Tell me about Masters of Library Science programs!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hello all,

As some of you may know (although few would care), I finished law school a year ago, I haven’t passed the Bar yet, I’m unemployed, and I’m completely miserable. I need a job doing SOMETHING, but I don’t know WHAT. (I was always the kid who didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up, so here I am at 26, having wasted a lot of time.)

I thought I’d ask if anyone has gotten a Masters in Library Science, which I’m hearing more and more about lately. In my futile online job searches, I’m seeing several opportunities for librarians (including law librarians, which I could see myself doing as opposed to practicing law), and many of those jobs pay very well.

What are these programs like? How long do they last? How much do they cost? What schools are the best? What is the competition like in this field? What kind of jobs can you get? I’m fascinated, yet worried about going for ANOTHER degree when I’m already nearly broke, having trouble finding work, and saddled with student loan debts. Please educate me, and I promise I’ll be quiet.

2

I asked about this once

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=275099&highlight=program

I know Eve is in an MLS program.

Here is the Occupational Outlook Handbook article for librarian

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm

This says ‘most take 1 year to complete’. Lsura said most took 2 but she may have been referring to an MIS degree and not an MLS.

3

I went to San Jose State for my MLIS, and it lasted two years and was pretty cheap as these things go. The more prestigious programs at prominent universities are, of course, more expensive. Generally, they cost the same as other master’s degrees at the same place. (SJSU is well-regarded as a practical librarian program. Others may be more theoretical or academic.)

Many public librarians are nearing retirement age, so there’s lots of scope–if you live someplace with lots of well-funded libraries. I live in California, so…well, we won’t talk about that. Special libraries, such as what you’re thinking of, can have a lot of opportunity. IME most people entering MLIS programs are older and switching careers, so you’d be in good company.

In an MLIS program, you would take some basic required courses (basic reference, collection management, business, and theory) and then start focusing on your preferred field, so you would take courses on special library work. (Special librarians are the ones that aren’t academic, public, or school librarians, and they usually, but not always, work for a corporation. Also they usually make more money.) Lots about databases, managing a small corporate library, and so on. You would do an internship, most likely, and it would be good if you were already working part-time somewhere.

I would advise you to start looking around online at different programs. Consider this information search as the start of your new experimental interest! You may be interested in UC Berkeley’s oddball program, too.

Um, I can’t think of anything else, but there are several others here who are better-informed than I am anyway. Good luck!

4

Since you already have your law degree, you’d be in decent shape for an entry level law librarian position - most of the law librarian positions I saw listed a JD among the required qualifications as well as the MLS.

Wesley Clark’s first link has the description I provided fairly recently of my experience getting my MLS - feel free to e-mail me if I can provide any more information (or I’ll check this thread when I get home from work tonight).

What you could maybe do, before applying to a library/info science program is try to find a clerk position in a law library (or any other library for that matter) to get some work experience. Even once you’re there, there are several programs that allow you to take the entire program through distance education, possibly a realistic alternative if you’re decide to work and go to school at the same time. (USF and FSU in Florida both have ALA accredited programs, but I don’t know if they have distance ed components).

The job market for new librarians can be tough - but that said, there are jobs out there if you’re willing to relocate (I was). I saw a number of listings for law librarians in the D.C. area as part of my search (go to washingtonpost.com and search the jobs for librarian), even though I wasn’t qualified for them (No J.D.).

5

Oh, and you can check out the American Association of Law Libraries - they have job listings for law librarians and information on library education and the like.

6

My MLS took 2 years. It was at the School of Library and Information Management, at Emporia State University in Kansas, which is a very good library school. I went to live at the university in Kansas for those 2 years to get my degree quickly, but they have a weekend outreach program in several states. Their website is at http://slim.emporia.edu/

7

Not starting classes till January. Life got too complicated this fall—and besides, I needed to get my college transcripts, and in NY State, you have to be vaccinated for everything from rubella to mumps to heebie-jeebies before they’ll let you enroll. All that takes time . . . So, I plan to take three night courses a semester, and try to get my MLS in three years.

8

[hijack] This isn’t going to help you decide but I want to put in a word for librarians and the work of libraries. I am a firm believer that Engineering students and in fact everyone in the business of science should have a course in library science every year through their training. How to use a library is one of the most valuable assets an engineer can have and vital for scientists if for no other reason than to avoid duplicating stuff that’s already been done.[/hijack]

9

As a librarian who works in an engineering field, thanks! :smiley:

Everything dangermom said, except that you probably don’t want to be a law librarian. Those jobs are high stress (which is why they pay so nicely). My program, UNC, took me two and a half years, which is unusually long for a library science degree. Library school is basically a technical school, despite the masters. You’ll be learning a trade, so it’ll probably be quite different from law school.

