Librarian Education?

Question

Why does a person need a Masters to be a Librarian? I'm innately curious. A lot of people have told me I should look into it, and I do LOVE libraries! I like helping people a lot, but not in the clinical sense (too much responsibility!) Anyways I'm just curious as to why. I know most of the ins and outs of libraries, public and academic. I wonder what the outlook on a librarian is now as far as job prospects.

Honestly, I would think a Bachelors in anything plus a certification(similar to education certification), would do the trick. Humor me. Thanks.

Answer 1

Being a Librarian is more complicated than just getting a certificate. Running a library is like running a business, you have to handle library funding (buying books, magazine subscriptions, donations ect.) whose use has to follow certain laws (copyright in particular, which is different for libraries than the general public) which you can't really learn with just a certificate, because it takes more time than that. You also need to know how to use various cataloging programs and systems, how to get books, all the duties of a library (circulation, reference, how to teach people to research, how to handle archives...)  It would be like getting rid of a masters in business administration and having a certificate instead. Being in business can be done with out the masters, but the masters makes it much more likely you will be successful and gives you more credibility. The same is true for being a librarian, and you can't get hired with out one anyway... In other words. It's not a easy as you think it is, so don't be a know it all...