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Current Pitt MLIS student checking in. I loved reading this thread just because it validates everything that I have seen myself (stupid classmates, stupid coursework, no jobs, need for networking, etc.). I would not recommend Pitt as an option for you. Their online program is great, in that you get the exact same experience as the on campus students (often to the detriment of the on-campus students) so I would say that if you have to sit through the bull poo poo you might as well do so in the comfort of your own home. If you're going to pay out of state tuition anyway, why waste money on relocation and city rates on living expenses? A friend of mine and I graduated from the same undergrad at the same time. I took a year off and he went straight to Pitt's program (which is only 3 semesters long) and graduated from that in August. He is still looking for a job. Not only that, but he posts about his rejection letters constantly on his Facebook. Not fun to read every day. I currently have a job as a page (shelving, circulation, etc.). I started out as a volunteer but because the director found out that I was getting my MLIS she kept me in mine for the page position when it came open and she called me. Not only that, but our outreach librarian went on maternity leave for 3 months and while she was out, I got to replace her. I now work one hour of reference on Saturdays (without being trained, scary, though I've since become more experienced and a lot more comfortable with it) too. It's really all about who you know and networking. You have to know the person who likes you and will let you know when you can move into a position. As much as I like the public library where I work now, I will never work there as more than what I am now. I know this because they're already planning for the retirement of some full time staffers by saying they're going to just replace them with a couple part time people. And our director isn't exactly too sharp either. She was talking to one of my co-workers and was wondering if I would stay on working there after I finished my degree. My co-worker just looked at her sideways and said "She'll have her degree, I doubt she'll continue to work at minimum wage for 19 hours a week." By the way, out of 22 employees at this library, 3 have their masters. I feel kind of bad, because I am the stereotypical MLIS person. Just got her undergrad in English and nothing else. I don't feel like a failure though who is only going to library school because I couldn't find a job. I had planned to apply to grad school for an MA in Renaissance Lit but found out way late that I loved getting the books, not writing the papers. Wow, this was really long, but I think I'm just excited that I've finally found other people who realize that this poo poo is easy and there's more worth in working than in paying $40,000 for "education".
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Mar 7, 2010 04:30
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tirinal posted:He can correct me, but I believe that only applies to university libraries where being a librarian is almost an academic position. Truth. Some academic libraries treat librarians like staff, but others treat them like faculty, many of them actually do have tenure track positions. So, just like professors, their performances must be evaluated for the better, or they lose their contract.
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Mar 13, 2010 14:20
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Oh the talking, how could I forget the talking. This may be a grad program, but speaking from Pitt's classes, don't expect there to be small classes with lots of discussion. It's mostly straight up lecture in my classes and when the professors do give us a chance to say something, no one will shut up again, even when what they're talking about has absolutely nothing to do with the topic it started on. So the professor wanted to get a few opinions and then end class, but instead we're going ten minutes over our allotted time because some 40 year old woman has "real world" experience about cataloging from her job at the grocery store or something. I don't know. Some days I feel optimistic about getting a job and some days I feel like there's no hope.
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Mar 15, 2010 17:02
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In my program there are some gay/goony men(in fact we have two confirmed cases of Aspergers) but most of them are actually pretty cool and down to earth and funny. And the whole librarian as spinster stereotype is almost so true it makes me scared. At the library where I work I shudder and hope that I don't end up like the majority of the ladies.
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Mar 18, 2010 00:06
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Speaking as someone who just had a few interviews, two of the employers were extremely interested in the fact that I knew Spanish and one was glad that I knew sign language. One of the interviews was in Chicago, so it makes a difference compared to applying in Iowa or something. So a language does help. I also know Latin well enough to have included it on my resume but no one has said anything about it. I think it's too niche for the greater world of libraries, and won't really get you that much more attention. But I have found that it's just handy to have personally.
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Aug 31, 2010 19:55
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Aranan posted:This is horribly off topic, so email me if you want instead of cluttering the thread (username @ gmail) but how did you go about learning sign language? I wouldn't say that I am fluent by any means, but I took a class in college and really just have a good memory of the signs. Going through an ASL dictionary and finding things online to demonstrate confusing hand motions keeps me current. So, I'm not an expert in their grammar, but I can get the basic understanding necessary for a reference question.
