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Library people!
I had a question in email from someone thinking about the library field, and she gave me permission to post it here, to gather more input form others in the field:
Any insights from anyone appreciated!
Basic background: I've got a BA in English and History, and I've been working for a labor union in online communications and web support.[...]She also had a follow-up question in another email:
I know Library Science is crazy evolving right now, and at this moment I don't really know exactly what I'd like to do in it. From most everything I've read it would be a good fit for me (I love reading and information and work well with computers, blah blah) but I don't know how specific I need to be as I start looking for a school. Is Library Science like the Humanities, where you need to know exactly what you want to study (specific authors, genres, periods in history) or is it more of a survey-type and then you narrow down? I got the survey-impression from some cursory research I did but I don't know if it's right or not.
I've tried googling on Library Science but I can only find very basic information. Are there any resources or insights you can give me to help me find more?
PHP, coding databases.. what other techie stuff would be good to have? I could probably start pushing things at work to let me get practical experience so I won't have to worry about using time during school to learn them.(Context: I'd mentioned that learning PHP in my own time was what really got me my job, and I've told her that while she won't know what programming language a future employer uses, it's a bit like spoken languages - knowing one tends to make it easier to learn the next.)
Any insights from anyone appreciated!
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That's why I volunteered doing copy cataloging at a new library while I was on the job search - I suck at cataloging and no way was it going to be the focus of my job, but I needed to get it onto my CV so that I *could* do it as part of a job if I needed to.
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* BA Anthro -> "you want fries with that?" -> MA Anthro and Museum Studies -> job curating slide collection -> MLIS with certificate in digital imaging. The progression makes sense when you know the context. XD
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In my experience (10+ years in academic libraries, nearly done with my MLS and done with an MA), library science is library building focused and the narrowed by technical specifications, like so:
Type of library
1. Public
2. School (k-6, middle, or highschool, public or private, school media)
3. Archive
4. Academic
5. "Special" (such as art, music, law)
Tech Specifications, aka what the heck people do all day:
1. Technology, web or databases
2. Cataloging
3. Public service reference (answering questions for people)
4. Technical services (inter-library loan), archives, certain specialities
5. Management
6. Collections (deciding what to buy)
7. Instruction (teaching classes) or Outreach
Within certain specialties, you might get subject focused, like so:
Young adult public librarian who does collection development in manga. This translates to:
Public library, actual librarian (MLS), works with kids, chooses the books bought for her library and also (maybe) area libraries in the special arena of manga or graphic comics.
I'm a 'public services manager' at a small university library, so I do reference and public interactions, some collection development, circ, and fix the copy machines.
As for a library program: My program starts out with the basics that every librarian needs to know (how books and information are organized today and why, how people search and why, etc) and then narrow down by library type and library specialization.
Good skills to have include: SQL, web 2.0 applications (podcasts, social networking, chat reference, videos, wikis, and so on).
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Luckily, I am not a lab manager (although they work in my department of Systems), so I don't have to deal with the printers.
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The printers are OUT TO GET US. They creep around at night and ruffle the inkjet paper, I swear.
I wish I was as valued for my mad reference skillz as I am for being able to fix the copier, but alas, it ain't so. My ability to whip the toner cartridge into shape is probably my most desirable skill. :)
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Okay, to be honest it was more a matter of a badly-created spreadsheet given to the librarian in question so she could pull resources listed on it, who needed it sorted in ways that weren't possible until I broke several columns apart into more columns and then got rid of extraneous spaces, so it wasn't quite as simple as it sounds. :D
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(I did a bit of testing, and it would have been just about as much work to use it as TextPad in this case, as there were lots of little exceptions in the data that required hand-fixing, but I'm bookmarking this for later use. :D)
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I expect that there are other universities and other libraries that do much more for their employees, so it is something well worth looking into. There are also some schools that have a standing policy that immediate family members of employees get discounts or even free classes.
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I have a job right now and, ideally, I'd like to just stay here while I work on my degree. My job isn't stressful (35 hours a week, no overtime), I have awesome benefits and time off (ie, perfect support while I work for a degree), and I could dovetail some of the skills I'd want to learn as an MLS with the job (SQL, Web 2.0 stuff). The pay isn't stellar but it's enough to keep me independent. With the economy the way it is, I think staying hunkered down here while I work on other things is my best bet.
My goal is to spend a year doing the research and get into school for fall 2010, 2011 at the latest.
