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I got a dual degree last May--MLIS and MA in anthropology. Seconding the person or people who suggested an IT enhancement. May not even have to be a certification--I taught myself web design and got a (pretty drat good) job offer 2 years before I graduated. Digitization and new media are the hot new things and you can probably find a job in those fields...plus if you go into digitization there's a good chance you can still work with actual books, as you said you like to do. I got my MLIS almost completely online (that's how they offered it, even though I was on campus anyway for my anthro degree). If you're really that passionate about library work, unless you're into archiving, I'd say that's the way to go. (I entered the dual degree program because my anthro advisor said I'd get a job faster that way. She was right, but for someone like me, in-person classes would have been more engaging.) I agree that the degree itself is about 3/4 bullshit; you have probably learned more about the actual on-the-ground experience of libraries from your job. The degree's just theory and justification for the existence of a MLIS (seriously every class had at least one discussion about how the MLIS was necessary, nay vital, for the continued existence of libraries). Cut to modern-day--nobody has money, and they drat sure don't have money to spend on libraries, so times are hard. But there's some interesting stuff going on in the field, there are some nice international conferences (I'll be presenting my first professional paper at one in Crete in May), you can check out the newest books before anyone else gets their hands on them, and you will definitely build your tote-bag collection. (Librarians. LOVE. Tote Bags.)
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Mar 1, 2010 18:00
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Pompoon posted:I'll never fit in...I hate tote bags AND cats. Sorry, they give you your MLIS in a tote bag along with a cat. An old cat. And the tote bag has a cat on it. (seriously you best embrace the totes, they are the majority of swag at library conferences)
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Mar 3, 2010 04:03
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Insane Totoro posted:instead of meaningful change such as updating archaic software and making catalog searches painless. WORD to this right here...we are in the process of choosing a new discovery tool and it is like pulling teeth to get the librarians to understand that THEY can have their catalog and search it too while users (you know, who the library's FOR) get to actually find the stuff they want. (there should be a smiley for "touching a nerve")
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Mar 3, 2010 15:34
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Chriswizard posted:I don't think I've ever encountered a gay male librarian. That's because they all work at my library. Over half the male librarians who work here are gay. Now it seems weird to me that more male librarians aren't. v  v
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Mar 18, 2010 17:21
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manguero posted:If anyone wants to stick up for an MLIS program in jeopardy, search for "Save LSU's SLIS Program" on facebook. By the by, I'm trying to get in for the fall (transferring from English), and hoping that if the program does get closed, that I'll at least get in for the last semester they accept new enrollments. (I think they will let everyone enrolled as of the decision finish their degree.) The chancellor of the university broadcasted an email with his recommendation to cut the program and some other stuff (to the tune of $1 million), but it hasn't gone before the Board of Supervisors one way or the other. I can vouch for the Southern Miss program. It's a good program. Heard about LSU's troubles yesterday...everyone here is panicking and writing to their library schools to see if they're safe. I'm pretty sure the USM program is safe.
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May 26, 2010 15:09
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I'm in web services at an academic library. Earlier this week I had to teach a librarian how to refresh her browser window. 
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Oct 15, 2010 15:10
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This week I turned down a free tote bag.  I think I have to mail back my MLIS now.
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Oct 20, 2010 18:23
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VideoTapir posted:some crack about librarians and conference swag Yes. Every librarian I've known hoards tote bags.
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Oct 20, 2010 21:10
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I need advice, o Goons. So, I have an MLIS. I was hired almost 7 years ago to a professional staff position in web services at an academic library. For some reason, they expressly required an MLIS for what is really a web designer position (my title is web services specialist). Not surprisingly, I'm not great at my job. I taught myself web design as a lark in undergraduate school, and although I'm okay at the strictly design bit, I don't think I'll ever learn to code well in any languages other than HTML, CSS, or PHP (and that in a limited capacity), and I am clueless about networks, servers, security, and hardware. My strengths are in information architecture, writing, and research, and our boss does want us to focus more on doing and presenting research. For a code jockey it seems like a distraction from all the stuff we have to do just to keep this place running--our library is very into customization, no software we get can stay as it is out-of-the-box, and for what the admin wants to do, we really need web services and systems people who are allowed to concentrate on that. I am the only MLIS in the department; our boss has one but doesn't have faculty status. Lately I have been wondering if it would be better for me to try to push for a Web Services Librarian title, or if I should just stay professional staff and just subtly shift my position description to only include the things I like to/can do.  My supervisor suggested that I could probably just call myself the Web Services Librarian if I wanted, but that doesn't feel right--also, what's the point of being a Librarian here if I can't get tenure or faculty status? And is getting those things preferable to my currently relatively low-stress and low-drama job?An alternative I've been considering is moving into the public library world, but in my state there are only 2 kinds of jobs available at the moment: you can be the director of an entire library system, or a cataloger. The director positions literally only require an MLIS, and they're a lateral move pay-wise, but it would be radically different work. Any other open positions would mean a pay cut of over half my current salary, which as a single-income family we REALLY can't do. If you got through all that, congratulations and thank you! Please tell me what to do. Or just help me brainstorm it. I don't feel good where I am, but I don't know if a change would be preferable, and I don't know who else to ask.
