<p>I think my youngest would make a great librarian/media specialist (or whatever they're called these days.) With the expansion of e-books and other electronic media, do you think this will this be a dead-end career very soon?</p>
<p>There are programs accredited by the American Library Association. Make sure that if your kid is interested, they pursue the digital archiving specialization. </p>
<p>I have one that is also interested in this program. Books are a dying field, but information storage should be booming for years to come.</p>
<p>There are all kinds of libraries out there - academic, public, K-12, legal, prisons, corporations.</p>
<p>Libraries are much more then physical books now and the programs in college focus quite a bit on Information gathering instead of books. Look at the curriculum for a masters in Library Science (available as an online degree) from Drexel: [Online</a> Degrees in Library Science provided by Drexel University Online](<a href=“http://www.drexel.com/online-degrees/information-sciences-degrees/ms-di/curriculum.aspx]Online”>Master’s in Library & Information Sciences (MLIS) | Drexel Online)</p>
<p>The largest number of available library jobs today are in the corporate and government sectors and often involve an interface between records management, archives management, database management and librarianship. Excellent computer/digital skills are a must.</p>
<p>Many traditional librarian-type positions are being outsourced to other agencies. (Cataloging, for example, is now done by either the publisher or by World Cat. Local jobs for catalogers are disappearing rapidly. Acquisitions is another job being being outsourced to a single national company. Even reference services are being outsourced.)</p>
<p>School librarianship is still a vital field, but it too is being downgraded–MLS degrees are not required by most states to fill a school librarian position. (Many states only require a 15-18 credit certificate add-on for degreed teachers to become school librarians.) And in some regions, certified school librarians are being increasingly replaced by volunteers as funding for schools get tight.</p>
<p>I am a librarian for a not-for-profit medical research corporation. I spend about 95+% working with digital information/records–i.e. computer work, including occasionally writing computer codes/scripts. </p>
<p>The career is still a viable one but the profession is changing and evolving rapidly and one needs to be ready to change with it. </p>
<p>BTW–2008 Drexel MLIS grad here. Second career for me and I love it, but finding a job in today’s environment can be tough, esp if you want a traditional academic, school or public library position. New jobs and promotions in all those areas are tough to come by as the profession faces both funding cut-backs and a reduced number of available positions due to outsourcing.</p>
<p>Most of the top programs are in big universities, as would be expected. I think D needs a smaller school, but the only one on the list of top programs is Simmons in Boston. Is this the sort of field where D would be better off going to a university with name recognition, or would those in the field/hiring for the field know that Simmons is ranked #10?</p>
<p>Is your D already in undergrad? It seems like the Library Science degree is a masters. The undergrad degree could probably be from a small school that otherwise suits her needs.</p>
<p>Well, that was my next question. Is there no undergrad library science degree? Doesn’t seem that way, based on the websites I’ve looked at. What does one major in as an undergrad–information science? CS? Or would any liberal arts degree do?</p>
<p>The UC Berkeley School of Information (formerly Librarianship, Library and Information Studies, and Information Management and Systems over the years) has this sentence in the [Berkeley</a> catalog description](<a href=“http://sis.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_view_req?p_dept_cd=INFO]Berkeley”>http://sis.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_view_req?p_dept_cd=INFO):</p>
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<p>Seems like undergraduate course work in several of the above subjects would be helpful for someone intending to do a master’s degree in library science.</p>
<p>Perhaps one can also think of all of the web pages that exist as a giant not-well-organized library, with search engines as attempts to produce a “card catalog”.</p>
<p>There are no undergrad library degree programs that I know of. For most entry level positions, a MLS, MLIS or MIS is required, along with some hands-on experience. (Typically thru working in a library or archive as a undergrad or thru internships.)</p>
<p>MLS/MLIS programs prefer students with a variety of backgrounds. Any degree will be sufficient for admission to I School. </p>
<p>What your undergrad is in will depend upon one’s career goals. </p>