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Sep 1, 2010 00:46
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So I am now an employed librarian. I ended school in July so that actually wasn't so bad of a wait. I'd say that the key to finding jobs is to be able to go where no one else wants to (including the southern tip of Louisiana, luckily that's not the one I went for) and to be willing to go the extra mile to find positions. You can't just look on the ALA joblist of the other major job boards. Almost every other employed librarian is looking at those. Unless you have comparable skills to all of them, you're going to find yourself drowning in a sea of competition. List servs are great if you don't mind sifting through everything else that comes through too. And how I found the position that I was just offered today, I went to as many library websites as I could and just looked to see if they had employment pages. Not all of the libraries can afford or even want to post their job to the larger audience. So don't give up, you just have to use your librarian skills to find the stuff that no one else does. Hope this helps someone.
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Sep 9, 2010 15:29
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Working happily in libraries, I feel, is all about the people you work with. Especially if you're in a public library where the public is not so easy to deal with, if you don't like the people you actually have to get along with, then it's not going to be fun at any point. I guess the same can be said for academic libraries if you don't particularly like students who rarely have a clue. So yes, this thread is kind of depressing if you've never been in a work situation before and you're worried that every job is going to be awful. And it doesn't help that in library school they're pretty much lying to you by saying that librarians can no longer be the socially awkward recluses that only sit in back offices, hunched over desks not speaking to anyone. Yes they can. I've seen it and as other people here have reported, it's still going on and can make work life difficult.
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Oct 9, 2010 16:17
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There are several positions where you only get to do the "fun" stuff if you're a library student. And lots of librarians prefer to have an underling who knows the jargon.
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Dec 16, 2010 03:55
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:Speaking of collections development, do any librarians with experience know whether libraries actually heed the advice from those purchase request forms? I just requested a book I want to read that I can't afford myself. Are we talking public or academic? The couple of public libraries that I've worked at we take requests of patrons very seriously. We still have to make a decision in the end, it's not a done deal, especially with budgets the way they are. But depending on the price and even where they heard about it. Because if one person heard about it on Oprah, it's likely that others will have watched and also want to read it. Obviously as a public library, we're not going to purchase everyone's textbooks even if we're going to get a bunch of circs for this one semester. Generally as long as it's not a title that will immediately get stolen, isn't too expensive, and has good reviews, public libraries are pretty accommodating.
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Feb 23, 2011 02:04
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semihippie posted:Is anyone going to ALA this year? I get to go for free this year, and I have to start the process of planning which events to go to. What's worth it? Louisiana in June does not sound like fun, especially not with librarians, who can be a very picky lot. I went to D.C. last year and found that author talks were really good, as Space Fish said. And actually it's hit or miss with the rest of them. Half of them don't end up being about what's advertised, they're poorly prepared for or the person just ends up talking about himself/herself so much that you never actually understand why they were doing it. So if possible, have a few back up options if you get to one talk and it turns out to be a bust/full. People leave early/come late all the time. The most useful one I went to (being a public librarian) was about serving underserved populations such as the homeless, immigrants, etc. Go to either stuff that'll help you in your job or that you find genuinely interesting, otherwise you'll be bored out of your mind.
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Mar 5, 2011 08:59
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Yeah, don't count out paraprofessional positions, but also, don't freak out so much over the market that you take one and get stuck for a while. Which is what I did. All I heard about in my MLIS program was that jobs were so hard to get and you really shouldn't turn anything down, so I applied to both professional and paraprofessional position. Ended up taking a non-professional position because they came around first, but had I wanted another two weeks, would have had better options. Of course, if you're in financial straits it's hard to say, "maybe if I just wait a couple weeks something better will come around." The job game is a tough one to play in the library world. Oh, also, academic vs. public libraries hiring processes. Most academic take months and months. They have to put together a search team, they have to go through hundreds of applications (when they have time... riiiight), they have to approve their three choices through a whole load of bureaucracy and then interviews and then decisions. In public libraries (at least the smaller-ish ones) the head of the department gets the apps, they pick around three, call, interview, decide, done.
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Apr 12, 2011 13:46
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The thing about rural locations is they're often the hardest places to find the job ads for. They don't really have a lot of money for advertising and they're more likely to hire a non-degreed person as long as they have relevant experience. Also, they're really not interested if you're not from the area so much. Believe me, I would loooove to work in a rural library, but finding a posting has been a pain.
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Jun 21, 2011 13:23
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Ionic, Did you happen to graduate from Pitt and are now working in Maine?
