When you are asked why you want to go to library school, do not say “I like books.” That’s the reason you’re going to library school, but it’s everyone’s reason, so come up with something a bit more creative (like you want to be the Veronica Mars of answering reference questions, you want to ingrain your love of books in the youth of America, or maybe you just really love the Dewey Decimal system.) Everyone knows you came to library school because you like books anyway.
This is the one place in the world where you actually fit in. Sometimes you literally blend in with the crowd, because everyone looks alike. You are constantly getting mistaken for the other million busty, slightly awkward looking brunettes who walk around this area of campus. That doesn’t mean there aren’t cliques, even library school has those. But eventually everyone under 50 who knows how to shower becomes part of the “cool kids” group.
You’re probably wondering at this point how you’re going to fit in. Simple! Have you seen Doctor Who? You should probably have a favorite Doctor (NINE FOREVER.) You’ve read Harry Potter and maybe dabbled in fandom? And you love Tina Fey. You must love Tina Fey. To really stand out you should probably have at least one “thing.” It’ll have to be really weird to stand out in library school though. Maybe cyborg hockey player RPS? Oh wait, that’s taken. Maybe just think on it for a while. Whatever you do, don’t talk about the rock wall at your gym constantly. Nobody likes that guy.
Librarians have to do something with their hands while they’re bingeing on pop culture, so you should probably develop a craft. Knitting and crochet are acceptable, but cross-stitch works too. But what do you eat while you’re watching all that tv? Hopefully you’ve baked some Sorting Hat cupcakes for your Harry Potter marathon. Baking is preferable, but home-brewing is an acceptable substitute. At the very least you should love to eat.
The absolute best thing about library school is your peers. You will all have a Leslie Knope-ian intensity about something. It may be Star Wars, hockey, astrophysics, or that damn rock wall, but everyone brings some kind of obsession to the table. There is sure to be someone who will be a little too into board games. People will regularly discuss Weasleycest and Tami Taylor’s hair at parties, because if there’s one thing librarians get, it’s an enthusiast. We are all punk-ass book jockeys, and we want you to read our favorite book. And then maybe we’ll break down the Library of Congress Subject Headings afterwards.
If you’re thinking you will meet a future love interest in library school, don’t hold your breath. The pickin’s are slim. If you do meet your significant other in library school, be warned: they will ask you to consolidate your Harry Potter collections once you move in together and you will look at them aghast. You will never have any space in your apartment because you need so much bookshelf room. Also, you will probably have cats. So try not to be allergic to them.
Sorry, did you want to actually come to library school to learn, not just to play Settlers of Cataan all night? Well, none of your professors have ever actually been librarians. Maybe one or two tried it in the 70s, but they’re all library directors now. Everyone else has a PhD in Library Science. Nobody has any idea why. PhDs don’t know jack about being an actual librarian.
Oh wait, I lied, you’ll have one awesome professor who had a storied career at a local public library and teaches Young Adult Literature. You take Young Adult Literature even though at this point in the program you know you’d hate being a public librarian, and you still can’t stand teenagers. You thought you’d outgrow that once you stopped being a teenager, but you still can’t relate to youths.
The classes? Oh, they’re great. If you like being treated like a middle-schooler. You will do approximately 10 group projects every semester. Don’t be the person that refuses to adopt the one technological tool that makes doing group projects slightly less monstrous. Google Docs is one of the easiest ways of working on group projects while being a grown-up. If you refuse to use it because you can’t be bothered to sign up for a fucking Gmail account, you are what’s wrong with this country. But group projects are a cleansing fire. If you survive them, you can deal with any library patron with ease. Group projects will teach you how easy it is to get into library school, even a supposedly “well-ranked” one. You will quickly identify the dream-team group member potential for every class and dread pre-assigned groups, despite the ideals of democracy and diversity that library school should have ingrained in you.
Most of what you learn will be in acronyms. ALA. FRBR. RDA. MARC. AACR. ILS. ILL. ERM. IMLS. LCSH. OCLC. OPAC. MDMA…that one may not actually be relevant. But FAFLRT? That one is all real! You are probably going to be forced to take some basic classes before you get into the “advanced” stuff. The basic classes make your brains melt out of your ears, because you spend your time learning a combination of basic html, intricate information seeking-behavior theories, and MATH. You probably came to library school to avoid math, but they don’t care.
Maybe you’re not going to Library School, but to an iSchool? A fancy way of saying, “We know how to use computers too!” And maybe your MLS (Masters of Library Science) is now an MLIS (Masters of Library and Information Science.) Will it make a difference in what you learn? Not really. None of this is helping to make librarians seem more relevant, and that is what worries all the talking heads in every corner of librarianship. They go on as if librarians are going through some kind of extinction event, but our arms are normal sized, so I think we’ll be fine.
So what actually changes after library school? Suddenly that weirdo book-worm vibe you’ve been rocking your whole life is actually kind of cool. People seem to respect you. They may have no idea what you do, and think you wear Tina Fey glasses and lots of sexy pencil skirts with plunging v-necked sweaters (you do, but that is neither here nor there), but they respect you. Maybe it’s all the acronyms?
On the professional side, you’ve now worked and volunteered and interned your way through school, and you’re still not qualified for the entry-level jobs. This may make you bitter about all the time and money you spent on a master’s degree that taught you a little bit of theory and a whole lot of nothing. An apprenticeship probably would have served you better, but then you couldn’t put MLS after your name. And you need that MLS to become a professional…who gets paid $30k a year.
