Careers in Library Science:

Career Information and Job Search Resources


General Information || Job Listings || Specific Library Information || Journals/Publications || E-mail Discussion Groups || Professional Organizations || Graduate School || Contact Us || Profiles

General Information

Work in the field of library and information science offers many and varied interesting jobs. The "information age" offers a boon to professionals interested in the way information is captured, organized, and made accessible to various audiences. Whether you like working with computers or books, see yourself working in a school, hospital, law office, or public library, or would describe yourself as conventional or entrepreneurial, library science has a place for you!

The following sites provide overview information about the field. The American Library Association is the main professional organization, encompassing all kinds of library specialties so their site is an important one to explore. Other sites listed here lead you to news items that provide broad background information on important issues in the field. For online publications with more in-depth information, go to Electronic Journals/Publications.

http://www.becomealibrarian.org -- Information about the various facets of the library field and how to join the profession offered by the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative in New Jersey.

http://www.ala.org/library/weblinks.html -- library-related resources collected by ALA.

http://www.hwwilson.com/ -- News briefs of interest to library professionals.  Select "Press Room" in the left-hand column.

http://www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/introduc.htm -- The Internet Library for Librarians. Use this to familiarize yourself with internet resources librarians find useful, including lots of information on librarianship and specializations in the field as well as e-mail and newsgroups for various specialties.

http://www.ala.org/library/larcfact.html -- Basic library information and trivia. Answers to questions like: "How many people work in libraries?" and "How many libraries are on the Internet?"

http://www.lisjobs.com/careerdev/ -- Companion site to the publication "The Information Professional's Guide to Career Development Online." This site contains links to information about topics such as "networking online," "scholarships," and "library job hunting online."

http://www.ala.org/news -- ALA's site of library news and press releases.

Getting Started in the Field

Many people begin their interest in library science with a summer job, internship, or campus job in a library setting. There are two ways to look for summer jobs and internships in the field. First, if you have a location in mind, you can easily find listings of libraries of all types through the State Library in that state. For example, to find a list of libraries in Maine, use the term "Maine State Library" to find the main page of the state library. At the bottom, you will find a link to "Directory of Libraries." State libraries are the major source of information about libraries in each state.

Through your college's eRecruiting site you are able to search and apply to a wide variety of Library-related internships. One search for summer internships in library science (under "non-profit- museums and libraries"), any location, yielded 120 possible openings, many of which are in unusual settings such as historical organizations, information management organizations, non-profit educational organizations, as well as libraries.Please contact your Career Center for specific instructions regarding these internships.

If all else fails, libraries are wonderful places to volunteer. Consider volunteering in a local school media library or public library. They will love you!!

Job Listings

While the availability of entry level jobs varies by location and demand, there are jobs that can be had without having earned a graduate degree in library science. However, to advance in the field, a graduate degree (preferably from an ALA-approved program) will be needed.

There are two main places to look for job listings on the web. If you have a master's degree you should look carefully at listings offered by various graduate programs. For entry-level jobs without a master's degree, look more carefully at the state listings or at non-web local job listings.

For state libraries, using the browser of your choice, search on the phrase "_______ state library" for best results. To see a site that lists jobs as an example, look at the Maine State Library Job Site: http//:www.maine.gov/msl/for_libs/jobjar.htm

http://www.ipl.org/ -- the Internet Public Library Employment Resources List -- click on "Library Employment for a list of links. Look under "Subject Collections," point to "Arts & Humanities" and selection "Libraries." Then choose "Library Employment."

http://www.lisjobs.com/-- a recent MLIS graduate writes about job hunting in the library and information fields.

http://www.libraryjobpostings.org/-- Library job postings on the internet which include regional sites with listings, collected by Sarah Neisbitt, librarian at Bridgewater State.

http//:www.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/resources/jobs.html-- the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science listing.

For internships, LACN member students may look at internships through their eRecruiting system. Ask for information about accessing the system from your Career Center.

Information Specific to Type of Library

Special Libraries

Special libraries include libraries with a narrowly focussed collection. Often special libraries are found in law offices, medical settings, museums, non-profit organizations, corporations, etc. Your college or university's career center probably includes a special library. Not all special libraries hire a full-time librarian, but many do. You will probably need background in the topic area, however, as well as a graduate degree in library science.

