<p>I'm wondering if anyone has any personal information about an MILS degree. How competitive is it to get into programs? Does the rank of the program mean anything? How does the job market look? How much funding is available for a masters program? Obviously we researching but just beginning the process and checking to ask what the key points are that we should not miss. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>H and I both have an MLIS; nowdays its just called a Master of Information Science. Library Science has gone upscale and uptech. Not sure about the longterm viability of LS jobs… not much funding for MIS unless you are planning on a PHD.</p>
<p>I just graduated with my MS in IS in May 2008. The word for years has been that the profession is aging and that there’s going to be a shortage of librarians soon when everyone retires; unfortunately, that isn’t happening yet. I happen to be employed (and I really like my job); there are jobs out there, but you do have to be flexible. I am not currently relocatable so the fact that there are jobs in NC or ID are of no use to me. </p>
<p>IMHO, it doesn’t seem to matter “where” you get the degree, as long as it is from an ALA accredited school. If there is a specialty you wish to go into (such as archives) make sure the program you enter has sufficient course content in that area. Also, consider Distance Education programs; most LIS schools are entering that arena now. </p>
<p>As for funding, I did have a GA position my last semester, but with the exception of PhD students, most students fund their own way.</p>
<p>A librarian I know, head of Imprints at a small non-profit specialized library, first got his job (and even the promotion!) with just a BA in history. The company paid for his MLIS, I believe. I don’t know what the job market is like now; hopefully in half a decade, when I’m out of college, the retirements will have started, as I’m looking into the library field myself.</p>
<p>I do know that a large percentage of my fellow students were working in library jobs during their time in the program and that their tuition was being at least partially reimbursed. </p>
<p>Things to keep in mind:
- Most people working in a library with just a Bachelors degree are working in paraprofessional jobs and are paid in the $8-$10/hour range.
- Some employers will only pay for 1 course per semester. While that is better than nothing, if you rely on the employer reimbursement it will take a long time to finish the degree.
- Different schools have different credit and thesis/comp requirements. The school I started at was 36 hours (or 12 classes) with no thesis or comp requirement. The school I finished at was 42 hours (or 14 classes) and I had to do either a thesis or take comps. I took comps.
- When you finish your employer paid degree, there is no guarantee that they will have a professional level job waiting for you. </p>
<p>Just things to ponder…</p>
<p>Library Science requires a different skill set, but ranks right up there with any engineering major as far as difficultly and amount of raw work required. Definitely not for the weak of heart.</p>
<p>Library Science has definitely become more technical over the years. It’s almost mandatory to know web design editing, online searching tools, and graphic design software.</p>
<p>The job market is generally pretty bad, from what I’ve heard. It’s somewhat better if you have a background in (read: degree in) a hard science, especially biology.</p>
<p>I hear that hands-on tech experience–e.g. databases–is helpful in the job market, regardless of whether you have a degree (although obviously credentials help).</p>
<p>A plus re: library jobs–they’re easier to find than university professor jobs in the humanities, with relocation for both. A crappy job market vs. a practically nonexistent one.</p>
<p>My daughter received masters in Information Science from UNC Chapel Hill a couple of years ago. The field is a unique blend of liberal arts/computer science. My understanding is that the Information Science students took very different classes from the Library Science students. My daughter was very happy with the program - it was hugely work-intensive - particularly because she learned computer programming and databases as part of the two-year curriculum. Her special field was “information architecture” - how information is organized and displayed on websites (that’s where the programming came into play). She has had no trouble finding work - both profit and non-profit - since she graduated. I think it is a growing field. I’m not sure that Library Science attracts the same personality types as Information Science, or has the same potential for growth.</p>
<p>Most Library Science programs have either integrated the “I” into the name of the program (see University of Tennessee-Knoxville where I got my MS in Information Science but it was really library based with a touch of information science) or are in the process of (see Rutgers where I previously was working on my MLIS: Masters of Library and Information Science; they are dropping the “L” from the school name and it is causing a huge ruckus!)</p>
<p>I’m disappointed to hear that job opportunities are questionable, as I was considering returning to school for MLIS as an adult student. Will employment potential be affected by the ranking of the program or by whether it was a distance program vs an entirely on-campus program? Which specialty areas of library science offer the best job outlook?</p>
