It can be either. It is usually an entry level or slightly higher course (the same as with most adjunct positions), though a former co-worker at my current job who had a Ph.D. in philosophy (the ultimate in unemployability) taught several upper level courses over the years as well. (He left when a full time philosophy professorship came available in his homestate of NC.) One co-worker teaches a class in archival studies that is taught on the upper level undergraduate as well as the graduate level, another used to teach or co-teach upper level courses in local history and historical preservation until she was promoted to high administration and just didn’t have time for it anymore, and several have taught freshman level history, English, computer programming and education courses depending on what their non-library degrees were in. I know of at least one librarian at Auburn University (a very large library [about 2 million volumes]) who teaches a course in Architectural History (a subject he has written several books about) as part of his regular job requirement, but more often it’s over-and-above with some extra compensation.
The “publish-or-perish” attitude in libraries varies very widely. There essentially isn’t one where I work, though I’ve written two scholarly articles and numerous encyclopedia articles just to pad my resume for the next time my foot starts to itch . Auburn otoh has fairly strict publication requirements, BUT your publication can be on any subject (English, history, fish farming, etc.) so long as it’s in a refereed article, which seems to be the case at most of the larger/higher-pressure universities*. (I was offered a position at Auburn a few months ago that pays much more than my current position but surprised myself by turning it down- the place seems a total pressure cooker and the person who would have been my immediate supervisor struck me as a serpent-in-pumps and I honestly didn’t think the extra salary would make me as happy as the general glum demeanor of the place would make me miserable; the liberty of being able to turn down a job in your field is not to be underrated.)
*Librarians who have published extensively outside of library science include Daniel Boorstin and Philip Larkin. Many successful writers have been librarians, ranging from Lucia St. Clair Robson (author of several popular works of historical fiction) to Audre Lord (a modern poetess of some renown) to Jorges Luis Borges (imho one of the most brilliant literary figures ever produced in this hemisphere). Though the professions changed just a tad since their day, some other famous librarians include J. Edgar Hoover, Mao Tse Tung, David Hume, Gottfried Leibniz, Johann Goethe, Nadezhda Krupskaia (aka Mrs. Vladimir Lenin- very interesting woman), Golde Meir, Archibald MacLeish, the Brothers Grimm and Casanova.
Hmmm, I just graduated from a Florida U; although the program at FSU is 42 hours plus foreign-language courses (my Chinese is hopelessly rusty, so it’d be back to square one with Spanish), so I’m looking at 2 years, really, if I go there.
And anywhere else I’m looking at out-of-state tuition unless I can land an fellowship (GRE is top 2%, but grad GPA is only a 3.65) or an assistantship (which would make taking 12/semester hard).
As far as the tech, I am fairly luddite, though game to learn; how much tech knowledge is assumed?
You’re deliberately taunting me, aren’t you? From the OP: “my primary interest is 20th century Catholic novelists.” I’m not a big revere-the-author type, but damn … I always sort of imagined that if I’d been born in a few decades earlier Flannery might not have died a spinster.
In any event, you’ve definitely put a bug in my ear for me to chew on. Many thanks for all the info.
In my MSIS program, (which I am halfway through) very little computer knowledge is assumed. One of my first courses was a quick rundown of how computers work, including labs on word processing, spreadsheets, HTML, etc.
If you can type a paper, and use Google or another search engine you are probably all set. (Knowing how to use Powerpoint for a presentation wouldn’t hurt, although the presentations outside of the computer use course have not required it). If you’ve ever actually used an electronic database (beyond a online catalog for the library) you are ahead of the game.
One more comment on the School Library Media Specialist, if you do not come from a education background, they make you jump through a ridiculous number of hoops to be certified. This may not be universally true, but New York state (Where I am) seems to keep increasing the requirements for teachers in general.
[Hijack]
You’ll appreciate the irony in this, then: two years ago, just before I moved here, her home (Andalusia) was broken into. The place was largely a wreck, having been pretty much abandoned when Flannery died and her mother (who lived to be almost 100) moved into their house in town. Inside were boxes and boxes and boxes of family possessions, most of which might be accounted junk (old clothes, long expired legal papers and bank statements, old dishes, the tons of old crap that every family has) were it not for their famous owner, but also there were boxes of her letters, rough drafts for stories, photographs, etc., all of which would have fetched beaucoups bucks to a (black market) collector.
