Comments on: Encouraging Lean Librarians

By: sethbook

sethbook — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:34:05 +0000

A friend of mine once said, “The MLS is the biggest scam in academia. It’s the only masters degree that actually guarantees you a lesser income when you change careers.”

I am surprised people are going into MLIS programs, unless the schools are telling people where they will actually find non-traditional jobs…

By: Sonny Hill

Sonny Hill — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:03:50 +0000

Portly … and hirsute: can’t forget the beards. Librarymen love them some beards.

By: Librarianless

Librarianless — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:16:45 +0000

And btw, I have yet to meet any technophobe librarians, yet the technology skills needed by librarians are basic. Seriously, although they keep telling you about technology and marketing it as a tech degree, it simply isn’t. If you can use the internet in a functional capacity, you are good to go.

By: Librarianless

Librarianless — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:12:28 +0000

Oh Library Student, you are a student. Ha Ha! Just wait until you are a librarian, or at least an unemployed librarian. I have been looking for a job for almost two years and I am willing to move. The majority of out of state jobs applied for only interviewed local candidates because every single city has 100′s of unemployed librarians. There are so few jobs compared to MLS holders, it is ridiculous. Not only that, recent grads are competing with all of the very experienced MLS holders who have been made redundant. It seems you are buying the BS. Maybe you should do a little more research (I hope this online school is at least teaching you how to type words into catalogs and call it research). It is very grim and that is not a complaint, that is a fact!

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:02:12 +0000

While I don’t share as bleak of a view as some of the commentators here, I’d like to address the comments made by the library student who is a distance student. The idea that older librarians are technophobes is based upon what? These older librarians were often at the forefront of getting new technologies into their libraries to start with. My great aunt, a public librarian, was one of them. She set up the computer network for her library system when desktops were a brand new product. And the baby boomers, please remember, were responsible for creating a number of these technologies that you now use.

Then there’s this “graying of the profession” idea. Even if the impending wave of retirements that have been talked about for years were to take place, it isn’t going to be soon enough for students currently enrolled in a library degree program. As one commentator noted, the “graying of the profession” and need for new blood idea has been around for a very long time.

At one time students had to live in the place where they would get their degree. That meant fewer library graduates. Today, a number of these online schools are not being upfront about the job market because for them the MLS online programs are cash cows. You could blame the students for not checking thoroughly and taking on all that debt, but the schools do bear at least some responsibility. This doesn’t just happen with library degrees, as Midge noted in the Library School post. For these online schools, cash cows are cash cows.

There is a student blog section on this website. I take it that not one of those students, all who graduated a year or more ago, found jobs. If they had, they likely would have shared their good news. Two of them were unable to move and the third, who knows. They graduated in December 2007 and in 2008. Not the best time, but at least 2007 wasn’t quite the worst either.

I’m speaking as a younger librarian who graduated a few years ago and who did find a job, as did my friends. We did not go to a all online school, though some of our classes were online. We gained considerable experience while we were in school, and we could move. So at least it was possible to find a job a few years ago.

But please Library School Student don’t buy into this idea that older equals technophobic.

By: Not a librarian anymore

Not a librarian anymore — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:07:33 +0000

Library Student–check out the LJ article published this summer in which the library personnel surveyed admitted that a) the growth in jobs is in paraprofessional positions, b)they are deprofessionalizing positions, and c)MLS holders don’t have the real life, practical skills they are looking for, so increasingly they hire people who don’t have a library background.

By: NotMariantheLibrarian

NotMariantheLibrarian — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:16:25 +0000

Library Student – don’t believe everything your professors feed you. Very few in my in-residence program had actually worked in a real library any length of time. They teach “theory” and that’s not particularly useful in the real library world. I learned more from excellent mentors than I learned in library school.

And, just so you’ll know, I have yet to meet a techno-phobic older greying librarian. Students yes, the general public yes, librarians no. If you want to stay employed, you have to embrace change and that means technology. I can’t speak for public librarians, but all the academic librarians I know and those I work with aren’t technophobes. The arithemetic mean of our ages in my library? 49, with most of us being over 50 and learning new technologies whenever they come our way. Which is often.

By: Techserving You

Techserving You — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:10:44 +0000

I think the reason there might be a shortage of school librarians in CT (if there really is one) is that most states want both an MLIS AND teaching certification to be a school librarian in a public school. A teacher is not enough, and a librarian is not enough, and teaching certification from a different state is usually not enough (except in cases of reciprocal agreements.) So movement can be difficult… otherwise, I think the huge number of out of work librarians would more than cover the shortage. I just think that people need to be realistic about the number of jobs out there, AND about the competition that may be out there – librarians with lots of experience, better overall education, etc..

By: Post Postmodern Librarian

Post Postmodern Librarian — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:44:20 +0000

Librarian Student, I am not complaining about you but like the AL and others here we are worried about the degree mill being created by the ALA and the schools it supports. With these vast numbers the field can not support all of us. Pay and job satisfaction is suffering. In CT the shortage is in School librarians by the sound of it. Well a lot of us do not want to be school librarians. Also places are handing out tons of pink slips to school librarians do you think CT can absorb those numbers and get you and your fellow graduates a job? There is a problem and its not being addressed by the ALA.

By: library student

library student — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:17:53 +0000

I understand that there is not the immense shortage that was (repeatedly) reported several years ago, and I get that as the economy weakens libraries are getting budgets slashed. I just wanted to point out that there are some jobs available, and even shortages in certain areas (like CT.)I didn’t mean to interrupt your complaining, I was merely stating a fact. I’m sure you are not interested in my opinion, but we spend a lot of time in my classes (which, granted are not difficult) discussing the inevitable changes that are happening in the profession. Just last week my Prof. asked how we will deal with techno-phobic, older staff members who view changes in the library as the end of western civilization as they know it!