10

That’s fine with me, Rysler, because I hated law school! Lsura, I’ve actually heard excellent things about USF in Tampa, and I think they may even have a distance ed option for down here in Miami. I need to investigate a lot more. Thanks to everyone for their information and good advice so far. Keep it coming!

Right now my biggest concern is the fact that I’ve got a B.S. and a J.D., I have minimal job experience despite being 26 (I understand a lot of human resources people don’t even consider a lot of the work I’ve done, such as unpaid summer internships and temping, as “work experience”), and then I’d be going to get a Masters on top of that. I probably need to just go out and work for a while, and probably retake and pass the damn Bar when they offer it again in February.

11

I got my MLIS this spring from the University of South Carolina. It took me two years, more or less full time. I can’t find a full time job to save my life (however, I’m still hanging on to the hope of not having to leave here, so obviously geographic mobility helps.) Please don’t believe the people who say “Oh, it’s a graying profession! Everybody’s retiring and they need new librarians!” Like in other sectors, those high level vacancies are not trickling down to entry level jobs - instead, they’re being replaced with part-time positions and paraprofessionals. Every time I go to a conference or read a recruitment article in a journal I get all fired up mad about it, because you know the people writing the article have a hiring freeze at their own institution! I’ve halfway decided to wait out the economy for a year teaching English in Japan if I don’t get anything by December.

That being said, I love the profession. I’m working part time as an art librarian at a museum and it’s a great job, different every day. The last time we had a discussion about library school here, though, I seemed to be the only one who was fed up and disgusted with the idiots you have to go to school with; maybe that’s a function of where I went, but I deeply suspect it’s endemic to the profession. Not that the professionals are idiots, but that the people who think they want to be librarians may be. I see far fewer actual librarians of their stripe, however, so it’s entirely possible that the most egregious offenders don’t make it for long. Still, for me at least library school was an exercise in learning to suffer fools.

The program itself was frustrating also; at USC there are six core requred classes and then you pick six electives. The core classes were universally a waste of my time (with added irritation and insult to the injury, no less) and only two of my electives were worth anything either. Where I learned things was in my graduate assistantship and an internship I took. I get the feeling you’re supposed to just learn the actual librarianship part on the job, which is silly; you have to waste your time to get the degree, though, becuase it’s required for any job worth anything.

Oh, and don’t get all excited about the pay. It’s not bad (if you can get a full time job with benefits) but it isn’t great either, and this profession more than others it seems suffers from salary compression the longer you stick around. My boss at my GA job who had been there since Moses got his MLIS was pulling down all of 50 grand, and that almost at retirement. In the private sector he could have been making twice that easily.

12

Wow, that sounded more negative than I was planning! Sorry, I just got a fresh rejection letter today from a job I was really hopeful about. :slight_smile: To mitigate, I’ll add that there’s an enormous amount of satisfaction in being on the front lines of the war against ignorance, censorship, and small-mindedness. It’s a wonderful profession and a very important job, and there’s a lot of different jobs to do in it - you can be a children’s librarian, a law librarian, a corporate librarian, a music librarian, a preservation librarian, an archivist, it goes on and on. It’s a cool job, a fun job, and a socially responsible job. And if you’re a guy it’s a great place to pick up chicks.

13

If you’re interested in being a Law Librarian - you’re more than halfway there.
Some Law Librarian positions require a JD, so with both a JD and an MLS you’ll have more options when doing your job search.

I second Lsura’s recommendation to check the AALL website. They have a lot of good information for people considering the field.

14

University of Illinois purportedly has the highest-ranked librarian school in the country.

I was considering it for a little while but I decided I wanted to actually be a lawyer in the end. Anyway-I know that if you have a law degree our library school lets you do the program in one year.

15

Oh, man, I thought maybe it was a San Jose State thing. Yeah, there were quite a few idiots at my school too–but all the actual librarians were wonderful. Maybe the idiots didn’t get jobs, or something. I dunno.

16

What about someone who wants a low stress librarian job that offers part time work, what kind of librarian job is best for that? Is it municipal librarian, prison librarian, k-12 librarian, college librarian or what?