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Jul 30, 2011 22:31
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I'm glad you're excited. That's exactly what you're going to need. One storytime can drain you pretty good. But it's pretty rewarding work. I saw you post over in the ladies fashion thread with that fabulous multi-colored dress which you look great in. I wanted to post and ask you about your job, but that was the fashion thread. Welcome to the library thread. Working in a children's department is a great place to use creativity and energy. Kids are also very forgiving when it comes to knowing your stuff, so it's a great place to learn the trade while still getting to have fun. And then from there branch out into new areas within the library. Good luck!
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Apr 29, 2012 01:39
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I remember one patron calling in to the reference desk at one of the libraries I worked and demanded to speak to a librarian. Well, this library system had only one branch for the entire county and less than 20 employees; only three of which were actual, bona fide, MLS librarians (director, assistant director/head of cataloging and head of adult services). It was a Saturday and typically only five people worked there on a Saturday, and never was one of them a librarian. The patron threw a fit wondering how the library was able to run without librarians there all the time and she refused to accept help from anyone else. I feel extremely undervalued as a professional librarian in my current position and I think the distinction would make me feel like the schooling was worth it. Otherwise, I could've saved several thousand dollars and been content to be a para.
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Apr 29, 2012 23:37
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http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/wills-world/matter-master-s More proof, don't do it. I just had an interview at a public library a couple weeks ago and had to share the story with you all. This library was a joke. I don't know how they function. I went into the interview and the questions consisted of, essentially, a check list: Have you done readers' advisory? Have you done programs? Have you worked a public desk? I would say yes and then elaborate, but I don't think she would have cared if I did or not. Then there was: What do you do for recreation? An odd question, but I answered it honestly and the woman comes back with "Don't you read?" ... Yes, I read. I thought you meant other than reading. Really? After fifteen minutes of that, the director comes in and essentially the interview is over because he and the interviewer just start talking shop and practically ignore me while I'm sitting there. The director talks about how he once was manning the reference desk and had to help this guy "who looked like a murderer" for about an hour and he couldn't say no, "because he looked like a murderer." Was he trying to frighten me or did he think that would endear me to the position? Then they asked if I had any questions, and I felt like if I didn't ask questions the interview would just be over without them having asked me any of the typical questions from interviews. And essentially it was. I asked things like, "What kind of community support do you have here?" and "What goals do you have for the library?" Each of these questions was met with, "What do you mean by that?" So I then had to explain these foreign concepts of "goals" and "community outreach". WTF? Do other libraries operate like that? I did not get the job, but I can't say that I would've wanted it. That place was in desperate need of help.
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Jun 7, 2012 01:09
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Look what Forbes was nice enough to do: http://tinyurl.com/8xtexwr
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Jun 12, 2012 01:29
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They probably won't expect much with you being a volunteer, but perhaps they will expect you to do all of the things that the actual library staff did, which are some big shoes to fill, I'm sure. First of all realize that you won't be able to do everything. Taking care of any library of any size is a huge job. Just for starters, I'd take a look at The American Association of School Librarians and The Association for Library Service to Children. Because they're provided by the ALA, they have all the standards and issues that typically face those who work with children. It'll be a good jumping off point anyway. And you should absolutely talk with the local public library, see if there's any help that they can give you. And this is a public elementary school? That's sad.
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Jun 19, 2012 13:33
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Thought I'd share my good news. I just got a new librarian job in Maryland. It's superior in almost every way to my current job but I haven't met most of the people yet. So hopefully they're agreeable. It's at a public library which is absolutely where I want to be. I honestly don't mind the weird or the creepy most of the time. And with this job I'll have more time off the desk so that I can cope when the people get to be too much. My current job had me on the reference desk from 35 to 40 hours every week. And my supervisor won't listen to me when I say that that's torture most weeks. She thinks that as long as you have enough time to finish all of your projects while working the desk, then there is no reason for off desk time. Does anyone else think this is a little crazy? I know clerks spend most of their time on a public desk, but it's much easier for them to deflect angry or strange patrons to the librarian thus lessening, albeit probably a small amount, the stress that oftentimes accompanies working with the public.
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Aug 17, 2012 02:56
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Enjoy Dr. Dick Cox! His name can be apropos. I am a Pitt grad in the regular library track, but you take many mutual classes so I have plenty of friends who went that way. It's a great program to go to because there are so many great institutions in the area to get experience. It's making sure you get one of those coveted spots that can be difficult. Otherwise Pitt is a great campus with good teachers (but even better professionals). So any chance you get, talk up the people who are actually working at the libraries or archives. They still have their fingers on the pulse of what's going on. The professors can sometimes... lose touch. Also, sorry I didn't reply sooner. Getting Internet in the new place was a task. Thank you all for telling me that asking for time off of the desk is not so silly a request. My supervisor's defense about being busy is that if people perceive us as not being busy at the desk then we have too much time on our hands and therefore don't need funding.
