Careers in Academic & Science
Librarianship
“…there are few pleasures comparable to that of
associating continually with curious and vigorous young minds, and of aiding
them in realizing their ideals.”
---Samuel S. Green, American Library Journal, vol.
1, Oct. 1876, page 81.
Do you get a thrill out of solving mysteries? Do the forensic techniques in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
intrigue you so much that you immediately run to the nearest computer to look
up more details in their online Handbook? Do you have an eye for odd details that allow
you put pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together faster than anyone else in your
family? Do you enjoy the intellectual
stimulation of scientific research but get frustrated by experiment failures in
the laboratory? Do you have an
insatiable curiosity? Are you fascinated
by the experiments done by the Mythbusters
and continually trying to shoot holes in their procedures? Do you like working with medical information,
but get a bit nauseous looking at some of the pictures or blood? Does locating
obscure information make you glow?
Do you like helping students but feel a bit traumatized or burned out as
a classroom teacher? Do you like helping
others improve their research skills? If
you answered YES to more than one of these questions, you may want to consider
a career in academic or science librarianship.
Contrary to popular myth, librarians do not sit around all
day and read books. They also do not
tend to be old ladies with their hair in a bun who walk around the library
shushing people. As a matter of fact,
there are a lot of male librarians, very few librarians have hair long enough
to put in a bun, and reports of our shushing have been greatly exaggerated. Other common myths are that librarians all
have English Literature degrees and excel at Trivial Pursuits or Jeopardy! Well, that’s not completely true
either. Many librarians do have English
or History degrees, but there are just as many librarians out there with a wide
range of other subject backgrounds. Some
librarians could be mistaken for “walking encyclopedias” and others are
not. Hollywood has done a lot to
perpetuate these stereotypes...but if you’re curious about the truth, read on.
The people who work at the various service desks around
the library are the most visible members of the library staff. Staffing varies at every library, but they
tend to be a mixture of student assistants, full-time staff members, and
librarians. The Reference Desk is
staffed by librarians who are exceedingly good at knowing which resource
(regardless of print or electronic) would answer a specific question and how to
locate different types of information.
Each of them has a different subject background and expertise – e.g.,
engineering, life sciences, business, music, history, and psychology. There are
also many librarians who work behind the scenes. Less visible librarians include archivists,
preservation librarians, catalogers, digital services librarians, electronic
resource librarians, information technology librarians, collection development
librarians, and library administrators.
Preservation librarians repair torn pages, keep materials from falling
apart, and develop new techniques for ensuring older materials are protected
from damage due to insects, careless users, and water leaks. Electronic resource librarians keep track of
purchases and problems with electronic journals, databases, and e-books. Digital services librarians are responsible
for the digitization and preservation of electronic images for a wide variety
of research resources – such as books, old photographs, and herbarium specimens. Archivists collect historical materials and
help researchers who are interested in locating information found in primary
source materials such as diaries, manuscripts, and letters. They also acquire and preserve important
documents and other valuable items for permanent storage (e.g., memorabilia
related to university history and personal papers of prominent local
individuals). It takes a lot of
dedicated individuals to keep the physical and virtual libraries running
smoothly.
Librarianship is increasingly
a second or third career opportunity!! In 1989, a
research study reported that 30.2% of students surveyed chose to pursue their
LIS degree after working in a non-library field. By 2005, studies found that 53% of recent
library school graduates went to library school as a second or third
career. A survey of recent library
school graduates asked why they chose the profession. Those who worked in libraries as support staff
members loved the work and chose to pursue the professional degree as a form of
job advancement. Others loved books and
reading, had the desire to help people find information they need, or desired a
career that serves the needs of both individuals and society. Science librarians have also been surveyed to
find out why they switched from science to library & information science
(LIS). One-fourth of the respondents had
become disillusioned or dissatisfied with their science career due to reasons
such as industry layoffs, limited career opportunities in sciences without a
PhD, or irregular work hours. The other
three-fourths were drawn to LIS due to “their love of the scientific and
technical literature as well as the fun and challenge of information research.” The intangible plusses of library work have
been described as: cooperation and
congeniality, opportunity to make a difference, intellectual stimulation and
life-long learning, variety, and job security.
What does it take to
become a librarian?
A B.A. or B.S. in any field provides the foundation for
librarianship (no undergraduate work in library science is required). A Master’s Degree in Library and Information
Science from one of the 56 schools accredited by the American Library
Association is all you need for most library careers, although some library
careers have slightly different degree preferences (e.g., archivists and
preservation librarians).
“Librarianship offers a better
field for mental gymnastics than any other profession.”
---Anon, “Continuity,” Harper’s
Weekly, v. 34, no. 1758, August 30,
1890, page 686.
Academic
Librarianship – from the American Library Association
Academic
Librarianship: Reference and Public Services – by Robert Bleil, Head of Public Services,
Careers
in Academic Libraries – by Gwendolyn Bradley, Chronicle of Higher
Education, April 20, 2001.
Cool Librarians
– humorous site designed to enlighten the general public about cool librarians
of fact and fiction.
Dinosaur or Dynamo?
The Future for the Subject Specialist Reference Librarian – by John Rodwell – paper presented at the panel session on the
Reference Librarian as Subject Specialist or Generalist, 8 September 1999,
RAISS 1999 & Beyond: Partnerships and Paradigms.