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a) Be a PEOPLE !!! PERSON !!! especially a CHILDREN PERSON !!!! because most of the entry level jobs involve customer service, basically: working heavily with the public--this comes as a big shock to a lot of introverts who go into library science thinking they can sit in the back fondling books. God knows that's what I was interested in. I hate the public. And of those jobs, the easiest jobs to get when my friend was looking were children's librarian positions (someone mistakenly tried to recruit me off the street for one when an ALA conference and a TESOL conference were in San Francisco at the same time once, no lie!). That all still seems to be the case, and is actually the top advice my friend gives people: if you're getting into library science because you're not good with people and you want to do cataloging (like her) or something, you need to be prepared for a long job hunt and moving to a place you don't really want to live in, or you need to have other qualifications like a second MA, or see part b).
b) Be a coder. Eh.
Anyway, a good thing to do would be to go to http://www.lisjobs.com/ and look at the entry-level Librarian I jobs in the area(s) you're interested in living in. As long as you can keep your day job, that'd be good, because it took my friend about 3 years to get her first Librarian 1 position--she was holding out for a job that included at least SOME cataloging. At first she couldn't find anything. Then she worked at a book distribution warehouse. Then she finally found a job that was 50% ref desk and 50% cataloging in an area of the country she didn't want to live in, but she took it, because ... 3 years. :/ And that was 2 years ago, when the economy was better (but she doesn't have coding skills).
Anyway, my $.02. :P
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lol, I don't have anything else intelligent to add beyond that, but this was very helpful (as have other comments).
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The ljisjobs site actually encouraged me, since my personal goal is to move to Chicago and work as a librarian. I don't know where or how or what yet (years ago I would've said academia but after years in labor I want something a little more progressive) but the opportunities seemed to be there. The only stipulation for the Chicago city library system is they want applicants to be willing to move there... well, yeah, that's the point ;)
This is all making me wonder if I should start plumbing a resource I have.. there's a library down the block from my apartment (I'm in DC) and the librarian totally knows me because I always order books. He sees me, says hi, goes straight to the shelf to pick up what I want. I might see if he's available for coffee...
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Just, um, 'ware Chicago. Oh, my memory is useless for where my KEYS ARE but I remember from when I was in
(obviously it's not impossible, since a couple people got hired there)
That's a great community to join even when you're just thinking about it, by the way. :)
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Reading farther in the entry, I noticed someone said she has an MLIS and lives in Chicago but doesn't work as a librarian... which makes me think that the MLIS/MLS could be a useful degree even if I don't wind up working as a "librarian" right away.
So this might be kind of off-topic, but is a Masters degree a Masters degree is a Masters? I mean, I know Bachelor's are a dime a dozen and that at least at the entry level, they were just looking for someone to have an education rather than a specific field. I was talking in a comment to
Or is this completely not the case?
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and BANG I think you just totally made my day. I've had a couple people nag at me to get an advanced degree (mom) but my response always is, IN WHAT? I don't care about anything but reading and I'm okay at my job (which does online-y stuff) but I couldn't care less about the labor movement (something that's increasingly obvious as people 6 years younger than me get all excited about reading the afl-cio blog).
A Masters in Library Science, as I see it, would be a good place for me to get advanced skills/education in a field that fits with me and then I could find a job using those skills.
You might think I'm crazy, heh, but I would love to learn the skills in the degree then be able to apply them in other ways. I will definitely check out the ALA website.
Thanks so much for your help!
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I do know that they were taking existing phone books, dumping the categories into a new file, and editing from there to produce new books. I got to do things like take out headings for poi factories and surf shops out of this new phone book file. :)
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Thanks so much for posting this! :)
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You'll probably find in library school that half your classmates are people working as librarians already who are just getting the degree so they can get promoted or retire at the higher pay grade, and who don't give a damn about education, scholarship, learning cool, nifty stuff, and who have academic skills of a much lower level than you'd expect from a graduate degree program. It's quite possible to coast through and get your degree without exerting yourself much.
OTOH, you can also seek out the professors and classes who will challenge you, find projects in the department to work on that will broaden and deepen your skillset, who will help you do original research and get published, and so on. I suspect the path that will help you the most is clear. :) I'd suggest, when you're interviewing programs, asking for citations of recent publications from faculty and students. (And then you can read them and you, too, will boggle at what passes for scholarly research in the library field!)
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Me, I am a self-righteous elitist snot who thinks that if you don't give a damn about knowing the history and theoretical fundamentals of your profession, you shouldn't be able to get a job guiding its future.
I was lulled into submission because my first semester, I took reference from a leading light in the field, and in my second semester, I took cataloging from one of those professors who totally turns your world upside down. This semester, two out of my three classes are so inane that I know understand how you could have found yourself bored enough in library school to have time to teach yourself tech skills on the side. It's a horrible shock to go from reading Patrick Wilson to VOYA exhorting me to educate myself about wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds--which, even if I had been totally ignorant of those things, I have already been taught about twice in different mandatory classes.
I am already writing scathing class evaluations in my head.
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This semester, two out of my three classes are so inane that I know understand how you could have found yourself bored enough in library school to have time to teach yourself tech skills on the side.
