What Value Fellowships?

摘要

Instead of a gold watch to commemorate her 25 years on the job as director of Darien Library, CT, Louise Berry got a two-year, privately funded fellowship— not for herself but to hire a 2005 MLS graduate. The endowed fellowship sounds like the answer to the griping we've been hearing recently from many new MLS recipients and NextGen librarians and could be a model for other libraries. (To apply go to www.darienlibrary.org.) Despite the call for new librarians to replace the graying professionals we've been told are, or will be, retiring in droves, MLS graduates tell us the jobs they were promised don't exist. Many are piecing together part-time gigs and barely making a living. Even those who are lucky enough to get full-time jobs often find beginning salaries woefully inadequate, especially as they pay off student loans. And that leadership track they've been sold is often mired in bureaucracy and resistance to change.