<p>Interested in academic librarianship? You’ll need an undergrad (and often a MA or PhD) in the field you’ll curate besides your MLS. (For example, at a minimum an engineering librarian will need a BS in an engineering or physical science field. Most of the ones I know have a MS plus a MLS. A historical archives librarian needs a MA or PhD in history in addition to the MLS.)</p>
<p>Want to be school librarian? Then you’ll need to meet your state’s teacher’s certification requirements. (Which typically means a major or minor in education.) </p>
<p>Children’s librarian? Again–a background in education, early childhood development or something similar.</p>
<p>Technical services or digital librarianship? You’ll need a strong background in both computer software or hardware. Information technology, software engineering, or information science are the more typical undergrad degrees for people in these fields.</p>
<p>Law librarians are required to hold both a JD and MLS.</p>
<p>For general public library positions, though, any undergrad degree is acceptable.</p>
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<p>As for which school to choose for an undergrad. Go to one that will incur the least amount of debt. Librarian jobs (MLS level) do not have high salaries and many entry level librarians are hired at an hourly rate. (Around here, it’s $14-$15/hr.) Many entry level jobs–esp in public libraries–are not full time.</p>
<p>MLS here…However, I do not work in the field. I work in finance. I was working and working on MLS in the evenings. By the time I finished the degree the Library jobs could not touch the $$ I was making in finance. That was about 20 years ago.</p>
<p>There is a bachelor degree in Library Science, but most libraries require a masters. [Kutztown</a> University: Library Science Department](<a href=“http://kutztown.edu/acad/coe/ls/undergraduate_information.html#Undergraduate%20Degrees ]Kutztown”>http://kutztown.edu/acad/coe/ls/undergraduate_information.html#Undergraduate%20Degrees )</p>
<p>Librarian is my dream job, but I’m afraid the job of my dreams has just about faded away. I actually attended a workshop exploring the profession as a second career and was surprised at how little it paid. Maybe your child should think about what he/she likes about being a librarian -research, information gathering, helping people or just being around books-and pursue something that provides a similar experience.</p>
<p>My SIL has her PhD in Library Science from Simmons. I believe she did her UG and MLS there as well. She used to be the head children’s library for her city, and is now raising a family of 4, working 3 days a week as a school librarian. By the time the last child is launched into college she’ll be close to retirement age. </p>
<p>I do know that she loves her work.</p>
<p>I am an engineer at a large firm. Each facility has at least one “librarian”. I use this person to find articles related to “X”, “Y” or"Z". I have her research technical books to find information that may be relavent to work I am doing, etc. Many times she is just retrieving an article I found that I want to read, or borrowing an interesting book from another facility or univeristy in our network. She is invaluable though. I do know from talking with my librarian (I know that is not the current term) that she is severly limited in what she can do with her career. Go into management, or not. At least at our company. I know at my husbands financial firm they do a lot of research for the traders.</p>
<p>I worked at a large public university with so many archivists, I couldn’t believe it! They made darn good money. A masters is a necessity.</p>
<p>Former BIL graduated some years ago with a bachelor’s in LS, found it completely useless in trying to get a professional library position. </p>
<p>DD1 has an MLS and is director of a small municipal library. She realizes she’ll never get rich but loves her job. YMMV.</p>
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<p>My school has a major called “Informatics” which is in the Liberal Arts college but incorporates CS (which is part of the Engineering school) coursework. It actually seems like a really cool major. It exists at a few other schools too.</p>
<p>[Informatics</a> (academic field) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informatics_(academic_field)]Informatics”>Informatics - Wikipedia)
[url=<a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/informatics/]Informatics[/url”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/informatics/]Informatics[/url</a>]</p>
<p>The ALA --American Library Association–does not accredit any undergrad programs. If a school has one, its master’s program won’t be accredited.</p>
<p>Berkeley is no longer ALA-accredited, BTW, which is part of the reason it doesn’t use the name library science any more.</p>
<p>Any UG degree will do.</p>
<p>My D2’s best friend’s father just completed his associate degree in CS and works for our state library system. He has a pretty decent salary from what I understand.</p>
<p>I work for a small public library and have an associates degree in an unrelated field. My pay is pretty pathetic, but I love my job!</p>