Re: Courses Eliminated: Children's Lit.

["Victoria L. Rubottom" <rubottom@CADVANTAGE.COM>]

Jeanette B. Heath wrote:
>
>  Talk about frustration.  So if they
> don't teach cataloging and they don't teach lit., what are they having
> Library students do to get these degrees?
>


        At Emporia State University  at least much much time is spent on
learning to think. (at one time they had 15 required hours dealing with
knowledge/ :Philosophy, tranfer ,systems, history etc. etc.)   This was
a direct quote in class (at least Dr. Martha Hale's) "Any skills ,i.e.
processing books,shelving,collection management  you need for your job
can be learned in a half a day .  We are here to teach you to think."
To be fair in the perfect library this might be true, luckily I knew
that in the real world that just not so.
        Some programs seen to think acutal contact with the collection is
demeaning and a waste of professional time.  I agree too much of
"fritter work" is wasteful ,but you do need to handle the collection to
make sure your decsions are based on accurate knowledge .
--
Victoria Rubottom
Sacred Heart School
Emporia, Kansas
rubottom@cadvantage.com
sacredhe@valu-line.com