The Special Library Association's web site has information about qualifications and specialties, as well as education and employment information: http://www.sla.org/

The American Library Association also has links to information about being a Music Librarian, Law Librarian and Medical Librarian (among other specialties): http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/careersinlibraries/careerslibraries.htm

Public Libraries

Public Libraries provide services to communities across the country.  Some may serve a specific town or district of a city while others serve an entire county of citizens.  Many public libraries now provide services far beyond the traditional book-lending.  You can now find public access to computers and the internet, videos, music, and e-books to borrow, programming for babies to senior citizens, homework assistance, and a multitude of creative activities.  Some public libraries are small enough to be run by a single person, sometimes even by volunteers, while others have large staffs with varying responsibilities: Director, Young Adult specialist, Children's secialist, Reference Librarian, Cataloger, etc.  Most public libraries have positions that require a library degree as well as positions that do not require the advanced degree but typically you will find that Directors and Department Heads will need the M.L.S.

For a more detailed description of public librarianship (including salary information), go to: http://www.ala.org/ala/pla/projects/publiclibrecruit/publiclibrarian.htm

 

Academic Libraries

Academic libraries are found on college and university campuses. They may be a general library or a library focused on the sciences or the arts, depending upon the needs of the institution. Usually a master's degree is required for reference librarian positions, and a Ph.D. is generally required to head an academic library, but other positions are available without the advanced degree.  If you would like to work in a specialized academic library, such as in a science library or an art and music library, you may need an undergraduate degree in that special area, or masters degrees in both the specialized area and library science.

For more information, consult http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlrecruiting/recruitingprofession.htm

School Libraries

The requirements for certification and availability of positions varies from state to state for school librarian (or, school media specialist) positions. Maine, for example, does not require every school to have a certified specialist, though most school districts employ a certified professional to supervise all of the various libraries in the district. In contrast, South Carolina has state requirements for all schools above a certain number of students to hire a certified professional. For certification information, contact the Education Department of the state in which you hope to seek a position.

http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/ -- MultiMedia Schools magazine online -- journal of multimedia, CD-ROM, online and internet issues in K-12 schools.

http://www.libraries.phila.k12.pa.us/lion/index.html -- Librarians Information Online Network is a list of online information sources for school librarians.

http://www.slj.com -- the electronic information site of the School Library Journal.

http://www.iasl-slo.org/ -- The International Association of School Librarianship

http://www.ala.org/aasl/ -- American Association of School Libraries


 

Electronic Journals/Publications


http://liblists.wrlc.org/home.htm-- Library oriented lists and electronic serials subject index.

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/alan-review.html-- The ALAN Review is published by the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, and interest group of the National Council of Teachers of English.

http://www.ala.org/booklist/index.html-- Online version of Booklist, a publication which reviews books and is used extensively by library employees responsible for collection development.

http://www.libraryjournal.com/-- Library Journal Digital -- includes news, features, and reviews related to policy, technology and Management in libraries.


 

E-mail Discussion Groups

http://liblists.wrlc.org/home.htm-- Library oriented lists and electronic serials subject index.

http://www.kovacs.com/directory --The Directory of Scholarly & Professional E-Conferences.  Choose "Search Directory" and then use "library" as a keyword to receive a full list of library-related discussion groups.  Includes a description of the purpose of each list, the address, how to join, the subject, and whether there are archives or not.  Reading through some of the archived messages are often a good way to decide whether a particular list is appropriate to your interests.  One popular list is LM-NET -- a world-wide discussion group for school library media people. Be aware that an active list may send you 75-100 messages/day -- consider subscribing in digest form if you would prefer to recieve just one message each day that contains that day's messages. Digest form can help you keep several lists from overwhelming you.


 

Professional Organizations

http://www.libraries.phila.k12.pa.us/lion/index.html-- Librarians Information Online Network offers this list of library organizations.

http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/resources/orgs.htm -- A comprehensive list of library and information science organizations.

http://www.ala.org-- the main professional organization for professionals in library and information science positions. ALA is an umbrella organization and has numerous specialty groups within the large organization.
 

Graduate School

http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oa/lisdir.html-- Directory of accredited masters programs. This site is searchable by state.

 

Profiles of Librarians who graduated from a liberal arts college

Emily Graham, K-12 School Media Specialist

Amy Lannon, Corporate Intelligence Manager for a Boston law firm

Stewart Maclehose, Systems Librarian for a university

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