As much as you may complain, library school is like your little brother. You can talk shit about it, but you won’t let anyone else do it. People will enjoy mocking your chosen profession for being a degree in “Googling.” This is why most of your friends are librarians. They will understand the joy of a well constructed Boolean search as the masses cannot. Some of your classmates will eventually get the job they wanted, but within a year they are back at school, starting the PhD program. And they were probably the ones that most complained about the program when they were in it.
Finally, don’t count your cardigans. It’s…let’s just not go there.
Tags: books, education, jobs, library school, work
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“As much as you may complain, library school is like your little brother. You can talk shit about it, but you won’t let anyone else do it.”
Substitute ‘library school’ for ‘grad school’ and you’ve summed up my feelings perfectly.
SO MANY THOUGHTS
1) “You will all have a Leslie Knope-ian intensity about something.” Shit, I’m a terrible librarian. I just have a Ben Wyatt-ian intensity about most things.
2) I’m 80% sure I went into reference & instruction because there are slightly fewer acronyms than in cataloging.
3) If you were in an online or partially online program like me, add all of the things about how middle school the classes are, then add Blackboard discussion board posts. Ugh.
4) My degree is technically a Masters of Arts in Information Science and Learning Technologies with an Emphasis in Library Science. I am the worst.
Holy shitballs, that is a hell of a degree to have. I feel like my MLS is so puny in comparison…
Yeah, but I put MLS as my degree everywhere, because no one knows what the hell my degree actually means (it’s ALA-accredited [at least for now], so whatever).
Well, putting MAISLTw/ELS after your name would just be vulgar.
Yes to the Online Discussion boards. A chunk of my classmates (side-eye future YA librarians) were suuuuuper passive aggressive in their comments. It’s supposed to be constructive criticism, guys.
Oh one hand, that’s terrible. On the other hand, that means people in your discussion boards weren’t just copying and pasting each other’s answers, so I’m kinda jealous?
Wait did you go to Mizzou??? My MLS doesn’t even fit on one line of my resume 🙁
My degree is just a Master of Information. INFORMATION. ALL OF IT. But really just with a specialization in Archives and Records Management.
But I still like telling people I am the master of ALL information.
ALSO, I’m currently wearing a cardigan WITH a cat pattern on it. At my archivist job.
Where did you get such a cardigan? I’m seriously trying to incorporate more cat-patterned things into my wardrobe. I’m leaning into the stereotypes!
I have a cat-patterned cardigan from H&M! It’s pretty great.
“Whatever you do, don’t talk about the rock wall at your gym constantly. Nobody likes that guy.”
Lessons for life, and not just library school.
Also can confirm, people who don’t won’t use googledocs for group projects are basically Satan.
Love it!
If your personal email doesn’t end in @gmail.com, I basically can’t understand how you function in this world. I’m a public librarian and sometimes I get people who still use AOL and ask for help and I’m just like…. “maybe you should ask the free CD?”
I have never felt so cliche as reading the description of a typical student, and my field is not even remotely related to library studies. Maybe I missed my calling?
Me too. If I could somehow negotiate the complete removal of group projects and I would be down.
I think all of us who aren’t librarians missed our callings.
I know right
#!bin/sh
s/librarySchool/artSchool
s/MLS/MDes
echo sigh
etc. etc. etc.
man what are you doing writing bash scripts in this day and age. tsk.
My ex got his MLIS from a mid-tier library school. He was The Only Male in the Program, and from what I heard, yes, it was exactly like middle school.
FWIW, law school was exactly like middle school too.
I’m finishing my MLS right now and this is just a little too real for me, except for the Doctor Who and Harry Potter bits (Inevergotintothempleasedontkillme!) I can rock a killer pencil skirt, though.
I hope you can, at the least, assure us of your love for Sherlock?
Alas, no. All I have to offer is…a love of cats?
A+ accompanying pictures, as always.
All the hearts, all the love, as you have accurately described my life.
Just returned my first library conference where I realized (again) that I am very very suited to be an Academic Librarian.
Also-I embroidered/crafted my own Punk-Ass Book Jockey vest: http://amyofdoom.tumblr.com/post/36604683367/beho…
Oh, I love your vest. What kind of stitching is that?
Terrible made-up-I’d-rather-be-cross-stitching stitches? (I was going for interlocking stitches like with leaves) The font is Sublime Stitching’s Tattoo Alphabet (more or less)
Well I think it looks rad.
Hah, I too bounce from cross stitching (my first love!) to embroidery (so much quicker! and less nitpicky!) and back (cross stitching is less thinkey!). I’ve never embroidered clothing, but your jacket is giving me ideas…
That vest is amazing and I covet it hardcore!
“The classes? Oh, they’re great. If you like being treated like a middle-schooler.”
I was in the School Library Teacher Program, so I spent much of my time being treated like a middle-schooler because instructors were literally asking us to act like middle-schoolers. My favorite was our Instructional Strategies class, where our instructor mostly made us roleplay all the ways children can be horrible. (Bonus points: she always, always had one of two dudes in the class play the troublemaker.)
I have also developed a very thorough PowerPoint drinking game, which now works equally well in classes or at conferences. (We used chocolate milk at the time because reasons.)
PowerPoint drinking game? Do tell.
Yeah, I’m gonna need to see some rules on that
You can, of course, adapt yours to suit the terrible catchphrases your particular instructors use (ours, for instance, included “icky” and “homosexual…ality”), but some that work in many contexts:
Drink if the presenter is reading directly off the slide.
