Words (and titles) can be very important. As a philosopher and Army “lifer,” I would certainly argue no less. They can also get in the way of that which is truly important.
cuz some day you are going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said — ani difranco
On the way home from ASIS&T 2006, someone introduced themselves to me (yes, I know who they are!) and we got to talking. They said they had recently filled a job that I was perfect for. But when they found out I was getting my CAS instead of another MS (or a PhD) they cautioned me, saying that it might well not count many places, to include theirs. I would be unqualified for tenure based on my “certificate.”
Truthfully, I knew this before I ever applied for the CAS. I had been warned by others that some (most?) places may well not accept it as a 2nd degree. I am willing to accept that. I don’t like it, but I accept it. So for those in positions of power at other institutions who will not accept my CAS in lieu of a 2nd Masters, I have one polite request.
Please come up to me and tell me that I am perfect for a job you have, but that I do not qualify due to the name of my degree. Please, do us both this favor!
It will save me from applying for your job, and it will save you a few minutes weeding me out from your pool. Even if you have a very small pool like this person mentioned you will not want me “wasting” your time.
Now that the politeness is out of the way, let me say that this is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard in my life. And, remember, I spent over 20 years in the Army. Lots of stupid stuff heard there over the years.
In this conversation, it was the “C” word, certificate, that was clearly denigrated. It could be heard in their voice. Why? What is it about the name/title of the degree that matters? It will be from an ALA-accredited library school. It will be 40 hours. I sat on a search committee once where one of the applicants had a certificate that I questioned. Everyone else on the committee just sort of assumed that it was like the one I’m getting and that is accepted at that institution. But it wasn’t; it was a 12 hour certificate. Now, I have no problem with that, but it did not meet our requirement for a 2nd Masters (or equivalent).
This person was encouraging me to get a 2nd Masters or a PhD and to not “waste” my time on this certificate. They seemed like a nice enough person, but lazy bigots like that really piss me off. I have absolutely no (real) need for a 2nd Masters. Or, as I prefer, I am getting one that just happens to have a different title.
Let’s review the situation:
I am intending to go into information organization: cataloging, classification, metadata, and other assorted classificatory structures. I want to help catalogers stuck in the 19th century and rabid Semantic Web types stuck in their (unattainable) dreams realize and find that there truly is a middle ground and value in both views.
A 2nd Masters in sociology, English, … , or what is supposed to better prepare me for this? I guess one might argue for more philosophy, linguistics, anthropology or another discipline that feeds into cognitive science. But I have plenty of formal education in these areas. I have a decent grasp of their literatures and could dive back in at any point. In fact, I do, often. Would any of these better prepare me to provide for intelligent organization of information? Possibly. But certainly not better than actually spending a full 40 hours of my 2nd degree learning this area in depth and breadth!
As for a PhD. I do not need, nor want, a PhD. I have no desire to formally teach at the higher ed level. At my age, there is one thing I do know about myself, and that is that I would probably never finish the dissertation. So why should I set myself up failure? My interests are far too broad to go that deep. Do not mistake me. I often ask dissertation level questions. I even go a good ways towards answering them for myself. But by the time I get a good broad grasp of the question and its possible answers I have become interested in something else. I stay interested in the “original” question, but not to the depth required to write a dissertation.
I am, in fact, a habitually probing generalist. [See Palmer, CL. "Structures and strategies of interdisciplinary science." JASIS 50(3): 242-253, 1999.] I am a perpetual footnote chaser. I check people’s citations. You used who/what to justify this? This is supposed to be support for your argument? For me, the world is far too interesting to go down the path of ultra-specialized “expertise.”
As for formal hours in the higher ed classroom, let’s do everyone a favor and not count. I already have far more hours than most anyone I have ever met. By the time I finish my CAS I’ll have over 300 semester hours of formal higher education with most of it focused on philosophy, applied computer science, cognitive science, psychology, sociology and anthropology, and library and information science. So, yeah, I can see how I need another Masters degree to do what I want to do in this field.
Again, please do me a favor if your institution attaches such utter significance to the titles of degrees. Tell me so I will not waste my time or yours when I start applying for jobs. Because God forbid you actually get someone fully, formally, credentially prepared for your position.
Words. They are important. Sometimes. Sometimes they are simply a crutch.
4 responses so far ↓
1 jenny // Nov 11, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Weren’t CASes originally developed for people who had been in the profession for a while and just wanted to brush up?
While the GSLIS CAS might be the same amount of work a Master’s is, I don’t think most are (as you point out), so I think that’s why people don’t count them for much. Also, if you got 2 master’s degrees in the same field why would that count as a second master’s? I thought the whole point of a second master’s is that it is in a different field?
I never ever thought of a CAS as a second master’s, but more an add-on. I don’t think anyone would think of it as a BAD thing when hiring, just not at all a second master’s.
2 Mark // Nov 11, 2006 at 7:48 pm
I fully agree that it isn’t a 2nd Masters and that it would be silly to get a 2nd Masters in any (same) field.
My point, is that this seems (to me) to be the absolutely best preparation for what I want to do in libraries and that spending time getting a degree in a 2nd subject would be a waste for this purpose.
And, yes, “the whole point of a second master’s is that it is in a different field” but that would be a senseless thing to do to prepare me. It seems (to me) that this should certainly qualify as the equivalent of a 2nd Masters for *exactly* the reason academic library’s require one. Instead of being caught up with a specific term they ought to think about what it is that they are trying to accomplish.
My point: there is no better preparation for what I would like to do for an academic library than taking classes such as thesaurus construction, ontologies, classification systems, information modeling, representing and organizing info resources, etc.
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