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How To Become a Librarian

So, you want to become a librarian? Welcome to a vibrant and exciting profession! Before leaping into a library career, though, take some time to explore your options. Learning what is involved and how librarians generally spend their time can help you determine if this is the field for you.

Librarians’ duties and focus vary widely, but every librarian does much more than checking out books or reading all day, as is the popular public perception. Their duties can range from creating original cataloging records for items in library collections to creating entire taxonomies to order companies’ data to using their expert skills to answer complex reference questions. Most professional-level librarian positions require an American Library Association (ALA)–accredited master’s degree in library and information science (variously referred to as an MLS, MLIS, MSIS, MSLS, MA in LIS, MS in LIS, or MIS, depending on the name of the degree at the school you choose). Your undergraduate strength is less important, although a major in subjects like information technology (IT), the sciences, or education can help focus your career and provide useful background for future specialized positions.A wide variety of options are open to information professionals. Beyond traditional options in public, academic, and school libraries, just about any organization in the information age needs people to organize, retrieve, and manage its information, so if you think broadly about your prospects, you are able to maximize your opportunities.

Craig Cruz Jr. is a Systems Librarian at the Krames Health Sciences Library, San Bruno, CA. (Systems librarians generally care for technology in libraries, and their duties can range from traditional IT functions to maintaining the library’s online catalog.) “I encourage prospective students to learn about different libraries,” he says, “because I believe that many find themselves surprised by what nonpublic, nonacademic libraries can offer them. My only exposure to special libraries before my current job was in a law firm (where I spent six years as a bookkeeper). From that exposure, I knew (and still know) that law librarianship is not for me. But through my classes, I discovered an interest in health sciences, prison, environmental, historical, military, and other types of libraries.”

The main types of librarians include:

• Public librarians are what most people think of when they picture librarians. Public libraries also employ people in multiple types of positions; you can choose a particular focus within public librarianship such as children’s librarianship, reference, technical services, systems librarianship, training, readers’ advisory, or collection development. Libraries are reporting difficulties filling children’s librarian and mid-level management positions, so incoming public librarians might consider those specializations. Find more at the Public Library Association.
• School media specialists work in K-12 school libraries. In public schools, most need state teacher certification in addition to the MLS. They are responsible for meeting students’ informational needs and acting as instructional partners with teachers, while also carrying out the functions of running school media centers on a day-to-day basis. Find more at the American Association of School Librarians. 
• Special librarians work in corporate libraries and information centers, many of them as solo librarians. Often they work with information in a nonlibrary setting, having job titles ranging from knowledge manager to taxonomist. Find more at the Special Libraries Association. Corporate librarians also comprise a number of specialized subgroups, from medical librarians to law librarians. Each has its own set of duties and its own association; find more on medical librarianship and law librarianship. Any relevant experience or specialized degree will help you break into one of these specialized fields, and you can seek out a targeted association for your own area of interest. 
• Independent information professionals choose to strike out on their own and run research, indexing, records management, database, training, or other information-related businesses. This is a move best made by those with some years of experience as a librarian; it takes time to build up the skills and contacts necessary to run and market your own enterprise. Find more at the Association of Independent Information Professionals.

Find a categorized list of information- and library-related organizations, the extent of which only helps emphasize that each of these types of librarianship also has multiple subspecialties. In a public or academic library, for example, you can find employment in areas such as reference librarianship, answering questions at the reference desk and helping people with research; systems librarianship, working with library technology; or cataloging, creating, organizing, and annotating records for library materials. Explore further career possibilities at “The ABCs of Library Careers”.

Librarianship can also be a great foundation for information-related careers in general; the skills you gain are directly transferable to a number of alternative careers, such as knowledge management, data mining, or competitive intelligence. You can also think about careers with related organizations; library vendors, for example, often seek people with library and technical or library and training backgrounds.

Before making the leap

Librarians tend to be passionate about their career choice—this is not usually a profession people enter for the money but rather because they feel a calling to connect people with information, because they find it a dynamic and fascinating field, or because they are excited about technology’s potential to transform the way we interact with information. Asked why they entered the profession, some say:

“I enjoy working with people, technology, and information. Resolving a patron’s problem by using the resources available at my library, I imagine, is comparable to what a doctor feels after saving a patient’s life, or a lawyer feels after freeing an innocent person. While at completely different levels, to the patron, their problem at that moment can be life-altering, and, like doctors and lawyers, as a librarian I can make a difference.”

“I wanted to work with people; my librarian growing up was one of my greatest mentors, and I wanted to be that for someone else.”

“I appreciated being able to combine my desire to help people with a reason to learn about everything.”

“I didn’t enjoy my brief time in business, and spent so much time at the library I figured I might as well work there. I started doing informational interviews and was impressed by all the people in librarianship who love their jobs.”

“What I love about library science is that no day is ever the same, and you learn new things every day. When doing reference, it’s all the fun of research without having to actually write the paper; when doing cataloging, it’s like being paid to do puzzles all day. The more I study, the more I learn about LIS, the more interesting I find it. There is no limit to the things I can learn.”

So, how do you decide if this is the right profession for you? Before finalizing your decision, it will be useful to visit a couple of different types of libraries and talk to working librarians to see what their jobs entail. Request literature from several different library schools; look at their focuses and what each has to say about the field. Visit the ALA web site to find out more about librarians’ interests and prospects. Look at the web sites and blogs of working librarians to see what they have to say about the profession, their jobs, and the field’s future. A few good places to start: LISNews.com, Tame the Web, Catalogablog, and It’s All Good.

After you’ve read up, think about nontangible attributes, such as people skills, instructional skills, and a commitment to lifelong learning, that are essential to librarians’ success and make an honest assessment of how well your own personality traits match.