Drink if the slide is completely full of text.
Drink if the presenter cannot possibly get through all the slides in the allotted time.
Drink if your instructor has to physically remove the presenter when s/he has gone over the allotted time.
Drink if you spot an obvious typo.
Drink if the presenter passes out a handout of the slides, one slide per page, single-sided.
Drink when (not if) a link fails to work.
Chug if your instructor does not understand how computers work and can’t figure out why things keep popping up in the middle of a presentation.
If I’d done this a TLA I’d have blacked out by 9am.
(That said there were some great speakers there, including one who said, “The reason Texas needs gun control is because people keep saying ‘Oh you’re a librarian? I wish I could read all day.'” Grrrr)
The other day I went to pick up my holds & one of the librarians was sitting at the desk, just… reading. Nothing else. No work around her waiting to be done, not flipping through it with idle curiosity.
Fully sitting back, relaxed, absorbed in the book.
It was the weirdest thing I’d seen in the library for a very very long time.
Why is that so weird? As a high school librarian, reading is vital to my ability to provide quality readers advisory to the teens (and, to a lesser degree, adults) I serve. When I’m reading outside the school building it’s never “just for fun”–it’s professional development.
(That said, I rarely read at my desk, precisely because someone will inevitably say “Oh I wish I could just read all day!”)
No, the librarians read all the time! (I always giggle when I run into them at the book store.) (I’m always running into librarians at the book store.) But for them to have time to read at the desk is the odd part – they’re always too busy doing other stuff to read!
Ahh. Gotcha. I only prioritize reading at work when there are constraints on my space–like when there’s state or AP testing, and I’m not really allowed to do anything that, say, makes noise, or requires movement. (Or after school, when there are fewer pesky adults around.)
Dear god. Do you just drink once for reading off the slide or just, like, constantly?
Constantly. I think we had two quarts of chocolate milk and rapidly realized we were essentially doing a Gallon Challenge. Do not recommend.
omg, I would have been blackout in under 15 minutes in any of my classes with powerpoint presentations required. Now I need to do one for Prezi’s.
Prezi makes me immediately seasick, which would have made drinking anything much more challenging.
PERFECT.
Jesus H. Christ, if I had done that ever I would be dead. How do professors not understand powerpoints?
My favorite was in one of my first library school classes. I think the professor thought he was just selecting a regular ol’ image (why he thought Spiderman had any bearing on MA curriculum frameworks is sort of beside the point), but what he actually got was an animated GIF of Spiderman doing the dance from Napoleon Dynamite.
On every. single. slide.
WHY
In one of my last classes in library school, the classroom had a smartboard, which the instructor had no idea how to use. She was pointing at one of her slides one time and tapped the far left side of the smartboard, and it proceeded to the next slide. At which point the intructor said “Oh! I touched it!”
The young lady next to me wrote in her notebook “That’s what she said.”
I am now married to that young lady.
True story.
I hope you dragged her off to the courthouse right then & there, because that’s the only logical response I can think of.
No, but I did ask her to marry me right then and there. First of 3 times I asked her.
I once had a class with a kid who stood up in front of his power point filled with blank slides and said “I have nothing to say.” It was a presentation on his internship at the Library of Congress and we were supposed to be doing a very specific style of image-based presenting, but he said the Library of Congress wasn’t very photogenic. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
DID HE OPEN HIS EYES IN THE LOC???
Drink if the presenter is reading directly off the slide.
Drink if the slide is completely full of text.
Yep, drunk 15 minutes in.
I am considering doing a dual Translation MA/MLIS degree… is it useless if I’m abroad and can’t do any internship-type stuff?
Are you in the US getting an ALA-accredited degree? Then maybe.
Russia, so working at one here is not an option.
alllllll so truuuuueeeee
I’ve avoided acquiring cats, but I was walking in to work at the library one day with my glasses on and my hair in a bun and my cardigan (library uniform issue) and just stopped had a moment of stereotypicalness. It was great/awful.
There was a time when I thought I would be a pilot, or a scientist (WHY NOT BOTH??). Then (I say this with the benefit of hindsight), I figured out that fighting gender stereotypes exhausts me in like 5 seconds, so I have been unable to imagine myself as anything except a librarian ever since junior high. I have had a stranger on a plane look at what I was reading (Northanger Abbey) and immediately say “you’re a librarian.” It wasn’t even a question.
What I’m saying is, I wanted to be a librarian not because I thought it was an easy JOB, but because it would be an easy way to exist in my life. I wasn’t wrong, but I don’t always recognize myself. I believed I was capable of flying fighter jets but ended up picking out books for other people to read.
You contain multitudes, it’s fine.
also came down here to say, Northanger Abbey is the Best Book, hands down.
Northanger Abbey!!!
That is all.
When people say they don’t like Jane Austen I suggest they read Northanger Abbey. Because it’s so damn funny. Like Cold Comfort Farm.
And I wear a ton of buns (hair in my face makes me itchy and cranky) and I love cardigans (so versitile and they come in pretty colors!) but I don’t need glasses yet so even though I’m not a librarian I get what you’re saying about ending up where it’s less exhausting to exist. I thought I was going to be an actress (theater, not television) or a journalist (there are no jobs and they want you to stay up all night). I do sometimes feel I’m letting my 12-year-old self down but I do have my own cats now which is something.
