> I am a girl getting ready to start her MLS / Archives Certificate Program, and I want to be an archivist!  Am I going about this all wrong?!  Is it better to have a MA or PhD in history with training in archival work?  Or do institutions want librarians as archvists?  Everyone says something different & I don't know which way to go... and I'm scheduled to start the MLS in the Fall.
> 
> Thanks,
> Carolyn 

Carolyn, speaking as one who has both a Ph.D. (in philosophy) and an M.L.S., but no formal archival 
training, I would rank these qualifications in the following order for becoming an archivist:

1. Subject expertise demonstrated by a graduate degree (#1 by a long shot).

2. C.A. (almost necessary).

3. M.L.S. (almost useless).

FWIW,

Eric

Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S.
Curator of Historical Collections, Health Sciences Library
Lecturer, Center for Bioethics and Humanities
SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210
<http://www.upstate.edu/library/history/> -- 315-464-4585
Owner, Gegensatz Press <http://www.gegensatzpress.com/>

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