<p>I can provide you with some anecdotal data–I know three people who went to Simmons College (ranked number 10 in Library Science schools according to US News) for an MLS. All three (women) were in their 40s when they completed the program. Two worked in publishing and one was an artist (she had a BFA) and was a stay-at-home mom–she taught art classes for kids on a very part-time basis. All of them thought the program at Simmons was especially challenging. Part of it, according to one, was simply getting used to going back to college and combining that with parenting, etc. The friend who went back as a full-time student found it the most challenging. The other two kept their full-time jobs and went back part time (it took one almost 5 years to complete the degree). Right now, one woman is a librarian at a private school for dyslexic children, the other is the head reference librarian in a suburban library, and the third one hasn’t found a position–she’s still working in publishing. The third woman is the one who graduated most recently (2008) and she seemed to think that the job market was limited. She also admits that she’s not really focused on looking for a job because she still has one. However, she’s in textbook publishing and her job will probably be outsourced to India in the near future.</p>
<p>The other piece that hasn’t been answered here is what the salary ranges are. In our smallish town a school “librarian” makes a terrible salary even with the Masters Degree. Someone in my family has a PHd and is a high level academic librarian. His salary is very good but when starting out even with the Phd salaries are not great.
Then again, I used to work in publishing and those salaries are also not good.
In my experience people in the MLS field are doing it because they love it. If you love it and you have a spouse with a good income or other supplemental means of support it’s all good.</p>
<p>Are any areas of LS more employable than others?</p>
<p>^
Science-based/centered LS, from what I’ve heard</p>
<p>I’m asking out of naivete and not trying to be critical, but isn’t going into mainstream library work kind of like going into the buggy-whip industry after the dawn of the automobile? </p>
<p>I think that there is a need for people to think about and learn how to cope with, synthesize, and draw important conclusions from the flood of information and data now available to us electronically as well as to think about how to archive and access the information in useful ways. But, it is not obvious that professors who got their start worrying about libraries and what they should do would be the people with the best perspective on how to address these issues? </p>
<p>What am I missing?</p>
<p>I would imagine the job outlook for librarians is dismal. We have twice laid off our elementary school librarian in the past 10 years, then rehired when money was available. Parent volunteers checked out books for the kids instead to keep the school library open. This is in a town with extremely well-respected schools. Many communities across the country are closing library branches and cutting library hours. My mom worked as a school librarian for years; when she retired, she was not replaced.</p>
<p>Shawbridge: The field of librarianship has been rumored to be dying since the advent of the computer. A lot of librarians thought that Google was going to run them out of business. What has happened is the exact opposite: so many people are overwhelmed by the amount of information that they turn to the professionals to help them find what they need in a timely fashion. In addition, librarians are the go-to people in terms of information literacy instruction. While a student may have an assignment to find certain articles or to write a paper on a particular way, the only people on a campus to help them find there way are the librarians. Public libraries have been in the news a lot lately as people rely on them for help with job searches, etc. Librarians/information professionals are also at the forefront of figuring out how to use a lot of the Web 2.0 applications. </p>
<p>What happens now is that librarians get a lot more in-depth questions than the trivia kind of questions that are easily answered with a google search.</p>
<p>^I second what RobD writes about changes in the library science field. I rec’d a PhD in the humanities twenty years ago. Nine years ago, for various reasons, I went back to school and took a year’s-worth of classes in an MS Info Science program. I met many amazing people and more to the point, learned more about how I might adapt the knowledge that Librarians and other Info Science people have, to my regular career teaching full-time, tenured, etc. </p>
<p>I use what I learned from studying Library/Info Science every day as I design and teach online courses, as I figure out how to keep ahead of the game, as I ponder the fate of publishing in the humanities. While getting into a tenure-track job in the Humanities these days is incredibly difficult, another side of it is keeping said job. I like to think that I’ve survived, so far, because of some of those skills learned from the “librarians” who are, when all is said and done, skilled information science professionals who know A LOT about how to conduct research, about how people learn, etc.</p>