Next time you see an old man in the information desk, someone near retirement age and go to a public library, take a great look.

Those people who attended library schools experienced extensive training, typically homework that pushed us to become knowledgeable about research tools and the reference books that filled the university library.

All that changed.

A lot of individuals who work as librarians hold an MLS degree.

The disappearance of library schools has reflected the erosion of the MLS degree from American universities. The greatest librarian training programs were offered by the University of Chicago and Columbia University in the state; their library schools shut in the early 1990s.

The University of Southern California as well as Vanderbilt also shut their library schools around the exact same time. It’s still possible to get an MLS degree, but the staying graduate programs are a lot smaller and are generally combined in schools or other departments.

The disposition among some librarians is not affirmative. A New Mexico librarian lately told me: “I spend the majority of my time making change and showing folks the best way to print from the computer or make use of the copier.

A co-worker in the Washington, D.C., region expressed similar views: “If I did not spend my time helping folks look for lost keys, wallets, coats, jumpers, gloves, back packs, cell phones and laptops, I am not certain I Had even have a job.”

Some public libraries have created jobs for “technology helpers,” places filled by tech-savvy young people who have community college degrees and strategies for information technology professions. Libraries can quickly warrant this new place: they offer abilities the people increasingly wants and Techies are paid less than librarians or library associate degrees. The public library of the future may be a computer centre, staffed by IT professionals and few publications or librarians.

Those people who are working and hold MLS degrees understand the inevitability of these tendencies. But substantial parts of the American people battle with literacy, or need to study for the high school GED, or are learning English and need to understand where they are able to enrol to vote. As we’ve been doing for more than a century, we can however help kids with their assignments and play a part in our communities.

The purpose for public libraries and librarians is shrinking. However, I envision that in a single kind or another, we’ll be here, in another hundred years.