Date:         Tue, 16 May 2006 08:12:07 -0500
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Karl Miller <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) Study
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On Mon, 15 May 2006, steven c wrote:

> What I'm trying to sell is (are?) my skills and abilities in
> maintaining such an archive...which runs into the present-day
> challenge of "You say you know this? Okeh, show me a valid
> and properly endorsed graduate-school-level DEGREE

Which is something of my point...from my perspective, there is no degree
which provides the necessary training to oversee a recordings archive.
Yet, Universities being in the business of selling degrees... well it is a
bit like having a Toyota dealer driving around in a different brand of
car.

Adding to, what seems to me, the contradictory nature of it all...library
school education places little to no value on knowledge of anything other
than librarianship. Using my own "institution" as an example,
I can think of only two librarians with graduate degrees in the subjects
areas they oversee. Most of them have some general undergraduate degree in
the humanities and a graduate degree in librarianship. While I have
no statistical information to support it, (only informal
conversations with other librarians) subject specific
education, and/or experience is usually valued only at the best of
institutions.

Karl