Faces
of a Profession – this is a video that can be viewed on the web using RealMedia Player. It
highlights the role of academic librarians and the satisfactions to be realized
in the profession. It includes interviews with academic librarians who discuss
what they do and why they made their career choices.
From Engineer to Librarian – by Dave
Hook, Info Career Trends, July 2003.
Job
of a Lifetime – by Anne Wheeler, C&RL
News, February 2008. (Describes an agricultural sciences librarian job at Purdue.)
Leaving
Science for LIS – by Julie Hallmark and Mary Frances Lembo,
ISTL, Spring 2003.
Medical
Librarianship: A Career Beyond the Cutting Edge –
from the Medical Library Association
A
Passion for Academic Librarianship: Find
It, Keep It, Sustain It – a Reflective Inquiry –
by Steven J. Bell, portal: Libraries
and the Academy, vol. 3, no. 4 (2003), pages 633-642. (Link will only work
for those whose library has a subscription to this electronic journal via
Project Muse.) This article “explores
the sources of passion that make academic librarianship a rewarding
profession.”
Rejecting
the Stereotype – a.k.a. Warrior Librarian Weekly (for librarians that
refuse to be classified)
Science
Librarian Success Stories
So,
What Does a Librarian Do All Day?
Some Resources on
Careers in Chemical Information – by Philip Barnett, American Chemical
Society, Sept. 2003.
Who
Chooses Sci-Tech Librarianship? – by Jill M. Hackenberg – originally
appeared in College & Research
Libraries, September 2000, pp. 441-450.
Why
Be a Science Librarian? – from the Science &
Technology Section of the American Library Association.
Why
Be an Academic Librarian? – from the Association
of College & Research Libraries
You
Might Be An Academic or Research Librarian If You...
– PDF page from ACRL.
Unsure if librarianship is the right career for you?
Librarians’ jobs vary depending on the library and the region of the
country. Some work with the public and
others participate behind the scenes. Go
talk to some college or university librarians.
Find out what their typical workday is like, what gives them their
greatest job pleasures, and what sorts of job duties they dislike. You may also want to visit a few general
articles on librarianship:
Librarians:
Information Experts in the Information Age, from the Winter
2000-2001 issue of Occupational Outlook
Quarterly.
Me? A
Librarian? – a variety of librarians talk
about how they arrived at their chosen profession and how they feel about their
careers.
New Roles – A Librarian by
Any Other Name – by Linda Braun, 2/1/2002, reprinted from Library
Journal
Not an
endangered career: Looking it up –
by Larry Keller, CNN, November 28, 2000
Top Ten
Reasons to Become a Librarian – by Martha J. Spear – originally appeared in
American Libraries, October 2002, pp. 54–55.
Why Be a Librarian
in the 21st Century? – by Holly Black
You Don’t Look
Like a Librarian! – by Ruth A. Kneale
– a collection of talks and resources relating to the image and perception of
librarians in the Internet age
Recommended
books on the topic:
A Day in the Life: Career Options in Library and
Information Science (edited by Priscilla K. Shontz and Richard
A. Murray, Libraries Unlimited, 2007).
“The editors of LIScareer.com have assembled 95 authors, each of whom
describes a typical workday or work routine, sharing joys, sorrows, and
annoyances in refreshingly candid fashion. In the process, they offer those
interested in finding a similar job exposure to useful skills and advice across
a wide variety of traditional and nontraditional jobs.”
Rethinking Information Work: A Career Guide for Librarians
and Other Information Professionals (by Kim G. Dority, Libraries
Unlimited, 2006 – pages 50-55 cover academic librarianship). “Leading you through a process of planning
the information career of your choice, it shows you how to determine what type
of work would be most fulfilling to you, explores what types of work are
available to those with an LIS-based skill set, and helps you create an action
plan for accomplishing your career goals and reaching your full professional
potential.”
Straight from the Stacks: A Firsthand Guide to Careers in
Library and Information Science (by Laura Townsend Kane, Chicago:
American Library Association, 2003).
This book gives good detail on a variety of library careers. Chapter 3 covers Academic Librarianship.
“...beneath these
complexities lie the great simplicities of humane librarianship – that books
are basic, that people are good, and that bringing the two together, so that
books are made more useful and people more fruitful, is one of the most
exciting and rewarding experiences on earth.
It is called librarianship.”
---Lawrence Clark Powell, UCLA
Librarian in A Passion for Books (Cleveland: World
Publishing Co., 1958, p. 184. This book
is a bit old but very inspiring to read.
The quote can be modernized very nicely by replacing the word “book”
with “information.”)
Ready to take the plunge into
librarianship?
Library and
Information Science Master’s Programs has a searchable directory of
programs currently accredited by the American Library Association, with links
to websites for each of the programs.
“[A librarian] is the Prometheus who will bring
the light of learning to the masses.”
---Matthew Battles, Libraries:
An Unquiet History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003, page 149.
“Every day I look forward to going to work. Every day.”
---Ed Goedeken, humanities
librarian (in newspaper article written by Jessie Diest,
“Grant Helping to Prevent Librarian Shortage,” Iowa State Daily, Nov.
21, 2003.)
Page created: June
5, 2004
Links last checked:
April 27, 2007
Text last updated:
February 29, 2008
©2008, Lorraine J. Pellack - Send questions or comments about this page
