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Nearly Twenty Librarians at the Chicago Public Library Don't Have Appropriate Degrees

Nearly twenty librarians in the Chicago Public Library system are working despite not having the proper master's courses, a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests have revealed.  

A Master's Degree is generally required before becoming a librarian especially in a public library.  

An email to the media relations department at the Chicago Public Library was left unreturned.  

There are more than twenty libraries in the Chicago Public Library system the biggest of which is the Harold Washington Library in Downtown Chicago. 

Michael Dubensky is a local citizen who initiated the FOIA request and he expressed shock that so many individuals are working as librarians without the appropriate credentials.  

"The Chicago Public Library has insulted the librarian profession by not caring if the librarians have a degree," Dubensky said, "instead of expecting more from librarians: brief presentations of information with Q & A to the community, handouts with appointment slots, tutoring as well as seminars.  

"What if in Immanuel Kant was wrong about the enlightenment with the idea that human beings  could educate themselves without a teacher." 

The City of Chicago has suffered through a persistent series of scandals. Patronage hiring- the hiring of those with political connections- has become routine and persistent under nearly every mayoral administration. 

While most departments in the City of Chicago have faced scrutiny for more than a century, the Chicago Public Library has rarely faced any scrutiny or scandal.  

Dubensky also cautioned that the seventeen names he found were based on four FOIA requests and the total number of librarians who don't have their appropriate educational requirements could be much higher.  

The average salary for a librarian in 2015, according to numbers gathered by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, was $56,880. 

A typical master's degree in library science can cost $10,000 and more.