<p>their work seems pretty simple and straightforward. I don't really know what they do when they're not helping patrons find things. Probably have meetings or do something about books. i still don't know why grad school is necessary to be a librarian. someone told me library school just teaches them the foundations and history of libraries and why it's important. I guess grad school is just to see if the person is interested enough? someone enlighten me</p>
<p>Maybe you could look it up?</p>
<p>WHAT</a> DOES IT TAKE TO GET AN MLS DEGREE
Master</a> of Science: Curriculum | University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science
UNC</a> SILS Degrees & Programs MSLS Curriculum</p>
<p>Given your description of librarians, it's obvious you have no real idea what they do. A little research is usually in order.</p>
<p>I agree with DespSeekPhd. My friend has a masters in library science and she gives talks and does research on like information classification and such.</p>
<p>librarians do alot of things....
my mom has a degree in library science</p>
<p>Things I have learned in library school (in no particular order, and this is by no means an exhaustive list): </p>
<p>-the principles of record management (electronic and paper), and the necessary components of a records management policy.
-how to best preserve digital objects. This includes both born-digital (IE: Word documents) and paper-born (IE: a book that's been scanned) objects.
-the digitization of just about anything.
-the MARC cataloging of printed materials, heck..most anything.
-encoding in EAD
-XML coding
-how to conduct a successful user study
-how to write a successful collection development policy
-how to write a successful grant
-how to properly conduct the reference interview. and how to find what the patron is looking for, because often they are saying "I want A", but they really want Q. It is your job to Q, either through telepathy, dragging it out of them, or conducting a good reference interview.
-Why having coffee bars in libraries is BAD.</p>
<p>I have also learned that the general public has NO idea what librarians do, or the training it entails. Which is sad, because librarians are generally under appreciated and VERY underpaid, unless they would like to go into the corporate sector.</p>
<p>And I still have a semester to go and my thesis to write.</p>
<p>Yea I must agree with that last post...I interned at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum Archives and those people really need to know their stuff! I guess it's important to realize that just because someone is going to grad school for an MLS doesn't necessarily mean that they'll become a librarian. For example I worked with the Senior Archivist (in charge of the entire archival collection), as well as a Photo Archivist who was in charge of the photographic collections of the museum - and just from my experience with primary documents in archival records, I know that there are several other classifications, even just within your own school's library.</p>
<p>Most professions are more complicated than they might appear from the outside looking inward, this one is no exception.</p>