While not wishing to engage in a debate I feel unqualified to join (archival
education), recent comments from colleagues have necessitated my entering
the discussion from a student and archivist's point of view.

I trained to become an archivist under two long-standing leaders in the
profession while studying for my M.A. in history.  After attaining that
degree, I became an archivist who managed an archives and supervised staff
and developed budgets.  Then a records management stint.

But something was always missing.  I had not been taught how to write a
budget proposal or hire/fire personnel; I had learned appraisal,
arrangement, description, preservation, records management.  Although my
archives education was stellar, not having formal education in some areas
made me deficient.  I noticed when meeting history PhD archivists (without
an MLS) at conferences or while visiting their archives that they also
lacked some of this basic knowledge called information science, even those
who had been archivists for over 25 years.  But on the other edge of the
blade, those with only an MLS lacked historiographical and historical
methodology knowledge necessary in their practices.  

I had wanted to learn EAD and delve into the area of electronic records
management.  But I discovered early on in my practice that I could not learn
EAD in a one-day workshop.  I could not learn the rudiments of ERM by
reading articles day in and day out.  I also realized that those who knew
these things (EAD and ERM) may be practicing archivists, but they were also
archival educators.  I looked long and hard and found that all the big names
in the archives field in these and other subjects (though not all, for sure)
were archival educators and many of them in MLS (or equivalent) programs.

So I began my MLIS education.  I came thinking that I could learn little
from the core classes.  This has proved true factually and procedurally, but
without the course, I could not have put together all the pieces of the
puzzle they call library/archives management or not only seen the forest and
the trees in that forest but also the leaves on the trees in regard to
reference and information services.  I loved what is called systems
analysis, but I had no idea how to go about doing it on a large
facility-wide scale.  

What I have learned in one semester and a bit more of library school is that
the MLS is a necessary component to a far-reaching, wide-vision approach to
archival management.  Maybe every archivist does not need the history
degree.  Maybe every archivist does not need to library degree.  But those
who have both have something special and can become better at their jobs.

Russell D. James, M.A.
MLIS student
Louisiana State University
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Professional portfolio http://www.geocities.com/russelldjames
 
 

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