Questions, questions....

What is more important, experience or education?  This has been the question I have been posing to the librarians at my work.   Do I keep studying, will a Masters help me in an interview?  All stated experience as the most important.  But what happens if you don't have it?  How do you get it?

You can imagine my delight in picking up the May 2008 American Library Journal and reading these word from another new grad - Sarah Dribin - in America:

I do have limited experience... I also have a glut of ideas, theories and methodologies I'm anxious, yearning (zealous!) to put into practice.  While experience is important, it is something that is gained through observation, experimentation, growth and the subsequent accumulation of wisdom.  These elemental steps can only occur when we, as fledglings to the field, abandon our reverence for the way things have been done and blaze a new trail we are eager to see reinvented by those who come after us!

I could not in my wildest dreams have said that better than Sarah.    John Berry gives me hope by stating  at the end of the article:

Sure, experience is worth having.  But new ways to do things better in the library are what good administrators constantly seek, and experience doesn't always deliver that.  Creativity, intelligence, and willingness to risk innovation are far more important in my book.

Is this true?  Do people really believe this?  I truly hope so!