Fifteen. I have fifteen cardigans in regular rotation. HVAC systems are temperamental in most libraries, I swear! You want to be able to adapt quickly with sensible layers.
Cheers for sensible layers! Scarves and the blanket I keep in my office.
And I, um, have 27 cardigans. I bought a new one this weekend and my friend made me count them to face my addiction.
I thought fifteen was a lot of cardigans. Nope.
At least five of them are black. I’m embarrassed. And it’s not like you can wear the embellished/embroidered ones every week!
Someday I’ll have a child and name her Jackie, not after the first lady, but after my favorite style of J. Crew cardigan.
This is why I don’t count them. I don’t want to face the problem. I like my denial and my warm cozy cardigans, for all seasons!
I am more likely to wear tights and sweaters in the summer because of the damn AC in this building– when it is 100 degrees outside, I am very likely to be sitting at my desk with the space heater on.
I’m not even a librarian, but I’m firmly on Team All Cardigans All the Time!
Rant ahoy. Almost 15 years ago, an MLS candidate friend of mine was paying an exorbitant amount of tuition for her program. I can only imagine what the tuition is like now.
So… it’s not enough to be paid a non-living wage for a librarian job. One also has to go into massive debt to QUALIFY for one of these jobs. Bonus poverty points since most of the candidates will be female and many won’t be the marrying-up kind. (I resemble that remark, BTW.)
And this is all for having the nerve to choose a field to which you’re actually suited as opposed to shoehorning yourself into some ill-fitting job.
It really just jerks my chain that library work, which is probably what I’m best suited to, will never be an option for me now, largely because of the “professionalization” and higher-ed tuition rackets. How did all these degree programs for low-paid fields (where you learn by doing) become a thing? Because women without a master’s degree can’t possibly be taken seriously? Criminy.
Would love to know if a FAFLRT degree increases your pay prospects. Maybe you could make $35K instead of $30. (cries)
As to your point about the programs, I have friends who legitimately have $80k in student loans after going to library school, which is ri-goddamned-diculous.
FAFLRT is actually the Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Round Table. It’s pretty specific. I don’t think it raises your wage.
I do think the professionalization was a result of a predominately female field not being taken seriously, especially amongst academic types.
And it is possible to be a well-paid librarian, it’s just more likely that you will be on the management or technical side of things. It’s hard to get paid for liking books.
Corporate librarians can get paid some serious cash, but I gather they are a dying species.
We’re not dead yet! But corporate librarians have to have some skill in constantly proving how vital/cost-saving we are at all time. Own-horn-tootin’ is not always a librarian’s favorite thing.
I feel you. Academic librarians are constantly having to justify ourselves now, too.
My library school just started a joint MBA/MLIS program, but there’s also a market for that kind of thing here, and oil companies will often hire MLIS grads. Half of my cohort is considering selling their souls to Syncrude, I’m pretty sure.
As someone who currently works in User Experience/Information Architecture (with a MA in Public History and Archives) I’d say this field is a super viable life-hack for those with library/Information Science degrees. Most job descriptions list a master’s in library science as a preferred degree. And the pay is great!
Seconding UX/ IA skills as marketable! I wish I could use my knowledge of those disciplines more in my current cataloging job.
I want to go to there.
………WHAT IS WEASLEYCEST
don’t tell me
It’s just exactly what it sounds like. I could be wrong, but I think it is also very often twincest. Though not always…
WHY IS THERE ENOUGH OF IT TO HAVE ITS OWN NAME WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE
I don’t have a good answer for you. All I can say is, you know… “The Internet…”
One time I played a game with my disbelieving cousin where I googled pornographic fanfic of anyone he could think of, and he gave up when I found him Hermione/Giant Squid in ten seconds.
There’s enough of EVERYTHING.
I once sent Yo Gabba Gabba slashfic to my husband at work and he told me that I was banned from the internet forever.
Deep in your heart, you already know what it is.
…but is it really Weasleycest if one of the involved parties is ACTUALLY a time-traveling Dumbledore?
The two worst years of my life were at library school and I’ll probably never use this degree for its purpose. To be fair, 50% of my misery was due to school and the other was due to horrible things that happened to me by coincidence during that time.
That said, I’m going to volunteer at an indie library with a radical/lefty/zine collection and we’re trying to get the word out about it. Does anyone have any useful experience to share?
I had a secret dream of being a librarian for a while, but realized in college how many OTHER people also have this secret (or not-so-secret) dream and that I probably wasn’t up to snuff compared to them. Too much competition!
As someone who just got accepted to a Library and Information Studies MA last week, this is very apposite. I feel worried that now I have read this I am only going to be disappointed by my fellow students. I wish I could be surrounded by Leslie Knope types.
(Also, I am a busy, slightly awkward-looking REDHEAD, so I’ll clearly stand out brilliantly.)
You think that’s a joke. That’s not a joke. I don’t remember even a single redhead in my program. Either gender. Including professors.
My program had redheads.
I think this is called an ‘outlier’.
Whoops, “busty”. I am also busy, I suppose.
Hello would anyone else like to talk about cyborg hockey player RPS? Just me? Ok cool. *throws self away*
ANYWAY this is great, both in what is apparently involved in library school (YES PLEASE) and the way you described it. You win!
YESSSSSS!
YESSSSSSS. But these are not the one I was thinking of! Of course I’ve lost the link but there was an actual cyborg Crosby/Malkin one (as opposed to these, as mentioned in the early comments). God, I love the internet SO MUCH.
