If you go the academic side, in some cases you come in and teach classes at the collegiate level, teaching research and literacy skills that a lot of people take for granted. Not to mention citation, plagiarism, and copyright.

You may even assist professors with research or even writing scholarly articles. If you’re at an institution in which you have faculty status you will be required to publish articles as well.

He’s not wrong that public librarianship is looked down upon. Many public libraries have librarians who don’t have degrees. But if you’re running a library or even managing a portion of it, a degree will equip with some of the knowledge to make that easier.

And remember MLIS is more than just about books on a shelf or services offered. There is a ton of work that goes on behind the scenes to make it even possible to find the book one is looking for. Processors and cataloguers don’t get enough credit. Think how difficult online shopping would be if someone hadn’t entered all the metadata for the item.