[OT] Conan, the Librarian

[Kesh]

I've been seriously rethinking my career plans of late, and an old idea occurred to me. I've considered becoming a librarian in the past, but never really worked towards it.

I know there are a few ENWorlders who make their living as librarians. How'd you folks get into the career? Do you plan to stay with it, or is it temporary on your way to some other job? Any tips on what I should do to get into the field?

 

[Templetroll]

I'm not a librarian but I played a dwarven "...student of Library Science..." in a game.

Check local colleges for exactly that, Library Science. It won't be nearly as entertaining as my use of it as a cover for clerical and rogueish abilities but it will present you with the wide range of knowledge and skills you will need to be a librarian. It ain't just about the Dewey Decimal System anymore!

Good luck with it.

 

[Welverin]

For example.

Here are links others, including the University of Kentucky (not that I know how close that is to you).

p.s. you might want to change the thread title so Eric and the others know it's a serious thread and thus that their commentary is necessary.

 

[Morrus]

Moved to the new OT forum.

 

[astralpwka]

Our local college has courses in becoming a librarian. The classes were necessary for an acquaintance of mine to move up the librarian ladder.

I think he's probably a Level 5 Expert (Librarian) now.

 

[Enforcer]

You definitely need some course work. And I know that librarians in law libraries are full-fledged lawyers, which blew me away when I found out.

 

[Michael Morris]

For example.

Here are links others, including the University of Kentucky (not that I know how close that is to you).

p.s. you might want to change the thread title so Eric and the others know it's a serious thread and thus that their commentary is necessary.

Suggesting that a Louisville boy go to UK is like, dangerous man... Real dangerous... You have no idea of the rivalry..

TRAITOR RICK! TRAITOR RICK!! TRA...

Sorry, Basketball season and all that.

-- UK Fan Mikey...

 

[John Crichton]

I know there are a few ENWorlders who make their living as librarians. How'd you folks get into the career? Do you plan to stay with it, or is it temporary on your way to some other job? Any tips on what I should do to get into the field?

This may seem kind of obvious, but you'll need a degress in Library Science to start with if you really want to go far in the profession. They can make alot of money, too. I work at a huge library and know many librarians. What interests you about that kind of work? There are many different applications of it, as well.

 

[Desdichado]

My father is a professional librarian -- now Dean of the Library at Texas Tech University as a matter of fact. Seems to be a good enough career. His path was Masters of Library Science and PhD in history, and then crawled through the ranks of Special Collections and Archives to get to where he is now.

If you want to actually make any money at it, you probably need to actually get some training in managing people and resources. Are you thinking academic libraries? Public libraries? What are you thinking there?

Has anyone pointed out this thread to EricNoah, Cthulhu's Librarian or Buttercup?

 

[EricNoah]

The library profession is pretty varied. Think about how you would like to spend your time and your days and try to match it to that if you can.

For example, in the school library field, I am the master of a small kingdom. I do (or supervise) all manner of tasks, from clerical type stuff to the warehousing & processing of books to selecting and ordering materials to maintaining a website to designing lessons to creating educational materials to classroom teaching. Don't get me wrong -- there are parts of my job that I don't love. But in this job you rarely get stuck with any one thing for too long.

School librarians in Wisconsin are required to have a BS in education and a MA in Library & Info Studies. That's a big chunk of some pretty specific education and so it's not always possible for someone to just jump into the profession. If you already have a teaching degree, it's easier, as many university LIS programs can be taken piecemeal over the course of years if you need to do it while also working full-time.

If you're not going the school library route, the situation is a bit easier -- often all you need is *any* BA/BS degree in order to get into the LIS program. However, again, your interests and your background may steer you to one particular kind of library or other information career.