Eve, I think you would be a fantastic librarian. Of course, I have a funny bias toward librarians, the noble and wise Keepers of All Knowledge.
And remember, nothing raises the spirits like learning new things and taking on a new project. It is some money, but if you’d like a career change and are willing to make it work, I think the money’s worth it. I went back to school for a master’s, and even though I’ll be an old lady like you before I pay off the loan, for me, it was definitely worth it.
Well not that id recommend la county for a libary job but having a fox like eve in the libary here would make a dreary town just a bit better… <purrs in daydreams>
I was going ot go for a librian job and just might volunteer but im too much of a reader to do it professionaly … I’d read books instead of stacking them and my special education wpuld mean lots of useless college classes before i could eve n begin to start
I’ve been an official librarian (MLIS in hand) for the past six years, but I’ve been working in libraries for the past 17 years. Academics pay better, but many require a double master’s, and while you may be considered faculty, the pay isn’t the same. I’ve worked in an historical society library and the pay there is abysmal–this could, of course, vary from institution to institution, but it seemed pretty consistent throughout New England (at least that’s what I heard from other librarians in similar places.) I now work in a public library as a technology coordinator–a new, growing area for libraries that can’t afford the $150 per hour dudes with A+ and MCSEs (which means just about all libraries!)
I don’t want to discourage you from this at all! I think you’d be wonderful at it! It’s a job I love doing. I go to work everyday with people who all have the same agenda that I have–to help patrons find the information they need, and to teach them how to use the resources we provide. There’s little backbiting and very few prima donnas. That stuff goes on everywhere, but I just don’t see it as much in libraries as I have in other jobs I’ve worked over the years. But best of all, we have the cool new action figure. You just can’t beat a job that has its own action figure.
Well, I don’t need a huge salary. I don’t have kids to support, and I can make freelance money from my books and magazine and encyclopedia writing . . . Crap, if Carrie Bradshaw can afford a NY apartment and a closetful of Manolo Blahniks on a freelancer’s salary . . .
All I want is a job with benefits that doesn’t make me want to go home and swallow all the pills in the medicine cabinet.
[That would pretty much consist of Maalox and Sudafed, by the way]
Yes, go for it! At least, do so if you can possibly swing it.
With your experience, I’m sure you qualify for some sort of grant, and as Eva Luna suggests, you could probably get a job at the school and save a bundle on tuition. The ones I’ve seen all have gretty good deals for employees who want to take classes.
And from everything I’ve seen here, you’d make a great librarian!
I received my MLS 8 years ago and have really enjoyed the field. I focused on law librarianship in school, however now work in the public setting. Primarily because special libraries and academic libraries are very difficult to get into unless you have a foot in the door. Also, in special libraries, librarians are the first ones let go if things get tough. About the time I graduated many law firms were in the process of laying off librarians, so finding a job in that area was not going to happen.
Also, librarians are generally looked down upon. In the legal setting, lawyers often look at librarians as paralegals or secretaries and not as professionals. I’m not sure about other business settings, but wouldn’t think it would be too different.
All that said there is nothing I would rather do, and while it is not exactly what I thought it would be it is still very fullfilling personally. If you go for it, I wish you the best of luck.
If you are interested in a particular type of library, you could always volunteer if you have the time. That’s how I ended up landing a paying gig at the historical library I worked for. I was volunteering only four hours a week while I went to school and when an opening became available they just offered it to me. From the part-time work, I eventually became a department head, then a director–and I had never really intended to stay there, I just liked library work and wanted to keep my hand in while I finished my undergrad.
Eve, good luck! I think with your experience doing research and dealing with archives you’d be very good at special library work.
I got my MLS 10 years ago. It’s my second Master’s; the other is an MA in English Lit. Several people I went to library school with had Masters in other fields too, but a lot of them didn’t and, considering the ones I still keep in touch with, I don’t think it’s injured their careers. My MA has never actually played a part in any of jobs I’ve taken as a librarian; I never got near the Folger’s library, for example, which was my dream job when I first came to Washington DC .