The thieves, like most people here, had never heard of Flannery O’Connor. (This is a city of about 20,000 where 95% of the people have never heard of her, perhaps 3% know she was a famous writer but probably haven’t read anything she wrote, and the remaining 2% are still p.o.d because she wrote about them or their family.) They stole a broken radio and two fishing poles.
It was around that time that the heads of the family (two of her umpteen dozen cousins [her mother was from a family of 7 and her father was from a family of 18) finally decided to donate the place and open it to the public on a limited basis in order to pay for the preservation and upkeep. The pictures in the link above are after a recent restoration.
I wasn’t allowed to make pictures inside the house, but it’s an unusual set-up. You enter into a hall that’s easily 30 feet high with a window that runs most of that length on the stair landing. Her bedroom, which is to the immediate left of the front door (it was originally her father’s room but due to her illness she had to move downstairs) is somewhere between monastic and bleak with dark unpainted walls, a twin bed that wouldn’t be out of place in an army barracks, her record player and records and a chifferobe positioned exactly where she left it in front of a window to block out the light and distractions (the room faces the front porch which was the real living area of the house and overlooks a livestock pond down the hill). My favorite part of the estate by far was the much older house behind the main house (the unpainted house in the pictures), which had originally been the main house of the plantation (built ca. 1820) but was later lived in by hired hands. Some of her unpublished writings on them are hysterical. (“It is officially Christmas time as the weather has changed and Shot has thrown a knife at Louise.”)
Another irony: Flannery wrote in Wise Blood, some stories and her correspondence about how much she detested the homogenization of the Southern landscape by chain stores, asphalt and architecturally anonymous buildings. The land adjoining Andalusia was sold some while ago and a brand spanking new Super Wal-Mart shopping center opened there a few weeks ago. Were Flannery still alive she could hear the cars and see the airplane lights of the place from her front porch.
Some while ago the family donated (more of a permanent loan really) Flannery’s bookcases (two gorgeous handcarved antique pieces bought cheap at an estate sale in Savannah during the Depression and transported partly by truck and partly by wagon [this area of the state was still using horses and wagons in some areas as late as the 50s due to the bad roads]) and enough of the books from her private library to fill them. (One of my duties if I ever get caught up is to transcribe and catalog some of the marginalia she wrote on the pages of the books.) A typical Flannery-esque touch: in front of these gorgeous antiques is her desk which she made herself- it’s an old army surplus desk onto which she nailed a hutch made from two emptied wooden ammo boxes and a board (all painted brown). We have her favorite typewriter on top (an old manual; we also have the electric typewriter a fan gave her in the 60s which she used due to the ease but only for personal correspondence or when she was simply to weak to pound the keys).
Sorry for the hijack, but you’d be amazed how seldom you encounter somebody who’s at all enthusiastic about her (although visitors to the Flannery room [and this is a town that NOBODY comes to by accident- they made special trips] have included Conan O’Brien [who wrote his MA thesis on her] and Bruce Springsteen [who is a huge Flannery admirer and made the 100 mile trip when he was playing in Atlanta]).
[/hijack]
Forty-two hours is easily doable in 18 months if you go summers. Regardless of what you end up doing, go ahead and fill out your FAFSA now before it’s too late to be considered for Fall (it’s free and there’s no commitment). One great thing about getting Federal loans is that interest is super low at the moment and shouldn’t go up that tremendously much over the next two years; when you graduate you can have the Federal gov’t purchase your loans if they’re not already the lender and freeze at whatever the current rate is so that it won’t go up. If the interest rate ever goes down, simply ask them to “consolidate” (a misused term- they’ll “consolidate” even if it’s one loan and they’re the lender) at the new interest rate and that fixes it for the duration of the loan so long as you keep up your payments (which there’s no reason not to because they’ll suspend them automatically with a phone call for up to 42 months [though the interest continues accruing]).
[I used to work for the USDE Direct Loan program; it was the most boring job I ever had, but I’m a walking encyclopedia on student loans.)
No no. You’re much too busy. You need to hire a research assistant for that.
Sweet Gravy. Add Graham Greene and you have my personal holy trinity. Don’t tell me you gave him the tour or whatever?
Fascinating stuff. Thanks.
Alas, I already have student loans that I am way behind on (as in years), and I think I can’t do anything until I pay them. Besides which I have other debts I want to pay off first before I go back to school.
You might be surprised how liberal the Feds are in rehabilitating defaulted loans. Basically, make three payments and you’re in good standing again. Defaulted loans are such a huge problem that they’ll do almost anything to help put you in a position to repay.