…for librarians the primary motivation is job satisfaction derived from the opportunity to make a significant difference in the lives of others.

ALA president  Maureen Sullivan, from the ALA response to Forbes.com declaring Library and Information Science “No. 1 Worst Master’s Degree for Jobs.” […]

Secondly, does [s]he know how hard it is to be satisfied with your job and feel fulfilled when you’re barely scrapping by on an entry level library position salary or, even worse, unable to find a job at all? My friends who amassed $60,000 or so in student loan debt and are working part-time or in temporary tech positions probably have a few choice things to say on the matter. I’m one of the lucky ones as I got in state tuition and paid as went so I don’t have any debt to worry about and I have a library job but it’s the same lousy tech job I had when I started. Being told that I should be satisfied with making a significant difference in the lives of others- especially when all my patrons do is complain that we should have more, do more, be faster- doesn’t make me feel any better about spending three years and thousands of dollars on a degree that has yet to do a damn thing for me. 

(via sarahbee-in-the-stacks)

Newbie librarians: you may find, as you earn your master’s or go out into the public library workplace with that shiny new degree, that you start at a position commensurate with someone who has a B.A. or even an A.A. — and who doesn’t care a bit about learning more about her (or his) field of work, or the squillions you’ve paid to learn more yourself. And it will suck. People will offer you lame adages about “paying your dues” (don’t tuition and a million MARC homework assignments count?) but try to make the best of it and seek out every opportunity you can to try new things. That’s pretty much all the advice I’ve got; I’m in that position now.

Alex Lent, the Information Studies PhD Student

Alex took his MLS and found himself on an academic trajectory.

1. Can you tell us about your current position?

I’m a PhD student in the School of Information Studies at McGill University, where I also occasionally teach. This past semester (in the States, we would call it Spring 2012, but in Canada, they call it Winter 2012. Sadly, I am not joking), I taught Humanities and Social Science Information, which was a lot like my favorite course when I was doing my Master’s degree, so it was fun to get to teach it.

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Claire the Cataloger from The Undercover Shelf

1. Can you tell us about your current position?

Sure! I am a cataloger at a large public library. When I took a cataloging class in library school, I remember thinking “I don’t ever want to be a cataloger or work at a public library!” I’ve since learned that, usually, when I make declarative statements like that, the opposite usually happens. And thank goodness! My position combines good old fashioned cataloging of books and other physical materials as well as metadata services for digital objects from the archives next door, so it’s perfect for me, basically.

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A debate on Archives and Archival Education

awesomearchives:

You Ought to be Ashamed  is a blog dedicated to archival students and the market we will be dealing with. They just came out with a series of posts on the value of an MLIS.

How to become an archivist in ten short years: take one.

In defense of the MLS (Sort of)

I suggest the whole blog, though it is a little depressing.

 For my archival brethren, from FQF #1, Shelby.

(via archivalintegrity)

Source: awesomearchives