To MLIS or not to MLIS, that is the question
Hi! I am a future librarian who will soon need to be applying for grad school. I have done a lot of research about where I would want to apply, and Valdosta State is still the most affordable online option that I am leaning towards. But recently, I have been volunteering a lot at my local library, and I have learned that at least here, they do not require their librarians to have MLIS degrees, as long as their master's degrees are relevant. Our head Children's Librarian has an art history master's, and my volunteer supervisor who is a senior librarian has an English master's. Now I know there is no guarantee that I get a librarian job at this library, what with the state of the library job market, so I am wondering if it would still make the most sense to get the MLIS, or are other libraries leaning in this direction?
I found an online Interdisciplinary Studies master's program at a school where I would get in-state tuition, and they offer school librarianship and public administration as possible concentrations. They also have creative writing, which is my other interest. (I am someone who struggles to settle down on one thing, so an Interdisciplinary Studies degree is very appealing to me.) So I thought, what if I concentrate in all three of these? In my state, school librarians need to have a teaching license, which would be a whole other thing. Maybe I could just not get the teaching license? There is a big overlap between the classes in MLIS programs and the school librarianship classes that this university offers. I do not know if the program is ALA accredited. I don't think that school library programs need to be. Would that be enough to at least make me interesting to other libraries, despite it not being an MLIS degree? Plus however many years of volunteer work at my local library? I am really stressing over making the right choice.