Note: I am a school librarian in the UK. Therefore, my experience relates to UK libraries and UK library qualifications only. The information shared in the post may not be the same in your country.
People are often surprised to learn that I have a qualification in librarianship. They’re even more surprised when I tell them it’s a masters degree. I feel that most people view librarianship as a career that doesn’t require very much academic study or intelligence.
This is not too surprising since what the public sees of librarianship doesn’t look too hard. Shelving books, helping patrons to check out materials and running children’s story-time events hardly require a masters degree. However, there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes of a library and a lot of knowledge and skills that library users may not see the librarian using.
When you don’t need a qualification
Actually, depending on what library work you are doing, you may not need a qualification at all. You would not need a qualification for the following reasons:
1. If you’re not actively managing a library
Many libraries do not have the funds to pay a qualified librarian and, actually, they don’t want a qualified librarian. What they are looking for is someone to watch over library users, answer any general questions and shelve books. They’re not looking for someone to manage the library collection or invest in projects or schemes to improve the library.
2. If you have a lot of experience
Librarianship qualifications are not a new phenomenon, but they are much more common today than they were 20 years ago. Many older librarians may not have a qualification, but have developed their knowledge and skill over time. It is worth noting that all librarians, whether qualified or not, are expected to undertake continuing professional development and be involved in their national library organisation (in the UK, this is CILIP; in the US, it is the ALA).
3. If you are volunteering
I’m not going to discuss this to any length because it is a whole other discussion, but many libraries are replacing their paid staff with volunteers. Those volunteers often don’t have a library qualification.
What the qualification teaches
However, there are many jobs for which you do need a qualification. In the UK, it is difficult to advance to any sort of manager or supervisor role without a librarianship qualification. But why is the qualification so important?
1. Cataloguing
You will need a qualification in librarianship to catalogue books because the process is usually very complicated. In the UK, a lot of resource cataloguing in academic and public libraries is done using a format called MARC 21.
The MARC 21 format is a specific way of writing information about a book (such as title, author, publisher etc) so that the information is compatible with a variety of programmes, software and interfaces. Every punctuation mark means something specific and there are many fields that need to be completed. Experienced librarians without a qualification, often need to take a training course in order to understand how to use the MARC 21 format.
2. Managing the collection
Collection management is much more complex than you might think and is taught on a librarianship qualification. There is more to think about than simply buying new books and librarians must consider:
- the needs of library users
- the balance and constraints of the library collection
- library space design
- financial management and budgeting
- cataloguing and resource descriptions
- organisation and classification of resources
- how users will interact with the collection
- stock weeding and removal of resources
3. Advances in librarianship
Librarians must remain up-to-date with advances in the field. This requires knowledge of the current and upcoming technologies, the best management and organisation methods and current political or legal issues around librarianship.
Many librarians achieve this through association with their national organisation for librarianship, which will keep them up-to-date with relevant news and research. However, in order to understand the news and research and the context it is in, librarians must have a wide knowledge of librarianship principles and the different library sectors, which are taught on a librarianship qualification course.
4. Information literacy
Information literacy (IL) is one of the key areas discussed on a librarianship course. IL refers to your ability to find and use information, including identifying the information you need, finding that information using appropriate tools and applying that information to your situation.
Teaching IL skills is vital for librarians as we are providers of information. Librarianship qualifications will give education on what IL is, the current research in IL and how to improve your own IL. However, crucially, courses will give an education on how to teach IL to library users. This will enable your library to better serve its patrons and allow users to become better in their information behaviours.
5. Management skills
Another important area addresses by a librarianship qualification is management skills. This involves managing the library collection, services and space, but also more general skills, such as people management, financial planning and stakeholder communications. These skills are especially vital for librarians who may be working alone, such as school or medical librarians.
A librarianship qualification is not necessary for every single librarian role; however, anyone in a position of management or using advanced skills would benefit, or even be required, to have a qualification. The qualification teaches so many skills and allows librarians to understand the context and principles of librarianship to improve their own professional skills and knowledge.
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