The visitors who came to the library where I was working as a substitute seemed pretty sure of themselves. Of course, they would: they were library school recruiters. To hear them tell it, not only are there still librarian jobs out there, but they can’t find anyone to fill them. It’s a nice thought, but is not accurate. There are jobs, and if you’re reading this, you probably have looked at some of them.
The trouble can be that they are in different cities or states, or that they don’t pay well. I used to work as a job coach and monitoring electronic job boards was my duty. At any given time in my area there were at least 10,000 job openings. So when people said “There aren’t any jobs!” I knew that wasn’t true. But if they had said “There aren’t any jobs that will support me that I will actually enjoy working at!” I would have been more sympathetic.
I was one of the lucky ones out of library school. I had already worked as a librarian assistant for a year when I graduated. Then I had that fancy shmancy degree and was suddenly promoted to Associate Librarian, then to librarian, then to Assistant manager, then to manager of a branch. I did not have to wait. In fact I was promoted so quickly that I was a terrible manager: I wasn’t ready.
There were many people in my graduating class who either never found jobs or are still looking for the right one. They all went to school for many of the same reasons I did:
1. The prospect of a satisfying career
2. Love of books and libraries
3. The library school recruiters told them there were tons of jobs
All of those old librarians suddenly can’t afford to retire in this economy. Or they love their jobs and don’t want to retire, for which I say more power to them.
But there are still jobs! There are. If you are considering enrolling in library school (getting a librarian degree), there are only a couple of questions I would ask yourself:
- Am I willing to move?
- What is my minimum salary requirement?
You might find that job descriptions vary with pay levels as well. I know people in other systems who aren’t officially classified as librarians that make more than many librarians I know in less economically rich counties and cities. If money is an issue–and why wouldn’t it be?–and you are willing to relocate, you will probably be able to find various library jobs to apply for.
Whether you can get them is another post. Please contact me if you have any questions. I’d be happy to talk!
Josh
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
i want to be a librarian,could it be possible?How?
Go to school, apply to libraries until you get hired. It’s that simple.
I’ve been a librarian for 30 years – I’m one of those old ones for whom the youngsters are waiting to retire.
If you’re thinking about becoming one, my advice is: don’t.
There are good librarians who are socially aware, hard-working, keep currency with changes in publishing and their subject specialties and who’s prime motivation is to satisfy their clients by exceeding expectations. Unfortunately, there aren’t many of them and they aren’t the ones that are rewarded or who reach the top of what’s inappropriately referred to as a profession.
Over the last 20 years its become worse with an ever increasing belief on the part of organisational executives and others that we no longer need librarians because we have the Internet. Then again, for years we have been our own worst enemies because of slogans like, ” the best things in life are free” used during library week. In our World, people equate value with dollar values – if it’s free, then it can’t be worth much. The irony being, of course, that libraries are far from free and very resource hungry.
Yet we’ve encouraged self-interested, ‘network savvy’ graduates who think that libraries are about books and reading and who value containers rather than information. There are two types of employees – those that put time and effort and intellect into servicing clients and those that spend their time cultivating those who can give them a leg up. It’s about who you know, not what you know.
If you really value books, literature, reading, information – and you are young and seeking a worthwhile career, get yourself into an oversees aid organisation that delivers services to the developing world – teach English, teach literacy, dig latrines, dig wells.
Forget the developed world library – it’s a sick, sad, joke with little, if any future.
Thanks, Roger.
Hello Biff – although your abusive comment is attributed to this web-site, I can’t find it here so I can’t respond directly to it or to you. However, if you really want to understand, you might care to read my comments again … I am far from ‘a disgruntled old codger’, indeed my library won a National Informatics Innovation Award this year after coming 2nd last year – and I have always been an early adopter of technology and generally way ahead of my much younger staff in creating, deploying and utilising it.
However, my comments related to a question about becoming a librarian and, in the generally accepted understanding of the word, yes, I think it would be bad advice to encourage anyone to do it.
As Josh says – yes, there are plenty of jobs but whether in North America or in Australia (which is also vast, in case you’re not aware), taking those jobs generally involves moving, accepting low pay, or adapting to an alternatively labelled position which happens to value you’re (supposed) library skills.
The situation today is vastly affected by the massive change in access to resources and information brought about by digital communication and storage. Yet, the major questions raised by the holus bolus rush to adopt or convert to such technology are not being raised, or on those few occasions that they are, certainly not being solved before the technology is adopted.
Questions such as archiving; of interactive document versioning and tracking; of verifying authenticity; of putting information in the hands of fewer and fewer vendors and publishers; of catering to those who cannot or *don’t want* to use a computer or view material on a screen – all these and many more are issues yet to be solved.
The ISO standards for statistical interchange to allow comparison between libraries and libraries and different countries are appallingly written and way out of touch with modern trends. And this last echoes the sad fact that so many librarians are of a pedestrian bent, are barely competent and are absent of creativity, innovation or a real sense of client focus.
Yes, I too can point to exceptions. There are many librarians of the past and present whom I admire – Ida Gleeson and Alison Crook, for just two. However it is an unfortunate fact that most libraries are dependent on host organisations that do not really understand what they do or why – and certainly very rarely challenge them to do any better.
The library schools are also far too slow to react to, let alone anticipate change and the role that the ‘library’ will play in the future. If anyone is really serious about librarianship – and if you have the belief that it is about books and reading – then you’re not – the best thing they could do would be to take an interest in, obtain qualifications in, experiment with, and investigate such concepts as fuzzy logic; robotics; the ‘cloud’; social networking; mobile computing; philosophy; good business practice; remote collaboration, protection of privacy, censorhsip; litigation …. and I could go on, but little of it has a place in current library education or discussion – and yet, it all has to do with where information and its ownership, transmission and availability will be governed in the future … very much to do with what, traditionally, has been the province of the librarian.
The ‘World’s strongest librarian will not be the individual whose only response to reasonable and rational comment and opinion is personal abuse – it will be someone such as Josh – who has the energy, creativity, enthusiasm and courage to set up a blog such as this and encourage robust discussion of significant issues.
roger
Roger, i took the abusive comment down. I accidentally approved it when i meant to hit delete, so it was obviously there long enough for you to see it. I am sorry about that. Thanks for the good discussion.