More cyborg hockey RPS!? My heart cannot take it!
I also really enjoyed the one where all the teams were different fantasy creatures, like the Bruins were werebears and the Penguins were vampires. The internet, it truly is the best!
BRACE YOURSELF. This is the one I was thinking of at first, and also this other (angstier) one I remembered later.
I am a little embarrassed to say that I’m really fond of that one with Sidney Crosby, Actual Penguin. I have not read the one about different fantasy creatures! Aw man, and I needed to do stuff today. 😀
Oh no! I need an account to see those for some reason? Is that a new AO3 thing?
Ah no, some people make their stuff private. You need to have an account for those two, sorry, but they’re worth it! Here’s a different, unlocked one! (The internet has SO MANY SURPRISES.) But you should create an account, there’s a lot of good stuff that’s locked. [she said, laughing sadly and saying goodbye to her free time]
“Baking is preferable, but home-brewing is an acceptable substitute.” – YUP.
Also, this made me miss my group project dream team. Maybe we’ll finally find a time to skype this weekend…
The One Dude in my program was a homebrewer and worked beer into every project possible (I did the same thing with poetry though so I shouldn’t judge)
Our token dude was a homebrewer, too! We made a digital library of microbreweries and their products for our metadata class.
I actually started a Bachelors-level Library and Information Sciences program, and got so discouraged by everything I read about the lack of employment opportunities and the ingrained snobbery of the old-school quote unquote REAL librarians towards applicants without a Masters’ that I dropped out after just a semester. I decided that my time would be better spent volunteering at a larger, more urban library near me, rather than the teensy one-room operation we have in the town where I live, in hopes I would pick up some valuable skills without going into debt for a BA only to have to turn around and relearn all the same things in an MLS program because no one will hire you with “just” a BA. Entry-level of librarianship being a masters is so ridiculous, especially in this economy. Who can afford to go into $80-90K of debt, just to turn around and be offered a job that pays $30K? Not me, and I don’t even have a family to support or anything.
And you know, it’s a real shame, because I already have a Masters-level proficiency in cardigan acquisitions and cute eyeglass frame cataloging, which I was under the impression are two of the most vital skills a librarian must display.
90k is INSANE for library school. INSANE. I don’t understand how private schools can get away with it. My alma mater is still only charging 10k for in-state tuition and 28k for non-residents.
Academic librarians: how in danger do you feel of extinction? I wanted to go into public libraries when I was in school and then became discouraged by how badly-paying and part-time everything was and how likely it seemed that librarians would be replaced by paraprofessionals and robots. Now I’m in a different research profession which it turns out is also threatened by robots, and I figure I might like to go back to something I’m more passionate about. I know there’s a big emphasis on instruction nowadays. Also, how did you get your jobs and can I get one without teaching experience and while being meek and grouchy?
I don’t feel extinct. Mostly because students don’t know how to research and synthesize information. Therefore most of my job is teaching that. Therefore teaching is super important (at most schools). Before I started I’d only taught writing classes and I have another masters degree. I think the second masters degree helps.
Oh man do they not know how to do that stuff. I’ve worked reference in an academic library but haven’t done instruction. Part of me wants to glibly assume that I’d just get used to it but another part of me knows that public speaking is never going to be something I want to do much.
Honestly there is zero chance Academic librarians are headed for extinction. The most important thing to remember is specific ways of doing things may change but taking care of patrons (students/faculty/staff) is always the goal. Sure you need to know how to navigate databases & perform keyword & boolean searches instead of picking through a card catalog but the service stays the same. Technical services librarians (which is what I am) may be asked to help out with reference but don’t usually have a ‘teaching’ role. Electronic resources, acquisitions and cataloging/metadata are all technical services jobs, often Digital libraries/digital curation falls under this category as well. Often these areas spend much more time with projects and let us indulge our love of order (and organized chaos)
settlers of catan only has 2 a’s
SORRY
You’re just saying what we’re all thinking.
I went to seminary for a year. Substitute “pastor” for “librarian” and everything remains the same, right down to Settlers of Cataan and the unending string of acronyms, though ours usually stood for Bible translations or programs designed to make churches more applicable to a new generation.
“Oh wait, I lied, you’ll have one awesome professor who had a storied career at a local public library and teaches Young Adult Literature. You take Young Adult Literature even though at this point in the program you know you’d hate being a public librarian, and you still can’t stand teenagers. You thought you’d outgrow that once you stopped being a teenager, but you still can’t relate to youths.” In seminary, these people are youth pastors. They are “cool” and “relevant” and always wear jeans and Warby Parker glasses and take the Ben Folds song Jesusland VERY seriously.
My favourite joke this year has been that library school is essentially kindergarten because group projects are you serious.
Also you forgot the part where the ALA now requires information technology classes, but these mostly involve learning how to do outdated HTML and CSS that, if you ever actually tried to use this to build a website in the real world, would get you laughed at. This is taught by professors who still think delicious is a tool that anyone has ever used and Second Life is still the second coming.
…I am doing a tech masters along with my MLIS to avoid this because I will be RELEVANT goddammit.
OMG! They won’t shut up about Second Life in library school! I did forget about that!
Aaargh! The group projects! And the classes that were nothing but group discussion with nothing being learned!
You are smart! I figured out in my final assignment for library school that I should have done a Comp Sci degree instead (or at least a joint degree) but by that point I was so burnt out on school (I did 9 years of university with no break because I am ridiculous) that it felt too late. I’m just starting to explore my options again now, 5 years later.
