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Commission drops master’s degree requirement for Montana library directors – Daily Montanan [1]

['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- December']

Date: 2023-12 

The Montana State Library Commission voted 5-2 last week to drop the requirement library directors in bigger Montana cities have master’s degrees.

The move was opposed by library directors across several Montana cities. Only one library, the ImagineIF Library in Kalispell, doesn’t have a library director meeting previous requirements. ImagineIF Board members have endorsed the change.

Proponents of the change argued dropping the requirement for a master’s of library sciences degree would give local control to libraries to decide whether to hire a director with advanced degrees. Libraries serving municipalities with fewer than 25,000 patrons already have this flexibility.

Opponents to the change, which outnumbered proponents four-to-one as reported by the Montana Free Press, said the change diminishes standards for libraries in the state.

Submitted comments included a letter signed by library directors in Great Falls, Bozeman, Helena, Butte, Billings, Missoula and the Bitteroot in opposition to the change, saying the move felt subversive and like a “political attack on Montana libraries.” The letter was also read in the hearing for the change earlier this month.

The vote mirrored the initial tally taken in October, with commissioners Tammy Hall, Carmen Cuthbertson, Tom Burnett, Robyn Scribner and State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen voting in favor, and commissioners Peggy Taylor and Brian Rossmann voting no.

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[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/briefs/commission-drops-masters-degree-requirement-for-montana-library-directors/

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