17

Lot of part time work at the public libraries here lately (I suspect to avoid giving anybody any benefits) - probably not your idea of “low stress”, however. How are you with vomit? :wink:

There’s not a whole lot of part time academic library work, in my experience, and that’s where I feel most comfortable. I do have a part-time job right now in the museum, which if it were any more low stress there’d be naptime. (Actually, if I closed the door there would be.) So sometimes it’s just a matter of falling into the job like that. Even if I did have a lot of patrons it wouldn’t be very high stress, because they’re going to the art library, not the main public library or anything - I never get middle school book report requests, for example, and I don’t do story time. Also, vomit risk is pretty low.

However, locally at least, part time librarian jobs tend to be in public libraries, often on funny shifts, and snapped up by retired librarians or experienced librarians looking to pick up some extra cash. As I was told at the end of the last interview I had for one. Basically a “Oh, you’re all sweet and all, and you’re qualified for the entry level position this is actually supposed to be, but you know you’re not going to get it, right? Because we’re going to hire somebody, er… older.”

18

Wesley Clark - I worked in personnel for a large academic library at a state university at one time. There were a lot of jobs like you seem to be describing, but they were not generally done by the MLS librarians. They were administrative or paraprofessional. For example, in a big library like that the large circulation department had only maybe 3 actual librarians, a few full-time administrative types, and lots of part-time (generally) students. Obviously, the MLS librarians made better money, but all full-time regular employees were state employees with fairly good job security and benefits. From your posts, you sound like you might fit in well in that type of environment.

A couple things to be aware of, though. Going to the library as a patron is often waaay more low-stress than working there. There is a definite hierarchy, and many of the MLS librarians consider themselves miles above any other staff, and they aren’t ashamed of showing it. Kind of like being a non-lawyer employed by a law firm (to tie in to the OP a little). If you can get past those things, though, it could be a good choice. And I will second the “good place to pick up chicks” thing for the guys. Men are clearly outnumbered.

19

Well dammitall. Does anyone know of any degrees that offer part time, low stress work then if librarian is not among them? That is my goal in life, to find a good paying ($16-25/hr) part time job that is low stress and live out my days that way.

20

Librarianship might not be a bad choice for you then. The profession just suffers from a very misleading sterotype: dignified, stately pace, insular, read all day, etc. The actual stress levels depends in large part on what you find stressful.
If you find direct contact with people stressful:

  1. Choose non-people contact work like cataloging, archivist, etc. instead of refererence and research.
  2. Choose the atmosphere and clientele you prefer. Public libraries=general public, of all ages and conditions. Academic libraries=students and faculty. Special library (corporate, hospital, legal, etc.)=denizens of those places.
  3. Any type of library still packs some unavoidable budgetary issues. Public libraries compete for funding with other municipal departments, academics with subject departments, etc. There’s no free ride for anyone so expect the standard pressure to produce and justify your collective value to the institution.

Voodoo Lou: Check out ALA’s website for a list of accredited library programs. Where you go and how you do it pretty much up to you. Honestly. Just pick the one that offers what suits you best.
I worked a few jobs for a couple of years–insurance by day and a book store nights and weekends–after my first masters to float the MLS as a full time student.
I just found it easier to do the work-for-money thing intensively and save every dime than blending work and school, though I’ve done both. I cleared the program in a year and a quarter by pouring on maximum credit hours and taking a killer compressed load in summer sessions. It would probably be a breeze for you compared to law school.
One of my best friends from library school is a law librarian. She took a year off from law school to nail her MLS then wrapped up her JD. She never intended to practice law. She loved the material, just not the prospect of lawyering. She’s now happy as a clam at high tide at a law school.
Most of the core classes are mind numbing, so be braced for it. (I nearly dropped the program in disbelief during Foundations of Librarianship.) And a huge “Hell yes!” to dangermom’s quote about some library school students. The profession seems to attract an unusually high percentage of losers who figure it must be so easy anybody can do it. Picture the stereotypical washouts from other fields, people still living in their parents’ basments, etc. Though I never heard of any of them actually working in the profession after they cleared the degree either. Most of the rest were some of the funniest, brightest, most interesting people I ever met. Quite a few of 'em were decidedly quirky, not to mention eccentric, but really mentall alive people.
And to actually offer some useful info for a change, Univesity of Illinois does have a fine program and it offers a distance-learning program as well. Might be worth checking out.

Veb