From my own experience, I can tell you it was hard the first couple of years out of school. I did a lot of temp work around the DC area. (I would guess that the library situation in NY is similar to DC–lots of little special libraries all over the place?) Most of the early jobs didn’t pay well, but they did give me exposure to lots of different kinds of libraries and helped me get a good practical idea of the kind of work I like to do. And then once I got some experience and into some decent positions, I started to make- well, not big money certainly, but a respectably comfortable income for a single lady of quiet tastes supporting no one except a couple of cats.
Eve, I started the SLIS program at Texas Woman’s University last fall, which is ALA-accredited. It’s completely online - there are some optional campus meetings, but you don’t have to attend. The class I’m in now - Information Storage and Retrieval - has students living in Germany, Japan, Korea, and across the US - very few are actually here in Texas, much less in Denton, where the campus is located. While I work close to campus, during the day, I’m a cpa doing business valuation, plus I have two small children and don’t have to the time to travel to class.
The online classes are great - we get our assignments, which generally consist of writing reports and maybe a quiz or two - which are essay format - over the internet. There are discussion boards to ask questions of the instructor and students, and all grades are posted that way as well. I find that it’s really convenient - I can check class throughout the day at work, and I can schedule my study time any way I like.
I get a lot of flak from the people I work with about pursuing this degree, because they don’t see the benefits of “being” a librarian. I stress the research skills that I’m going to improve upon, the access to multiple databases, and basically the fact that I just have always wanted to do this, and frankly, I’m sick of accounting. I don’t want to work the 70+ hours weeks during tax season anymore, and I’m HIGHLY annoyed at the possibility of having to cancel a family vacation in a few weeks due to a client that won’t send in their information and the fact that the partner-in-charge won’t extend. This is not what I want to do for the rest of my life, and I figured that working in a library would be much more rewarding that doing this crap forever. (Not that I’m bitter about the vacation or anything ).
I say go for it! Our degree requires 36 hours, and while some people I know are finishing in 4 semesters, I plan on only taking one course at a time - I won’t graduate until Fall, 2007, assuming that everything goes according to plan. I figure I’ve already got one career, the other doesn’t have to be a rush - unless I get truly annoyed and quit this one. The pay is a drawback - I’ll end up cutting my salary in half if I do choose to leave for a library job - but I think that the stress will be much much much less.
While, as with any job, there are a few downsides, I am happy to be one of these people who can say that I actually enjoy what I do.
I work in reference. There is something about getting a tough question, grabbing on like a dog, and shaking books and databases trying to get the answer to fall out. Then the rush of finding that answer that the patron was almost sure wasn't going to be there.
I am planning (hoping) to hang on to my current lousy, soul-sucking, demeaning job as long as I can—so, I will start Library School at Pratt part-time, probably a year from now. Maybe take, what, a year and a half to complete the 36 credits? Then look for a library job—another year or two, if I’m lucky?
Can’t afford to be out of work/without benefits for that long. So I will be doing all this while keeping my current job.
P.S. I just e’d the nice Personnel Lady at work to ask if our company offers any kind of financial aid/matching funds for employees to go back to school to get M.A.s so we can quit our lousy, soul-sucking, demeaning jobs here.
. . . Maybe I should have worded it differently . . .
I received my MSLS in 1981. ACK! I’ve always been a medical librarian but have worked in several different settings: academia (BARF!!! Talk about stereotypical spinster librarians), county public health department, trainer for a search software corporation, national professional medical organization and my latest and I hope my last, relatively small but affluent community hospital. Obviously I haven’t worked in a museum or a historical society but I tend to think jobs like that (private sector in the humanities) are few and far between, rather political, not so great pay, and fairly unstable. Like if budget cuts need to be made, the librarian/library is the first to go because (trust me, I hear this all the time): everything anyone needs is on the Internet for free. These days librarians spend a lot of time justifying their existence. Job stability, salary and benefits all depend on where you work. I make an extremely decent salary ($55K), have good benefits and feel safe. But I’ve also been working for 23 years, have the experience and am damn good at what I do. There is more to librarianship to reference work though. You can specialize in, among things, cataloging or collection development or administration. I love what I do. I look forward to going to work. I like knowing that what I do helps physicians make decisions (hopefully the right decisions) about patient care. I didn’t become a librarian because I love to read; I became one because I love making order out of chaos and I love doing research. It’s a rewarding career for the right person. But if you’re doing it just for job stability and benefits, this might not be where you want to be. (BTW, as I type this I am in my office wearing jeans because it’s “Casual Day” and I am realphabetizing the journal check-in cards. And having a good time!)
