Holly McCarthy
hbmccarthy@valdosta.edu

Dr. Wallace Koehler does not immediately come across as a superstitious man. He spoke with ease as he leaned back in his office chair on the fourth floor of VSU’s Odum Library. But when American Library Association accreditation comes up, Koehler, director of the Library Information Science Department, hesitates. He chooses his words carefully, not wanting to jinx the process.

“We have wishes,” Dr. Koehler said. “But we decline to speculate.”

His colleague, Dr. Elaine Yontz, becomes downright skittish.

“It’s the decision of other people, so I have made it a point to have no opinion of my own on it,” Dr. Yontz said.

They have reason to be nervous.

ALA accreditation is crucial. According to the Official Code of Georgia, a professional librarian must have a master’s degree from a library school whose program is ALA-accredited or, for now, a master’s degree in library and information science from Valdosta State University.

Of the five full-time LIS faculty members, Dr. Koehler and Dr. Yontz are the only ones who have been there since the program began in 2001. They started the program with the intention of becoming accredited by the ALA.

The accreditation process has been a long one, beginning with pre-candidacy and ending with being reviewed by the ALA Committee on Accreditation. The six-year wait could end in June, when the COA will decide whether VSU will become the only college in Georgia to offer an accredited Master of Library Information Science degree.

Currently, getting an MLIS degree from VSU is a gamble. As long as VSU retains its candidacy status, Georgia public, college, and technical school libraries accept a degree from VSU as if it were accredited.

But if the ALA rejects VSU’s bid for accreditation, that consideration will disappear, and a VSU degree will carry no guarantees for employment. That is a risk some in Georgia are willing to take. In 2001, the MLIS program enrolled 11 students. That number has slowly increased over the years, with the last few years maintaining an enrollment number of 20 to 25.

“This is a life decision,” Dr. Koehler said. “Potential students have to weigh the risk. People who are risk-aversive either postpone applying to this program or apply elsewhere. We understand that and actually support it.” One VSU graduate is already reaping the rewards of her gamble. Christie S. Paulk, Children’s Librarian at South Georgia Regional Library in Valdosta, earned her MLIS degree from VSU in December 2006. While she is open to the idea of moving out-of-state if a great job opportunity presented itself, the Fitzgerald native is a South Georgian at heart. While many students talked about fleeing Georgia as soon as possible, Paulk always felt a sense of pride in the legendary hospitality of the South.

“I like the fact that if I broke down on the side of the road, somebody would probably come to help me,” Paulk said.

This affinity to life in Valdosta influenced Paulk’s decision of which graduate school to attend. After obtaining her undergraduate degree in English from VSU, Paulk was unsure about which career path to take. She began volunteering at South Georgia Regional Library, moving up the ranks from aide to cataloguing clerk, and that is when it hit her: She wanted to be a librarian.

It made perfect sense. She had always loved reading, loved books. As a child, she pretended to be a librarian, loaning her own books to people. She considered other schools— ones that made more sense because they were already accredited. Florida State University was an attractive option. She could have attended FSU without paying the out-of-state tuition rate since Florida and Georgia are both members of the Academic Common Market.

This means that if a state in the ACM lacks a college with an accredited library science program, a student can attend another college within the ACM at that school’s in-state tuition rate. Sweetening the deal was the fact that FSU’s program is almost completely on-line, while about one-sixth of VSU’s program requires physical attendance. However, all that glitters is not gold. While attending FSU without paying the steep out-of-state Library hopes for accreditation tuition makes getting a degree more affordable, FSU’s in-state tuition is nearly three times as high as VSU’s. And Paulk liked the idea of meeting inperson for some classes, of being more than just a number.

“At VSU, even though it’s online, you’re still a person,” she said. “I made the decision more with my heart than with my head, because if I had made it with my head I probably would have gone with FSU.”

Paulk felt her sentimental choice in VSU was validated when she met Dr. Yontz. Yontz was Paulk’s adviser in addition to being the professor of many of her courses. In her final semester of graduate school Paulk was spread thin, taking four classes while working at the library. It was Dr. Yontz who noticed her hectic state, pulled her aside and said, “Christie, don’t forget to shower.”

Paulk made it through to graduation, and luckily for her, Georgia libraries accept VSU’s degree.

She loves her job. She loves being a “real librarian,” ordering books she thinks her patrons will enjoy, leading programs and reading to groups of children. But she would like to have the option of working anywhere in the nation, which only an accredited degree can provide.

“I think it’s important for prospective students to know that the rule changes that allow the public libraries and the University System of Georgia libraries and the technical college libraries to hire our graduates don’t mandate that they do that,” Dr. Yontz said. “So that’s another reason it would be really helpful to our in-state students if we are accredited, because that distinction would go away for them if we are.”

If VSU’s gamble pays off, Dr. Koehler expects enrollment to jump from 20 students to 80. All graduates from the last year and a half will have accredited degrees. But if the COA decides against VSU and denies accreditation, the results will be catastrophic.

Dr. Koehler lays out the possible outcomes in his straightforward, professorial manner.

“Option A is that they will accredit us,” he said. “Option B is that they will continue us in our candidacy status for some period of time. And Option C is that they decline to accredit us, in which case it’s like the atomic bomb falling— everyone goes home and packs because the program is probably dead at that point.”

Dr. Koehler may be the only person from VSU physically in attendance at the COA meeting. But on June 23 at 9 a.m., Dr. Koehler will carry the hopes of the MLIS faculty, the graduates, the current students, and the future LIS students with him to Washington D.C. as he confronts the fate of the MLIS program.