Yup! It also helps that I wasn't working for most of it, because I can't attend school full-time and work, because I am JUST THAT WAY. But most semesters I had classes that took an infinitesimal portion of my brainpower and left me able to code for 14 hours a day. (Half my classes were online, so I could do them when I wanted to do them, for the most part.)
Cataloging kicked my butt - it was taken during a summer short semester, and it was only the second time the prof had taught it online, so she was still working on it. I got an A because we worked in groups to do the assignments, and one of our group members was a cataloger who'd correct our mistakes, explain why they were wrong (although it rarely stuck with me), and then turn them in, so we always got it right. :D
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Being willing to move, and especially to smaller, out-of-the-way towns and cities, will get you a job a lot sooner than sitting and waiting, but that's possibly the truth in all fields. :)
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I just commented to the person who gave me the lisjobs website, and it looks like Chicago should have opportunities. Another option is private libraries, someone at my job is from Chicago and has many connections with non-profits out there. Perhaps the degree (which I'd enjoy getting because, erm, I think so right now) would help me get a job there while I wait for something in the preferred field. I'd also be willing to temp while I search and wait.
The smaller, out-of-the-way towns is something I strenuously want to avoid... I'm a city girl at heart.
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Also, getting a membership to library associations (the ALA, and any state and district one), attending the meetings, and volunteering on committees is great. My coworker does several things with the Texas Library Association and everyone running it knows him (and keeps asking him to do things!), so he's got a great network set up. The ALA has several divisions in it that deal with library specialties, so getting on those committees and interest groups and e-mailing lists would be good.
They're expensive, but if you choose a tech specialty, attending the Internet Librarian (fall, Monterey, CA) or Computers in Libraries (spring, DC) conferences, and volunteering for them (as you're in DC, CiL seems a shoo-in!) ought to help.
I'm not much of a people person, and I fail at networking, so I get limited benefit from that side of conferences, but anyone with more social acumen than I ought to do better. :)
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I wound up working in an academic library for a few years, then switched over to public. I'm now a combination public services / reference / teen services / PR / Friends liaison / tech support / resident artist... thing.
The whole point of it is, she should get as broad a base as she can because there's no telling where she's going to get her job. I like to think I'm a better librarian because I know about the stages of childhood development, I've taught teenagers that no, they can't find a site on the internet, print it off, and call it their research paper, I've taught "non-traditional" (i.e. older) college students how to use a mouse and that the computer's not going to blow up if they type in the wrong URL while trying to research that worrying medical condition they've got. I've got a broad base to build on, and that has given me a lot of room to grow. That room to grow is what got me my current job (well, that and my mad spelling/grammar skills... yes, seriously. I write the library column for the local newspaper, and Boss hates bad spelling & grammar.)
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- probably dont need to have an exact plan, but should have some idea of type of library or type of job to help you in course and internship selection.
- job market sucks, but top candidates still get hired, especially if willing to relocate. My job search last year took about four months.
- my training strategy was: general coursework (but use projects to focus on area of interest); basic experience in all job functions; in depth experience in specific job functions. You want to be able to tell people, "I have done or can do everything in this job description."
- if going into public libraries, beware of large city systems with vulnerable budgets and a history of putting new hires into their toughest jobs.
- things that will get you a job: tech skills, subject expertise, other advanced degrees, quality work experience (as in not those two month internships where you have no real responsibilities).
- being the problem solver who can fix the printer and excel spreadsheets probably won't get you a job but can help you get a great reference.
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My program has a special track for archivists and another for school librarians, but otherwise, it's a set of core courses (three out of five of which are unevenly taught or have no business being cores--hooray), and then you round out your credits with whatever courses interest you/you think will be most valuable to you. It helps to know what you want sooner rather than later, so you can focus on courses that will support it. I've been blithering around without a good adviser until this semester, but I'm getting really serious about cataloging.
It's an exciting and hugely frustrating time to be learning about cataloging. I personally think cataloging in some incarnation is going to remain a relevant and valuable skill in librarianship in the future--it's not like the internet makes the organization of information less useful, although it does make it exponentially more complicated--but my non-cataloging, non-reference instructors like to paint it as a lost cause, because there's no getting away from the LCD that is use of Google. They also seem to hate catalogers themselves quite a lot, though, so I really don't know how seriously I should be taking all that.
Having a library job before getting your MLIS will definitely help in getting a library job after your MLIS. It also might help in narrowing down what classes you like to take and what skills you want to learn during the program.
Whether you're in tech services or in a job that involves a lot of facetime with patrons, you cannot be a good librarian if you don't have decent people skills. All librarianship is ultimately about providing service to people, whether it's via technical services, or reference, or circulation, or being a Children's or YA librarian; that's just something you have to be prepared for.
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