Oh man, I’m doing the straight through with no real break thing as well, and while it was probably the best thing for me, I’m really starting to drag — my Facebook feed is houses and babies and weddings, and I’m getting burnt out on perpetual studenthood/extended adolescence.
I hope it works out for you, whatever you decide to do!
They took away my one elective (I’m in a school library teacher program) so now I have essentially no tech classes. I too am feeling the technological obsolescence.
I love being a librarian, but man, library school was The Worst.
Ugh this makes me happy/sad…for one, happy I’m DONE with library school, sad because why did I ever think getting an MLS was a good idea again? And I am one of the ones with a FT job w/ benefits (though I worked long and hard to get here!) Looking on the “bright” side – I made so little money last year (finished school in May, worked assorted PT jobs/internships) that I don’t have to pay my student loans ’til next year…which I prefer not think about lest I curl up into a ball and sob under my desk all day.
ETA: I’m a busty awkward blonde, breaking stereotypes every day! (though I did go brunette for a brief dark period during lib school)
I’ve worked at a library for seven years, in an archive for one year. I make what I did when I was hired – $10.16/hour. In Los Angeles County.
The past year has been great – I’ve basically been doing digitization/project management. I’ve gotten a certificate from a community college in Digitization Skills. I’ve learned in class and on the job both the technical aspects of digitizing an archive and metadata skillz. I told web developers how our archive website should look and was assertive with them when they didn’t want to build it the way we wanted it done. I train volunteers to digitize. I make decisions about how digital projects will be run, from start to finish.
I really like this work. I’ve been told there’s no chance of me getting a raise or a job title that reflects what I do. (Right now my job title is “Library Aide” and when I floated the idea of calling myself Project Manager on my resume for an unpaid internship, my supervisor snort-laughed and said, “You can’t put MANAGER.”)
I’ve been thinking about library school since 2008 when I graduated college. The debt has always terrified me, especially in combination with the job market and how little my work has been valued. I’m turning 30 this year. I’ve never made more than $15,000 in a year.
This was a fun article and all, but the field is BLEAK.
The debt is the really, really bad thing about the whole deal. It can be crushing for a lot of people, and is (and should be, as long as the pay stays as it is) a huge deterrent to going into the field.
Part of the problem is, if someone had the type of experience you’re talking about, and had an MLS, they could get a job that pays an okay wage… but you’d probably have to uproot your life and move to Iowa or Montana (no joke, Montana always seems to be hiring librarians), Washington State, Texas… those are kind of the states I most often see on the job lists out there. And that generally only works if you’re single, or have an easily mobile partner/family.
That’s actually very encouraging. Thank you. I just got married and my husband does graphic design (web) for a bank. He makes good money – luckily, I’m not trying to support anyone on my sad $10.16 anymore – but since homes are so expensive in LA we’re looking to move in the next few years. So if I did decide to bite the bullet and get the degree, we could uproot. Those states you mentioned all have more affordable home prices than Los Angeles, and some of them have a graphic design market.
Cheer up, Charlie. (Talking to myself.)
I’m from Iowa and went to Indiana University to get my degree (I graduate at the end of July!)
Just a friendly warning, I bit the bullet and did out-of-state tuition at Indiana (which is a monstrous amount of money) because the program in Iowa is functionally dead. It may have revived itself in the 2 years since I visited, but I kinda doubt it. Iowa’s definitely a great place to live, though! We did much better in the recession than most states (I think we were second best?) and we tend to have a stable economy and low cost of living. So, I would say don’t go to school in Iowa, but living there is a good idea 🙂 You don’t have to take my advice, of course, and I would say you should check it out for yourself but there you go. Best of luck! I feel your pain 😛
If you can’t put manager on your resume how about Project Director or something? If I put my bureaucratic title on my resume it would look terrible, but luckily my boss gets that!
Also, I would kill for someone at my institution besides me to think metadata is important. Siiiigh
Metadata is so interesting! In what other field do people casually throw around the phrase “cohesive universe”?!
Someone I know shared this on a social media site with this disclaimer: [However, the archives track was NOTHING like this… we might as well have been on a different planet from the librarians.]
Can I get an over-exaggerated Liz Lemon eyeroll at this? I’m sure archivists can’t relate AT ALL to the paragraph about being overeducated but underqualified. Not one bit. Nosiree.
Bah! I’m so over the librarian/archivist divide! I do both. I have training in both. They’re not that different. My mind doesn’t break when thinking about finding aids and I can still alphabetize like a champ. And from my experience, it’s just as hard, if not harder to find an archivist job.
Librarians do have the better stereotypes though.
I worked in as many special libraries as I could because I was really aiming for getting a job with a museum/ historical society. I might be extra sensitive to this librarian/archivist divide. (But really, the archivist students at my school did as much as they could to distance themselves from the librarians. I only know a few of them because I semi-randomly ended up living with one.)
Can we also talk about the public/ technical services divide in the profession? Cause that shit is persistent and awful. Let’s all work together, people!
Yeah, I think I just sprained an eyeball.
At my grad school a major complaint was that there wasn’t Enough distinction between programs–archive and school library track folks had to take core courses with zero relevance to our fields. (At the time archive folks had it much worse; you could take a class and not hear your professor even say the word “archives” once in a semester.)