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Aug 25, 2012 14:09
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I get publib. You don't get too terribly many emails and there are often job postings, links to various webinars and they're a good source for information when you have a policy/procedure question. You can find out what other libraries are doing. Of course, it's public libraries. I'm also subscribed to a Readers' Advisory listserv through my state library association. It's nothing interesting.
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Dec 19, 2012 03:10
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DrHerpington posted:If I get a library science degree at Victoria University in Wellington, NZ, will I be able to use that to work in the states? My relatives her in America are convinced I can't use it and it'll be seen as piss poor. I foresee issues for you if you ever have to get state certification. ALA has a reciprocal agreement with most countries with Library Science degrees, so they'll recognize it as comparable but the issue comes on a more local level. One of my colleagues got her Master's in England and when she came back to the states to work and had to get Librarian Certification in Maryland, it was a long and arduous process with the state essentially giving in. When another of my coworkers asked about doing her Master's online and getting it from a place in Scotland, she was told that the state had said that the other certification was a one time thing and they would accept no more of this shenanigans. So it's just something to be aware of that you might have to do a lot of explaining and documenting. But that might just be Maryland that's goofy.
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May 16, 2013 13:02
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VideoTapir posted:I've been searching for medical information for people and had them looking at the screen and saying "that's it!" pointing and telling me to click on things that were obviously ads that just happened to contain their keywords. Google needs human interaction. It's pretty basic, but the University of Washington offers a Research 101 course that's completely online/downloadable. They don't use it anymore for their students but they encourage other librarians to download it and modify it to use as they need. It's kept under a creative commons license. Here it is in case you want to take a look. http://guides.lib.washington.edu/content.php?pid=55083&sid=2465031
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May 25, 2013 18:16
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-m. posted:So, the gist of it seems to be MLIS is a piece a paper I'll need to get to start on the actual education, not that the MLIS is the education, regardless of how it's taken. Thanks for deflating that balloon Pitt alum here and I know several people who received their degrees through Kent State's online program. Both have very simple online programs. If you do Pitt's program full time, you are in an out in a year (fall, spring, summer). Pitt's (at least when I went through the program in 2009) online option actually had online cohorts come to campus once a semester on a weekend. That could be annoying depending on where you live, but it's also nice for the face to face meeting of professors and fellow students. And you get to meet both on campus and online folks. Even though it annoyed the hell out of the on campus students because we were there all week. We are giving up a weekend to be in more classes without corresponding days off during the week. But that's minor. Because it's an MLIS, you can take classes in the IS program without having to justify it to your major (you would have to with classes in any other department since it is such a quick degree). I would say load up your schedule with tons of IS courses. In the library side of things you can take all your Reference and Teen services and Cataloging, but like everyone said above, it's nothing you can't learn on the job for real. And the professors in IS are actually good. Library Science... again, as mentioned before, they're all researchers, not practicing librarians, for the most part. Saving archives. Pitt has an intense Archives program with big names in the archiving field that would be huge to have as references. You won't lose anything with the online courses. All of the on campus classes are recorded and put up online, so you're not missing the actual lecture. Discussion happens in Blackboard with both on campus and online people. On campus students can take two online courses per semester (if full time). I will mention that the actual university library system for the University of Pittsburgh has undergone some radical changes since I left and they have diminished a lot of the specialized libraries that many students received internships for. So that's sad. As for Kent State, everyone I know took it online, never had any issues and many of them complained about how rigorous it was, but I'm unsure if that's just because they were THOSE types of library students or if it was a little more serious than Pitt. I was asked to look at their assignments and papers sometimes and they often seemed to me to strike a balance between academic excellence and real world needs, but I didn't have the whole story. I never heard of anyone failing a class there. And with a couple of the people I know being the of the older generation, they seemed perfectly capable of navigating the online environment, no problem. But all four of these people I know were working in a library when they took the classes. Wow, this was a really long post. Sorry.
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May 21, 2014 23:01
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So, second master's? Looking at where I would go, they have an option for an MLIS/MBA, or MLIS/MS in User Experience Design, which seems to be (on a quick glance, admittedly) a sort of beefed up web design. That would be real easy for me to do, but I could see that as both useful and useless. The other school doesn't seem to have anything official- again, quick glance. Anyone receive their degrees though Pitt or Kent State here?
