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Ahhhh, to be called "Dr.": Is Pursuing the Ph.D. Worth It?
by Gail Staines
The MLS is the terminal degree in our profession. However, have you ever wondered what it would be like to take the next step and pursue a Ph.D. in the field? Following, find one person's perspective and experience (mine!) on pursuing a doctoral degree in the United States. Included is advice I have been given along the way, and perspectives from acquaintances and colleagues who I know who have pursued a Ph.D. -- some successfully, and some not.
Is It Worth It?
In many ways, it is worth it to persevere through a doctoral program. You get to work with international experts in your field of study. You get to spend hours searching the literature, reading, thinking, discussing (...and searching the literature, reading, thinking, and discussing!). Like your classmates in library school, your counterparts in a Ph.D. program usually become lifelong colleagues, no matter where they end up in the world. And, if you are fortunate, your dissertation advisor will be your mentor.
My experience at the University at Buffalo's doctoral program was this and much more! Because of the international student body at the University, I had a very rich experience learning about libraries and education, learning first hand from individuals who had been raised and had worked in different cultural environments. Since my Ph.D. program was a cooperative program with the Dept. of Organization, Administration, and Policy, I took extra coursework in higher education administration (a total of 90 credit hours versus the traditional 64 credit hours). This has given me great insight into working with academic libraries at all levels of higher education as well as giving me career flexibility. It also gave me the opportunity to educate non-librarians -- future academic deans, for example -- about libraries and their role in higher education.
What to Expect?
When I first decided to pursue the advanced degree, one of my colleagues said, "I'll send you a sympathy card." "Grueling" describes in one word what you should expect. There is demanding coursework, of course. Once the coursework is completed, there are comprehensive exams, an exercise in which you express in writing, or orally, everything you have learned. This requires a full understanding of the literature in various and related fields of study, with the expectation that you are able to recite authors, dates, study results, alternative points of view, and conclusions. Successfully passing the "comps" means that you are now expected to select individuals (faculty and others) to serve on your dissertation committee, and select someone in the profession, but outside the university, to serve as an outside reader.
Usually you then write and orally present a dissertation proposal to your dissertation committee. The proposal outlines the research you intend to pursue, including: the question(s) to be researched, the methods you are going to research them by (e.g.: survey, interviews, experiments -- multiple research methods are highly recommended since this strengths your research results), and the anticipated outcomes of your research. After reading, writing, researching, reading, writing, and researching some more, keeping your dissertation committee informed of your progress, re-writing, re- writing, and thinking, thinking, thinking, you finally defend your dissertation in front of your committee along with anyone who wants to attend your doctoral defense. Once this is over, you step outside the room and wait for the committee to sign-off on your dissertation -- formally signifying your success in the completion of the degree.
Some Sage Advice
All sounds cut and dried, doesn't it? But that would be too easy. Along the doctoral journey, I picked up a few tips for success:
- You will be way ahead of the game if you go in knowing the area
of library and information science you want to do your dissertation
in. Whether it be management, information literacy, digitizing,
copyright, etc., if you have a strong understanding of a specific
area, you can research different aspects of your topic in the papers
you are required to write throughout your coursework. If you do
this, it will become the basis of your literature review -- a large
chapter of your final dissertation.
- Know that, as someone with an MLS, you are far ahead of the game
because you know how to do a literature review. You know the best
sources to look in for information and how to effectively access
that information. It was surprising to me the number of non-MLS's
who did not have information literacy skills at the doctoral level.
- There is no "right" time to pursue this degree. Many degrees
require you to have at least one or two years of full-time
professional experience before applying. The bulk of the students in
my program had almost a decade of experience in their profession,
were working full- or part-time (or were lucky enough to have a
sabbatical), and were over 40. I was the youngest in my group at the
time, which was an advantage in two ways -- I could share my
"youthful" perspective, and, more importantly, was able to absorb
the experience of all that had "been there, done that" in the world
of work.
- As I was pondering applying to a program, one of my friends said,
"If you do not pursue the degree now, in five years you will be a
person without a Ph.D. Why not be a person with one?"
- Be prepared to spend significant time, effort, energy, and money
to complete the degree. In the five years I was in the program,
tuition doubled. Be prepared to spend literally hours reading.
Knowing this, make sure you have a support system since you will be
reading every waking moment -- from dusk 'til dawn, including the
weekends.
- There may be times you will need motivation. I put a sign on my office wall that simply said "Ph.D.," in my direct line of sight, so that I saw it every day.
Know that at the end of the road, you have achieved a significant accomplishment, one that few people successfully pursue and complete. In the end, it is not that people will call you "Dr.," or that you know you will never be ABD, or that people will bow in your presence and hang on your every word. It is that you were able, over 5 to 7 years of working diligently, to become an expert in a particular field of study -- that you were challenged intellectually, that you expanded previously known knowledge, and that you can share your knowledge with others.
Gail M. Staines, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Western NY Library Resources Council and adjunct faculty at the Univ. at Buffalo School of Informatics. Her areas of expertise are management and information literacy and she can be reached at gstaines@wnylrc.org.