Day 87 of Project 365: Book-Learnin’

Another tiny Advent gift from my mom provides a photographic subject when my creativity is low.

87.365: Book-Learnin'

As negative as I feel about grad school sometimes, I am very excited to be finishing up in December. “A little over two years” seemed like forever, but now it is drawing very quickly to a close.

About Halsted M. Bernard

Halsted, a/k/a cygnoir, does stuff with words. Her favourite things to do with words are keeping this diary, writing stories, and organising information. She lives in Edinburgh with her husband, two cats, a few gadgets, several fountain pens, and many books.

Posted on 18 Feb 2012 in Diary
  • JC Brown

    I’d like to hear you elaborate on your thoughts about grad school.  If I were to stand in a group of LIS students, I think I might be a minority: I love it.

    • http://cygnoir.net cygnoir

      I would expect nothing less from you, honestly, and I think it is wonderful that you love it.

      An important aspect of my dislike for grad school is that I was in the field for 15 years before entering. Although I have had some courses that provided me with training that I had not already gained through jobs, most of my courses are the theoretical underpinnings of what I’ve already done in a wide variety of library roles.

      Add to this the fact that I am not a huge fan of academia-in-practice (while having an abiding respect for academia-in-theory) and it feels like, most days, I am spinning my wheels in order to get a piece of paper so I can do a very similar job to what I was doing before I started this program.

      I understand the importance of requiring an advanced degree for librarianship, but the main reason as it has been explained to me is to prevent the deterioration of the reputation of the profession … which I see happening already, regardless of how many of us skip happily out into the workforce as newly-minted librarians.

      I have more to say on this, but perhaps this is best framed in a post all on its own.

  • JC Brown

    Thanks for sharing.