Even if the archives-specific courses were on a totally different planet, having to take general core courses meant you were at least in classes with the same people who were ruining your group projects and reading off slides in the general track.
I’m in an information school (not a library school) but I’m moving into traditional-ish academic digital librarianship anyway. To be a little more optimistic, at my grad school orientation, I really felt like I had found my Weird People, and like everyone else there had also spent their entire lives being Weird but now they too were among their People. It was pretty uplifting, and I am one hundred percent happy with my experience despite the employment worries as my June graduation approaches. Ask me millions of questions, I like talking about my grad school life.
Aw c’mon, let’s do go there!
DEATH TO ALL GROUP PROJECTS.
I am sorry, is that harsh? It’s only that I was once in six groups simultaneously last semester. For three courses.
What I’m saying is, I relate.
(Although I have found that when you’re in a school library teacher track all of your professors do actually have long and storied careers as actual school library teachers, so there’s that.)
I had a class last fall where we had to do homework assignments in pairs for THE ENTIRE SEMESTER. It was rough.
Me too. And then sometimes we’d have other big group projects on top of that, for the same class. I’m like, “MOST OF US ARE COMMUTERS. HOW.”
That is extreme! I’m angry right now because I just got done with a group project/presentation that was on the syllabus as a group EXAM, so I had no warning that I would have to carve time out of my weekend plan of writing term papers in order to prepare stuff and meet with my group outside of class. ARGH.
Also my reading of this article could not have been less well-timed because I was supposed to just be taking a lunch break from my library school homework but now I just want to lie down and cry about group projects
Spot on. I did meet my husband in library school, we did (of course!) a group project together. He is allergic to my cats but whatever, that is his problem, he should have thought of that before he went to library school.
I would have thought there would be late night Talmudic discussions of ‘Party Girl’ and the AU scene in ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ where Mary is a spinster librarian. “She’s just about to close up the library!!!”
Yessssssssssss Party Girl!
Don’t forget Madam Librarian, the sadder but wiser girl
No but really, why are there so many group projects?
-Second-year MLIS student who enjoys ranting about group projects to friends who are or were in library school while we play board games and watch Doctor Who
So accurate.
I type this from the couch, my met-in-library-school fiancé at my side, cat snoring peacefully at my feet, cardigan snugly around my shoulders, season 3 of my Veronica Mars rewatch on deck. So accurate.
Huh, I managed to make it through mine with only like two group projects, and most of my classes were challenging. I was very heavily focused on the ‘I’ part of ‘MLIS’ though, so that could be something.
I want to be real-life or at least virtual-life friends with every single commenter on this post.
Is the rock wall included with the regular gym membership? or is it extra?
Anyone under 50? Hey, some of in library school are over 50, back to school for various reasons. We still want to be one of the cool kids, you know? Don’t be age discriminatory because we have a lot of life experience to apply to our program and our jobs.
The knitting bit was funny; at any time in some of our classes there will be 3-6 people knitting or crocheting.
I’m trying not to believe this. I am about to graduate and feel that I have had a good experience. Yes I hate Blackboard discussion groups and group projects with people who don’t follow through, but I have learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know before. I hate the cat, glasses, cardigan stuff. I went to a conference last year and must have seen seven different colors of tights.
I earned an ALA-accredited MLS in the mid-1980s. After two years as a librarian, I decided I’d rather be a man, so I went to law school. The latter was one of the best decisions of my life.
The library “profession” is a fraud. The two years and seven months I spent in it were marked by intense frustration. Has anyone noticed the irony that the library community claims to hate censorship but won’t tolerate open dissent? I wrote several critical articles, including one called “MLS Envy.” These spelled my doom.
The realization that I’d have to do something else with my life came when I interviewed for a position at Wichita State University. The hiring committee there wanted me to give a 20-minute presentation on some aspect of librarianship — a reasonable requirement, I thought. So I prepared a short lecture on why librarians with faculty status should have to earn doctorates and “publish-or-perish,” just as other university faculty members must. I was later told this was “immature,” and that my application for employment was denied because of it.
But for the last 21-or-so years I’ve been an attorney. I specialize in criminal appeals, in which dissent is not only necessary but encouraged. And I love it.
I’m probably going to go down in flames for saying this but… two years of library school (the LIS track in an iSchool, actually) have taught me to appreciate the value of group projects. You guys. That’s how work gets done in real life. I’ve had some awful groups, sure, but it’s not the end of the world. Now that I’m working, I can see that every day is basically a giant group project. (I’m finishing up my last few weeks of school and working-part time at a public library; will be full-time after graduation.)
You MUST learn to get along with others, and learn to know when to compromise and when to stand up for yourself, or your professional life will go nowhere. These “soft skills” are just as important, if not more so, than the professional skills I learned at school.
I don’t know anything about MLS degrees, but I’m in a masters program that makes us do extensive group projects (software engineering) while also working for a software company.
I hate the group projects because of all the ways they are entirely unlike an actual workplace, where if you work anywhere decent:
1. People are interviewed and invited to join your group (workplace) based on their skills and knowledge
2. Not showing up to meetings consistently will get you fired.
3. Everyone is paid for their work with actual money. This seems more motivating to most people than grades.
4. At most workplaces, everyone has designated times they are expected to be available to work with colleagues.
5. A qualified manager (unlike college profs) is entirely aware of peoples varying levels of skill and contribution.
My MLIS experience was a little skewed as I managed to get knocked up the week I started an online program and spent most of my first year in yoga pants, chugging tea, and crying, but once I managed to figure out how to be a parent and a grad student, I had fun! If you want to do a non-traditional library path, go for it, have a blast, but do check out the more traditional book-centric classes and see if there’s one that looks like a fun break from XML/Dublin Core/whatever. I knew I wanted to do public library work (LOLOL NEVER GOING TO GET A REAL JOB YOU FOOL), so I tailored for kids, youth, readers advisory, and advocacy. When I was sunk in the depths of dry XML hell, the saving grace of the quarter was my Saturday class with Nancy Pearl, which we all admitted was what we’d hoped all of our MLIS program would be. Take something fun.
