<p>Is anyone out there getting a graduate degree in Library Sciences? It sounds like an interesting career and I'd love to hear firsthand what its like (not just the stuff on school websites and career websites)</p>
<p>Thanks for your help :)</p>
<p>I don't have a very personal view of the career, but my late second cousin was a great friend of my father's and he taught at the University of Chicago and the UNC - Chapel Hill. From what I understand (which isn't much) my cousin was a highly intelligent man and had a true interest in the science. He obviously enjoyed teaching, and continued until Alzheimer's washed him away from the classroom. I have no knowledge of the rigor in his education, but if this helps, his Master's thesis was written on Hemmingway and his Doctoral dissertation was on the process of bringing books to films. I wish I could be more helpful, but my cousin was a private man who never wed. </p>
<p>I hope you can pursue this career; it fit my cousin very nicely. I apologize to a lack of more concrete information, but if this helps, my cousin wrote one famous article, "Selection not Censorship." Maybe by reading that and more scholarly literature (I doubt you haven't) you can be better informed of what those who study library science actually study!</p>
<p>@ Spbball5</p>
<p>I'm not getting a degree in Library and Information Sciences, but it's an excellent preparation for archives and records management. You can work in public, corporate and government areas.</p>
<p>I finished my MLIS in May. It's a great career and so varied. There really is something for everyone and every interest. I have yet to meet anyone who left librarianship for a different career.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who has responded :)</p>
<p>Woa, do you mind if I ask what your undergrad major was, and what sort of coursework you did as a graduate?</p>
<p>I'm in biomedical informatics. There are a few students in my department who are interested in health science/medical librarianship (same department, slightly different track). The interesting thing about library and information sciences is that it is in fact becoming more and more a science since many periodicals, journals, books, etc... have moved to an electronic form. </p>
<p>I think you could do a graduate or certificate program in library and information science with any undergraduate major, but it will definitely help you to have courses or experience in/with databases or informatics.</p>
<p>The students in my program usually have a biology, nursing, computer science , or mathematics background. But biology and nursing are more common for health science/medical librarianship. Hope that helps!</p>
<p>What is the outlook for library sciences/librarians? I've heard that it's a small field but it has opportunities due to many retiring librarians. Does one make a decent living? How many different fields are there?
Thanks.</p>
<p>Here is the Librarian page from the Occupational Outlook Handbook of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. [url=<a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm%5DLibrarians%5B/url">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm]Librarians[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Librarians are employed by schools, college, and universities, government, and the private sector. </p>
<p>According to the BLS...</p>
<p>There were 158,000 librarian jobs in 2006.</p>
<p>The median salary of Librarians in May 2006 was $49,060.</p>
<p>Currently the job prospects are growing slower than average, but that will more than likely change in the coming year. They reported that 2 of 3 librarians are aged 45 or older.</p>
<p>So I feel that the BLS statistics are flawed. They change only once every 5 years and may not be accurate for your specific situation. How many scientific consultants are in the slow growth area of QC or QA? I am also unclear about the nature of this baby boom retirement...Should we really be banking on people retiring to open up opportunities? Certainly the labor market will differ in 5+ years and I am uncomfortable with the idea that I am relying on (professors) to retire to gain a tt position, one day</p>
<p>Spbball5 - I wrote out a long response to this and then it zapped, so I'll try again. My undergrad degree was in management. My grad course work was varied. I took the required courses first - like Cataloging and Intro to Reference. Then, because my initial plan was to become a school librarian, I took things like Children's Lit, YA Lit, and School Library Management. I decided along the way that I prefered reference work, so then I took courses like Business Reference and Government Documents. I also took things like Web 2.0 for libraries. There are so many kinds of courses - everything from Archives to Law Librarianship.</p>
<p>ReadingFlutist - I think the job outlook is great and there are so many career paths to take. Money-wise it's going to depend on which path you take and where in the country you live. In the Chicago area, public librarians right out of grad school probably make between 35,000 - $40,000/yr. School librarians and academic librarians earn the same as their teacher/professor counterparts. Corporate and law librarians haul in the big bucks.</p>
<p>One thing to be aware of is that there is a trend in public libraries to hire multiple part-timers to do the job of a full-timer so that benefit costs stay lower. There definitely still are full-time jobs, but they are not as prevalent.</p>
<p>I feel like the BLS info is a bit contradictory--it's supposed to grow slower than average but there should be jobs due to retiring baby boomers. Which am I supposed to believe? If I graduate with Master's in Library Science in 4-5 years, will that be under "slower than average" or "available jobs due to retiring librarians"?</p>
<p>What kind of things are important in admissions for these programs? GPA, GRE, major, extracurriculars, etc.?</p>
<p>ReadingFlutist, what kind of librarianship interests you? I think that the demand varies somewhat on the area. For example, Gov Docs librarians are being phased out to some degree. I don't see public libraries going anywhere, especially in today's economic climate. Academic librarians are very important for the success of academic departments within colleges...accredidation, etc. Law librarians - wow - so important. Big pharma. companies also rely deeply on good librarians, etc. etc. I see a huge need in those areas.</p>
<p>Undergrad degree doesn't matter much in terms of getting in. It might matter to you in terms of long range goals. For example, if you want to be a school librarian, if you don't have an education undergrad, you will have to pick up those courses along the way. If you want to work for a pharma company, you would do best with a significant science background. If you want to be a corporate librarian, having a business background will aid you tremendously. If you want to work in a public library, your undergrad could be in practically anything because you'll need to know a little bit about many things. In an academic library it helps to already have a masters in another area and then you become the subject expert in that area.</p>
<p>I suppose that admissions requirements vary by the university you go to. Check their website. As for me, I don't recall having to take the GRE. I had taken it many years prior, but I don't think they asked for it. I did have a choice between two tests - cannot remember one of them, but I took the Miller's Analogy Test. They wanted college transcripts (maybe high school too) an essay or two and recommendations. That's all I can remember about it right now. As for extracurriculars, I was pretty involved with volunteer work in my community, including shelving books at the school libraries. I don't know if that mattered to them or not.</p>
<p>I know a lot of librarians of all kinds - recent grads and those who have had the degree for years. I don't know a single one who has had a bit of trouble finding a job (even those who I myself would never have hired - ha!). I have known one or two who had to wait awhile for full-time employment, but they got it eventually.</p>
<p>Your career prospects are going to depend on what kind of library you are interested in and also where you want to live/how flexible you are in terms of location. Many, many library school students are older, second career students, so if you are young and not tied down to family, day job, etc. you will probably do well. I went to library school full time in the mid-80s after teaching for a couple of years and found my undergraduate degree (BA cum laude from the University of Michigan) didn't really matter at all. I'm also very glad I DIDN'T go to UofM for library school....though it is a fine school for research and academic libraries. Instead I found a smaller program that was more cohesive, more focused on the profession, and more committed to the professional growth of its students. Be sure to look for a school in an area that can place you in a variety of different types of libraries (even if you think you know what you want, that might change). Library schools are quiet small, so be sure to talk to as many professors in the school as possible. You can also get more information from our professional organization, the American Library Association at ALA</a> | American Library Association. There are also many active state organizations that you might contact.</p>