Paths to the profession

In most cases, you will find that librarian-level positions require an ALA-accredited MLS. Non-MLS positions are usually paraprofessional-level and in most libraries pay less. Some smaller or rural institutions, though, are staffed entirely or mainly by non-MLS workers. As you consider the degree and the profession, watch the job ads in your area to see what requirements, skills, and qualifications they tend to expect. You may need to relocate after finishing your degree in order to increase your prospects.

New librarians take a number of paths to their degree, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Each group has unique advantages to offer, and librarianship only benefits by incorporating multiple perspectives and backgrounds.

The largest single source of new MLS librarians is the library itself: paraprofessionals who choose to earn the degree, sometimes after a number of years working in libraries. Some institutions, especially larger public libraries, proactively “grow their own” by providing financial and other support to staff members earning the MLS; others guarantee raises and/or promotions to graduates. Usually financial incentives come with some strings attached—your workplace may, for example, pay for you to earn a degree on the condition that you keep a certain GPA and stay with the institution a certain number of years postgraduation. Check with your human resources department for specific policies.

Many new librarians enter the field as a second career, coming from fields ranging from law to business to education. Librarianship is a profession where any experience and knowledge you bring in or pick up along the way comes in handy, making it a great midlife career change for many.

The last major group of library school students enters MLS programs soon after earning undergraduate degrees. For this group, librarianship is their first career rather than a second or midlife change; they offer a fresh perspective and are often energetic and enthusiastic about librarianship as their first-choice field.

Schools

The first step for most new librarians is getting into and completing library school. (Find a list of ALA-accredited programs.) While some institutions will hire non-MLS personnel for librarian-level positions, you have a greater chance of securing a professional position—and being paid decently—with the master’s degree.

In the past, aspiring librarians generally just attended the library school closest to their home or uprooted themselves and their families to relocate near a desirable program. New distance education options, however, have begun transforming library education. These vary widely; some require regular on-campus stays, while others can be completed entirely online. Some require attendance at real-time video or chat sessions, while others employ mainly asynchronous methods such as online discussion boards and email. Find a nice comparison chart and approximate costs. Distance education students generally report high levels of satisfaction with their programs and emphasize their mastery of online tools and heightened attention to actively networking and forming peer groups during school.

Researching schools

One great place to look for information on library schools is on email lists and other online forums where students and recent grads tend to hang out. Questions about particular schools, their focus, their professors, or the quality of their distance education programs come up quite often. Look at discussion lists like NEWLIB-L or librarian_wannabes. Also visit LiveJournal communities such as Library Grrrls.

Balance your “unofficial” information from such sources with that from schools themselves. Most schools’ web sites have fairly comprehensive information on admission and graduation requirements, course catalogs, student organizations, and campus life; find these linked from the ALA directory mentioned above.

Paying for school

Let’s face it: grad school can be prohibitively expensive, and the financial return on your investment can be minimal in a less than highly paying profession. So, how do you go about paying for it all?

First, check locally. Be proactive about contacting the financial aid office at your school; see what types of grants, scholarships, or assistantships are available. Then, check with your state library and/or association. These often offer substantial scholarships for those intending to live and work in that state for a certain period of time (generally about two years) postgraduation.

Next, expand your search to national library organizations. These most often offer scholarships to those intending to specialize in particular subfields of librarianship or to members of underrepresented groups. Some representative examples of available scholarships include:

• ALA Spectrum: Spectrum awards one-year, $5000 scholarships plus additional professional development funding to American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students.
• Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Scholarships: Several $4000 scholarships for students interested in moving image archive management.
• Library & Information Technology Association (LITA) Scholarships: Several different $2500–$3000 scholarships for those interested in librarianship and information technology.

Also check with the associations listed under the different types of librarianship above, as well as with those in any specialized subfield of interest. Think of this as a chance to begin exercising the research skills that will also come in handy later during your library career.

Maximizing your tenure

Library school in itself is a large investment of both time and money, but those who invest more of themselves into their programs and academic career will come out the most marketable postgraduation. Think of your MLS degree as the minimum requirement for professional-level positions—anything you add on top of that helps give you an edge over all the other candidates who also have the same degree. There are two big keys to making yourself marketable postgraduation: getting professionally involved and getting library experience.

How do you get professionally involved as a student? First, think about joining a professional association or two. ALA offers reduced rates for students, and state and local organizations are often affordable. Get involved in your school’s student chapter; if it is moribund, take the initiative to revitalize it and look for support from ALA in doing so. As NMRT’s (New Members Round Table) Nanette Wargo Donahue says, “The NMRT Student and Student Chapter Outreach (SASCO) committee would be more than willing to give you any help you might need to restart, revitalize, or just plain improve your ALA student chapter.”

Joining NMRT itself, for students and new professionals, is a great way to begin getting involved. NMRT membership is limited to those who have been ALA members less than ten years, keeping its focus on new librarians. Among its offerings: a résumé review service, conference orientations and socials, and guaranteed committee appointments.

Just making the effort to get involved while in school can translate into larger opportunities. Brian C. Gray, an Engineering Librarian at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, explains, “I started locally first by submitting content to my library school’s discussion list and volunteering as an officer for the SLA Student Group at my school. While in school, my Student Group involvement and name recognition from the list participation snowballed into working with the Cleveland SLA Chapter, receiving an SLA scholarship, and being selected to an SLA committee at its annual meeting.”

Getting involved also lets you feel like part of the profession and is the first step toward thinking and working as a library professional. Librarianship is a connected profession where cooperation and collaboration are key; become a part of that web of connections as early as possible.

Other Websites to Visit

The New Jersey Library Association

LisJobs.com 

one of the best library job websites on the Internet

SCILS Job Finder

an excellent job website of Rutgers University School of Information and Library Studies