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Courses I Wish They Had Offered in Library School
December 6, 2011 - 12:35pm — Blake
Courses I Wish They’d Offered in Library School:
Marketing/Demonstrating Value
Graphic Design for Libraries
Entrepreneurship/Innovation
"These are the classes I wished I could have taken (and hope that some places offer or start offering). What classes do you wish that you would have seen in library school? What classes would have been really beneficial for the work you are doing now?"
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Comments
Courses I Wish They Had Offered in Library School
Right on. I would also add Fund Raising, Public Relations and Basic Accounting as skills I call upon regularly.
Speaking of marketing...
Here's the thing: many universities allow you to register for classes outside of the library school and have it count for credit towards your degree. It's not that those classes aren't being offered - it's that a) they're not being offered in the LIBRARY SCHOOL, and b) the library school faculty may not be making students aware of the entire range of their options.
In library school? Feel like you're missing out? Ask your advisor if you can take courses in other departments and have it count toward your MLIS.
Good Call On Marketing!
I was able to take a library specific course while in Library School and it was by far the most beneficial class I had. While it briefly covered public relations, I would have happily taken a course dedicated to that as well!
Courses I took in the Library School of Reality
Lobbying
Marketing
Political Maneuvering
Schmoozing
Extraversion 101
How to Speak IT
Working with Differently-Challenged Patron Population
Especially in urban libraries, but probably in all public libraries, librarians interact with patrons who have mental health issues, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, and patrons who are homeless... just to name a few categories. In my MLS program there really was no training to help me learn how to serve and interact successfully (and safely in the case of patrons with mental health issues) with these special populations.
Mental health issues
I found it appalling when my husband was working in a university library with a significant "community service" mission that, despite being a few hundred yards from one of the top Social Work schools in the country, there wasn't even any consideration that library employees were serving, untrained and unsupported, as social workers, job counselors and babysitters to a sizeable, very challenged population. The homeless, the jobless, people with addiction issues and significant mental health conditions ... they comprised a small portion of the population served, but would take up a majority of the staffs' time. An inservice or two might have helped. Of course, the bad economy solved the problem: The community service area has been closed.
Contract negotiation
Hopefully, every librarian would have some collection development duties in their career. Used to be that it was easy to just order the book they wants. But with so many resources become electronic access, negotiation with information vendors become regular part of the acquisition duties.
A more general course on the publishers/movie studios/music labels/database vendors/etc. business models, internal processes, etc. would also had been great.
A non-credit or 1 credit class on basic copiers maintenance/troubleshooting/repair.
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