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I just participated in a week long Leadership Institute for librarians in my state. Has anyone done one of these types of immersion programs elsewhere? Does it actually result in transformational leader type people? Or just a networking opportunity? Or even not necessarily related to libraries. I just want to know if the model can actually work, if I missed the point of mine, or if they're just about taking your dollars for something you can put on a resume.
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Jul 26, 2014 21:42
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Insane Totoro posted:
I literally have to tell someone this at least once a week. Perspective seems to be a difficult thing for librarians to grasp. Yes, okay, we're important. But we're not important enough to stress about.
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Oct 11, 2014 17:24
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Someone just posted this Slate article on my Facebook: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/10/20/adobe_s_digital_editions_e_book_software_and_library_patron_privacy.html Probably because they saw libraries and thought of me, not because they actually read it and care about their own privacy. But it managed to get me pretty passionate, which is just weird. So the article talks about the news that just came out that Adobe, whose software is the only way to read downloaded ebooks through most public library's offerings due to DRM, is collecting data from all patrons who use the service and sending it through unencrypted channels. There's been an outcry and blah, blah, blah. The article posits one of two solutions for libraries since the dilemma is between two of our biggest forces: patron wants (ie downloable content) and our values (ie privacy). Either we all need to go the route of Colorado and make our own downloadable systems for econtent (takes a ton of staff time and a ton of money also, those are limited to indie books and not the big publishers that everyone wants) or for us to negotiate with the vendors and absolutely refuse to use their product unless they comply with library definition privacy standards (highly unlikely for companies that are essentially holding all the cards in the deal). Not that my reaction solves the problem either, but it makes me want to redesign the MLS degree. I know, I know. Everyone wants to do that, and it isn't a new concept to have the MLS be more about information science than it is about library science. But seriously, if we could get the drat programs to require students to learn the insides of our databases not just on a theoretical level, but also on a practical "lets-build-our-own" level instead of making sure that we know how printed indices work, that would go a looooong way toward libraries being able to make our own content systems. I work in a mid-sized public library but in our main branch alone, we have 5 librarians in adult services. We only have 4 IT professionals for the entire 9 branch system. If all of the librarians had the necessary skills for design and development and we worked with our IT departments, we could seriously make poo poo happen. And then, since we're sharing institutions, we could make this model work for the smaller library systems throughout our state and even the country. And then we could cut out all of these third parties who we are allowing to take over our space. As we move away from traditional books and physical media, we are no longer the experts. We keep letting in more and more people who do not share the values or expertise that we do and therefore they're loving it up. We'll be pushed out and no one will care and it will all fall down around us in flames... or something. TL;DR - Anyway, this is just a long-winded way of me asking for the best program for me to learn how to develop content sharing systems and the like. Because I am fully willing to admit that I did not take advantage of the more Information Science-y classes in my master's degree when I had the chance. But I want to change that. Is there a program I could enroll in? Do I need to start at a bachelor's CS degree and work my way up? Certification programs? fake edit: Also, wow, I sound like a goddamn nutjob.
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Oct 21, 2014 17:51
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Cythereal posted:My library has embarked upon a peculiar project. Our previous dean, six or seven years ago, insisted that we store all book covers for items we add to the collection, but remove and store the covers in a back storeroom, leaving the books on the shelves without covers. That would be well and good, but lo and behold what's probably a few thousand book covers take up space in storage, and a couple of months ago we asked the upstairs folks what we should do with all of these book covers in storage. If not for this, then why do you have student workers?
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Dec 11, 2014 13:00
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Chicken McNobody posted:
Is there any way that they would let you make up the exact responsibilities of this position before you agreed to take it? In this way you would know exactly what you will be doing and since you're the "expert" how could they question you?
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Feb 13, 2015 13:28
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For those of you who get to sit on hiring committees, when someone asks you for feedback on how to improve for future interviews, this is an unhelpful answer:HR person posted:I thought you did a fine job with your interview. We were very fortunate to have many applicants that had outstanding qualifications for this position. Even if we're perfection personified, there's still a reason you chose someone else, please tell us what it is. Anyone else get similarly poor feedback? Or for interviewers, is this standard feedback so as to avoid offending anyone?
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Mar 22, 2015 13:31
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Insane Totoro posted:Those are written by HR. Not the committee. The HR person was on the hiring committee. And this was her response when I asked for specific feedback.
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Mar 23, 2015 00:34
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