(NINE FOREVER)
I’m a first semester MLIS student and this article is accurate on so many levels it hurts. I’m 8 cardigans and counting by the way.
Everything about this article is yes. Happy I went, but so glad it’s over. And so glad I simultaneously got a humanities MA so that I would feel less about everything you mentioned here.
Unjust!!! I loved library science school (except for the group projects) and now am employed in a public library making a professional wage. However, since I am a cardigan-weaing, bespectacled, busty, pencil-skirt-wearing, brunette with obsessive tendencies, i guess there’s a hint of truth!
This makes me wonder how my sister got through library school despite being a complete non-geek. She is obsessed with hockey, but in the way where you watch for the sportin’, not in the “now kiss!” way.
Badass!! As an Australian librarian this post made me smile. Who is Tina Fey? (Just kidding).
I will be the devils advocate here, as I have a very different experience and from the comments Ive read, everyone is in high agreement!
Firstly, my course is not really like this at all, I kinda wish it was though! I study in Melbourne at Monash University doing a Graduate Diploma in Information and Knowledge Management. This is an ALIA accredited course and one of the only available post grad library course in melbourne. However, it has very high expectations and a huge focus on business and IT. I wish I was treated like a middle schooler so I could stress less! we are given very little guidance, and a lot of knowledge regarding business and IT is assumed, as its a post grad course in the IT faculty. We never have group projects, which is probably a good thing (social loafing!). Few of the subjects relate directly to libraries at all, we dont even have a cataloguing subject as its seen as redundant.
I also disagree that everyone is saying all this work is only for a 30k a year job. Thats what a library tech makes with no qualifications, or maybe a tafe certificate. I got offered a graduate cadetship at Melbourne University – starting wage was $60-70K – as a STUDENT. In a specialist library, for example at a law firm, you can make upwards of $80-100K. Maybe the public libraries dont pay that well, but its not super low and if u want more money, then aim for the better paying libraries!! Plus, you can work ANYWHERE in the world really, developing countries are constantly building new libraries.
Also, and this is just for fun, but two people in my class just got ENGAGED! so there is hope for those love interests (though it is slim pickings! haha)
finally, I do agree with some things 🙂 My peers at uni are the best, never have i made true friends at uni that I actually have lots in common with and enjoy their company! Also I LOVE Doctor Who (David Tennant No.10 all the waaaaay!!) I love books ha and am super intense about things im passionate about, so ive been told.. 🙂
I will be the devils advocate here, as I have a very different experience and from the comments Ive read, everyone is in high agreement!
Firstly, my course is not really like this at all, I kinda wish it was though! I study in Melbourne at Monash University doing a Graduate Diploma in Information and Knowledge Management. This is an ALIA accredited course and one of the only available post grad library course in melbourne. However, it has very high expectations and a huge focus on business and IT. I wish I was treated like a middle schooler so I could stress less! we are given very little guidance, and a lot of knowledge regarding business and IT is assumed, as its a post grad course in the IT faculty. We never have group projects, which is probably a good thing (social loafing!). Few of the subjects relate directly to libraries at all, we dont even have a cataloguing subject as its seen as redundant.
I also disagree that everyone is saying all this work is only for a 30k a year job. Thats what a library tech makes with no qualifications, or maybe a tafe certificate. I got offered a graduate cadetship at Melbourne University – starting wage was $60-70K – as a STUDENT. In a specialist library, for example at a law firm, you can make upwards of $80-100K. Maybe the public libraries dont pay that well, but its not super low and if u want more money, then aim for the better paying libraries!! Plus, you can work ANYWHERE in the world really, developing countries are constantly building new libraries.
Also, and this is just for fun, but two people in my class just got ENGAGED! so there is hope for those love interests (though it is slim pickings! haha)
finally, I do agree with some things 🙂 My peers at uni are the best, never have i made true friends at uni that I actually have lots in common with and enjoy their company! Also I LOVE Doctor Who (David Tennant No.10 all the waaaaay!!) I love books ha and am super intense about things im passionate about, so ive been told.. 🙂
eh…I like board games…Not all librarians like to read (I’ve been told the number might be decreasing) although I love to…we are lucky at NCCU that so many of the professors have worked in the profession…and who wouldn’t want to work with youth?
Home brewing is not acceptable. It is preferable.
I finished library school in 1996. I still see no value whatsoever in group projects in a class.
I’m SO citing some of this in some upcoming blogs. I’ll be writing a similar post – I don’t agree with all your points, but definitely baller writing.
TEN and FOUR forever.
I'm SO citing some of this in some upcoming blogs. I'll be writing a similar post – I don't agree with all your points, but definitely baller writing.
TEN and FOUR forever.
I HAVE ONE QUIBBLE
As someone who DID meet my spouse in library school, we did not even CONSIDER consolidating our important book collections. We practically put the important books in the prenup.