I’m a library assistant at an HBC (Historically Black College). My BS was in Biology Education at the same University where I now work. I needed only to have a BS or a BA in any area to get the job of the Library Assistant. Basically, I pick up magazines, stock shelves, clean up messes that the students leave behind (such as cut up newspapers and journals that they shouldn’t be cutting up) and helping the students. Any given night I can be found helping a student find a journal on the floor or on the database, proofreading their papers (not a part of my job but I have a reputation for helping students like that), answering general computer questions from staff and students, or doing claims for magazines and journals we either get too many of or don’t receive. My starting salary was about $30,000. I have been encouraged to get my MLS and have even had specialties suggested (Automated Systems and Bibliographics as two). When I checked out Drexel, I discovered that it was about $42,000 for an MLS there.
What I’d recommend is that you seek out employment as a Library Assistant FIRST (or a Library Technician) to see if you’d like the work. You’ll find out soon enough if you’re cut out to be a Librarian.
Oh yes… not all Librarians say Shhhh! When I have to tell the students to be quiet, all I have to do is repeat something they said and suddenly, they realize that they are telling the whole world their business. However, we do have problems with cell phones and food which both are prohibited, but end up in there anyway.
I’m rather concerned by these statements. Suicide is not the answer. With you gone, who could we look to for guidance in etiquette? Who would inform us of the deaths of stars from the golden days of Hollywood?
Besides, if you’re going to kill yoursellf, at least have the decency to jump off of a giant H.
All I can contribute to this is that the last job opening we had, a half-time clerical position, among the applicants we had three with Masters in Lobrary Science. The local U churns them out. I surmise that they have difficulty finding jobs in their field.
Also, I think you are seriously underestimating the time frame. 36 credits in a year or a year and a half? If you were a full time student, maybe. Part time, you’ll orobably take only one or two classes per semester. 6 or 8 credits per semester, maybe less.
Well, it depends too on how willing you are to relocate. Here in Knoxville, jobs that require the MLS are hard to get - my opinion is that it’s because the school is here and we do get a number of people who want to stay/have to stay in the Knoxville area, whether it’s because of family obligations or just a general liking for the area.
I see a lot of job listings, including a lot in the midwest (and for some reason there have been a number in PA lately. And by lately I mean the last 3-4 months).
I’ve been told since I started the program that if I’m willing to move - and flexible about where I move to - I shouldn’t have a problem finding a job. Granted, I’m still waiting for interviews, but I know they will happen. Out of four friends graduating with me in May, one already has a job that she has accepted, one has had several interviews and is waiting for those places to make a decision, one has an interview next week and one has not yet applied anywhere - there are other factors that play into this for her. We’re all willing, even eager, to relocate.
Are you intending this to be a reassuring statement about job prospects? It certainly wouldn’t be to me. One out of five of you has found a job in nearly a year, or one of four if you don’t count the one who seems not to care enough to apply anywhere. Some of you have already begun repaying student loans taken out to pay for degree, and the degree is not contributing to those payments.
But I don’t mean to discourage you Eve. In the 90’s I went back to finish a Bachelor’s degree I’d dropped nearly 20 years before, and I got a Political Science degree in '98. It was an important exercise in self-discipline for me and I’m glad I did it, but it is totally unrelated to the current, and nearly perfect :), job I have now. Also, I inherited some money and was able to pay back my student loan writing a single check. I’d be a lot less satisfied with the degree if I was still paying for it.
What I suggest is that you invest some time that will pay you to go to school. My employer will pay 100% of tuition up to 5K per year toward any degree that might reasonably contribute to skills needed by our hospital. And that’ not an uncommon bennie any more. Take another mindless, soul sucking job if need be, but make sure it has this one extra thing. Then go off and pursue the degree as an intellectual exercise without concerning yourself much about the costs.
before I pay off the loan, for me, it was definitely worth it.