican University in Illinois. Dominican actually is the name on the degree. However, St. Catherine’s is going to be going through the accreditation process in the next several months and hopefully will be “on their own” in 2009.
On Wednesday, we had that discussion. I give total credit for some of my fellow librarians for taking the ball and running with it. We met at the College of St. Catherine’s and took over a meeting room. We had two student/recent grads and two faculty members each give a 5 minute presentation as to some of their reflections on the school and what they want more of. Then we had a question/answer back and forth discussion. As St. Kates is moving towards a stand alone library program, they are obviously concerned and are discussing new and revised curriculum for the program. The faculty were very interested in our input and what we saw as “needed”, especially for academic librarians. And that brings up a great point. I think a lot of new students start the program without any idea of the differences in types of libraries: public, special or academic. Personally, I just wanted to be a “Reference Librarian” and did not really care what type of library it was in.
The program still has four core classes that everyone must take: Introduction to LIS, Organization of Knowledge, Reference & Online Service, and a Management class, which makes up 12 credits. Students are also required to take 24 more credits or eight elective classes. The program takes on average, about two years to complete. The two students who presented finished the program, one finished in two and the other finished in one and a half. Now, that is all fine and dandy, but as most graduates form the program will remember or recognize, is that there are a lot of classes that are only offered once every alternating year OR On Demand as Need Arises (yes, that is how it is spelled out in the syllabus). What that means, is that you may have only one opportunity while in the program to take a specific class. You can only hope that it is not interfering with other classes or your job schedule. St. Kates have added faculty, full-time and adjunct in preparation for accreditation, so I would imagine that some classes will be offered more.
Now, what do I wish I would have had offered in terms of classes? A library user instruction (or BI) class, which is now offered, an instructional design class, and a class that was more about collection development as a whole instead of a “Reference in the Social Sciences or Humanities.” Since the Internet was still new when I graduated, there was no discussion in our reference classes about providing reference to distance or online patrons.
Listening to the faculty I was pleasantly surprised that they are at least aware of the need for students, especially those interested in academic libraries, to have more discussion on academic related topics: working with faculty, understanding university organizations, etc…. They do have the library instruction class I mentioned above, but personally, that should be required or strongly suggested for those with an interest in academic librarians. And that brings up another problem. The only other required classes for students, are those for students who want to get into School Library Media. I feel that if you have an interest in academic libraries, that the school require or advisors strongly suggest a track more befitting our area. The program also has a practicum, which they are considering making a requirement. I would like this to be required regardless of what type of library you would like to work in. It was not uncommon when I graduated for library students to go through and finish the library program without any real library experience. Or at least something more than being a circ worker or page. I was glad by the student presentations to hear that they were getting actual reference experience in the St. Kates library and that even one of them had done a BI for one of the St. Kates’ freshman classes. But this was probably from their own initiative. Not every student gets that type of opportunity but it is one that I strongly suggest that be made to all library students regardless of area of expertise.
I am trying to get the links and presentations to put here. Maybe I will add some more when they arrive.
