At the end of this semester, I’ll reach the 18 credit milestone, my first full year of library school. Recently, some of my friends have started asking me about librarianship and what it involves… it’s complicated. There are different sides to librarianship. The most obvious is the reference librarian, since this is the type of librarian that most people associate with the library experience, but there are technical service librarians, catalogers, archivists, special librarians (music, medical, law, corporate, etc.), librarians who work for museums and non-profit organizations, metadata specialists and digital librarians, and more. I chose this field because I have an MA in English and no interest in teaching (and going into the publishing industry is a moot point). I like research. I like discovering information and helping others discover information (teaching students how to research was the one aspect of teaching that I did like). I also like computers and doing all manner of techie things. Library Information Science is a pretty dynamic field if you’re into all these things, and I am. That said, I won’t lie and pretend that it’s the most stable field; with budget cuts, the role of libraries is changing. Librarians and libraries are adapting and making the best of the situation. The more classes I take, the more I am fascinated by the thought of going into one of the more technical/digital areas of librarianship (hello, metadata!), but I also know that I’ll take whatever position I can get when I officially enter the job market as a full-fledged librarian. If I start in Reference, great. If I end up in a public library, rather than an academic one (I’m a bit attached to the Ivory Tower), I’ll take it. No, going into librarianship does not mean guaranteed, lifetime job security, but it’s not so grim as it may seem either. I know chances are that I will have to adapt along the way and continue to learn new skills to remain relevant and ahead of the trend, but I think I’m up for the challenge.
marginalia and such 