I’m done with the law, I’ve decided. I think it was a huge mistake, and I’m ready to move on with my life and start anew. I am very interested in library science, and perhaps I can use my J.D. in the future if I decide to become a law librarian. I already have a strong background in (legal) research, and I consider myself a highly organized person. I am strongly considering going back to school in 2006 to earn a Masters in Library Science degree, and I know both Florida State University in Tallahassee and the University of South Florida in Tampa have good reputations. Even better for me, both offer distance learning options so I wouldn’t have to leave the Orlando area.
I’m only starting to investigate these programs, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear from librarians with different specializations. Tell me about your jobs, and also your education. Do you like what you do? What exactly DO you all do? How was your Masters program? Without getting too personal, how are things like salary, benefits, job satisfaction, quality of life? If you have any advice for me – anything at all – I’d be grateful for it, and fascinated to listen. Thank you in advance, and I’ll be quiet in the meantime.
A very good friend of mine is Director of the Library System for a tri-county area. The following observations are mine, not hers. I also have some library experience - I worked in the law library while I was getting my J.D., and also worked in the law library of a jail.
Be prepared to take crap. Lots of crap. If a book isn’t there, it’s your fault.
Long hours, evenings and weekend work. Getting further up the pay/promotion scale doesn’t save you from working weekends and evenings.
Dealing with elected/appointed boards. If you do move up the scale, you get to deal with mucho bullshit from whoever funds you. If you tell them not to do something, and they do it anyway, it’s still your fault.
This applies mostly to public librarians. You really have to be a people person to do the job. You have to deal with boards and politics and spend your days walking really stupid people through the basics of libraries.
Law and corporate libraries are different. Your only clients are within the company you work for. People are rarely looking for books from me (I’m an “Information Specialist” in a consulting firm), mostly what I do is secondary research, records management, and taking care of our huge journal collection.
The librarian world is really an “us” vs. “them” field. Basically it’s the public librarians vs. the special librarians, who could be academic, law, corporate, medical, etc. I wouldn’t be a public librarian on a dare; I’d love to be an academic librarian (I have a MA in history as well as the MLIS) but the money isn’t as good as it is in corporate and it can be fairly cut-throat to move up the ladder.
With a J.D. and an MLIS (or MLS - depending on your school) you can start pretty high up the scale from the get go. I’ve known people who went into law libraries without the law background and they start at the bottom.
My SO is a librarian and works in a very large public library. She got her MLIS about ten years ago and works behind the scenes, so she rarely deals with the public.
Not being part of the public face of the system eliminates a certain amount of stress, but she’s pretty high up the food chain now, so there’s still a fair amount of daily, management-style angst and the usual politics. The pay and benefits are reasonable, though not quite as high as she had in the private sector (software industry). I still work in software, and we both agree that she’s got the better gig. (I come home ready to open a vein, and she just needs a glass of wine.)
I’d say go for it. Having a specialty (law degree, Masters in whatever, etc.) along with an MLIS seems to be the key to a swell post as a university reference librarian. My SO has several friends who have left the public system for universities, and they have few complaints. In fact, she also had colleagues in the software industry who left for university library jobs, and they also seem reasonably pleased with their choice.
Keep in mind – getting into the university system often means relocating.
My wife is a law librarian for DOJ; before that she was with the US Courts. She has her MLS from Simmons College, which I believe is as good as it gets. I’ll try to paste together her observations.
IMO, she had a better gig with the courts. She served at the disgression of the judges, who loved her. Politics was never a factor, just keeping the judges happy, which boils to to doing it right and doing it fast.
DOJ is vastly more political. She has to make more people happy, and while she’s generally successful, she finds it more stressful.
She thinks the profession is declining, partly because it’s seen to be cheaper for attorneys to do their own research (although it isn’t really, because a professional librarian is much more efficient), and partly because of the consolidation of publishing houses. My eyes kinda glaze over when she starts talking about this, so I don’t really quite get it.
She doesn’t work horrendous hours, and rarely works weekends. She seems to be massively organized, to the point where she even does web development on top of being the librarian.
She out-earns me, gets more vacation, and has excellent job security.
She’s told me in the past that the top jobs in law librarianship go to people who are both lawyers and librarians. So that’ll work in your favor.