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Sep 25, 2013 22:14
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Non-union (this is Mississippi). People are actually accumulating titles all over the place here. One reference librarian started handling all our social media and now she gets to call herself Social Media Librarian. Another started handling all the distance ed outreach and is now the Distance Education Librarian. The difference between them and me is that they were already reference librarians, while I've only been professional staff. Of course I don't want to walk around all pompous just calling myself Web Services Librarian; I want it to mean something. So basically, yeah, I am considering a career shift if it's possible, and wondering if it's worth it to do. Looking around at the available jobs, it kind of seems like I'm really limited if I stay where I am--I don't really have the skills to work at a purely web dev job, and I don't have the experience to move into a librarian position. It is frustrating; I just don't know where I fit. (Could always go back to school for a PhD, I guess? Bleh.) Another hurdle is that I don't think non-faculty get to manage faculty, and my boss doesn't have faculty status, nor does he want it. So I may be stuck regardless. One thing I have successfully done, I think, is to persuade my higher-ups that when we hire new web services folks we shouldn't require an MLIS. They are looking for people who can build and manage enterprise-level applications and websites and I don't know about your library school but they didn't teach that at mine. Maybe I can at least spare new hires this existential angst or whatever.
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Sep 26, 2013 14:59
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Hi everyone. I know this thread's been quiet for a while, but I have a super long  question about whether to take a job. It's mostly talking through it to myself, so feel free to ignore. I often feel overwhelmed and inadequate in my current position (I work in web services at an academic library, doing web design and maintenance). I taught myself HTML and CSS and design principles way back in undergrad, so I lack a firm foundation--my degrees are in LIS and anthropology. I can see a not-far-off future in which we have to homegrow all the apps we use because nothing vendor-provided is ever quite good enough, and all I could really contribute to that effort is front-end work. Which is important, but doesn't help ease anyone's workload. Like every library, we're understaffed, underpaid, and overworked; right now I'm at least 2 months behind on projects because more just keeps coming in. But I think I'm finding my niche, and if we had a couple more staff members and I had more time to concentrate on this new area I could be fairly content here. Anyway, I applied for a newly-established position at the same library. I thought the job's duties included working on metadata standardization and control of our new scholarly communications and data management initiative. Over the course of the interview I spoke to 5 different groups of people (the dean, her advisors, my boss, the hiring committee, the new position's colleagues) and all 5 seemed to have a different idea of what the job was. There are 4 new committees/working groups that the candidate will have to join, all of whom have been working on the standards and services for the SC initiative. (I'm on 8 already and I don't know if I'd be dropped from any.) There's a deadline of mid-March to finish a big important task involving our digital collections' metadata (which is my weak point--I'm only passing-familiar with most metadata schemas). The position will be running our institutional repository and also a journal hosting system. It will work face to face with faculty and national institutions. Basically, I came away with the impression that either nobody really knows what the job is supposed to be, or they're trying to avoid hiring the 3 or 4 badly-needed open positions by glomming all that work onto 1 new position. At other libraries these duties are scattered throughout the staff. Pay-wise, I'm not sure yet. The stated pay was significantly lower than my current salary; during the interview they said there was a range and they didn't know the upper end of the range. If they can't keep at least my current pay it's an easy no. Stress-wise, amount-of-work-wise, it seems likely to worsen my problem rather than ease it. Someone mentioned that it sounded like a scapegoat position and I think I kind of agree. Later-hirability-wise it seems like a good move. Many libraries don't have their own IT people so it's been difficult to find a similar position to my current one elsewhere. Interesting-work-wise, it seems like no contest. Right now I am often just a substitute for "web design skills" for librarians who already know exactly what they want right down to the positioning of elements on a page. In the new job I'd at least get to read some interesting research. Also, it seems like it would use that expensive MLIS a bit more than my current job. Plus I'd get the "librarian" title without the hassle of tenure-track. What do you think? Run? Go for it? Drink a lot? (I'm gonna drink a lot)
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Feb 11, 2015 19:49
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Insane Totoro posted:Holy hell I just reread that a second time I'm glad I'm not just crazy and/or lazy.  Most everyone I've asked so far has replied with some combo of "wtf??!"We are currently rewriting a bunch of .asp apps that our predecessors wrote--things like our student timeclock, our helpdesk/ticket system, our consortial database access system--and it definitely sucks rear end. From our perspective the problem is that the librarians want ridiculous things from the software that no vendor can provide at our budget. (We're in the Deep South and are poor for any expenditure other than football. It doesn't help that our dean just turned 80 and doesn't computer too well.) I don't have any concrete career goals that this position would fill (I really don't have any career goals period apart from "feed my kid" and "support my book purchasing habit") so unless I receive some secret wisdom I will probably let this one go. Maybe in a year or so when the guy who accepts the job gets fed up and runs away, and the higher-ups have a better idea of what they want out of this job, I'll apply again. Maybe not!
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Feb 11, 2015 20:21
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Insane Totoro posted:My main advice to you at this point is to search inside you and find out what kind of job you DO want. You have a masters degree right? And you have a humanities degree. And you say you don't like metadata and web design and IT aren't really your thing? And you enjoy research and working with faculty? And if I'm reading you right that you have far more than 5+ years of professional experience? And you also have some quantifiable skills and experience in technology related to libraries? I have actually applied for a social sciences reference position here in the past. The guy in charge of the hiring committee spoke to me about it some time later and gave no indication that he'd even read my CV.  He's retired now, thank god. At any rate, I'm always looking for something similar elsewhere, or even a public or school position (I loved my time as a teaching assistant and would love to teach again) and when the right job comes along I'm outta here. There have been some family issues in the past few years that have kept me from looking too far afield--my husband's father and mine both died, our moms are on their own, we had a baby, etc. so it's hard to think about moving too much further from "home." Plus I have loans to repay and my husband's work is pretty intermittent, so a pay cut would be very hard to swallow. But we'll make it all work somehow.My boss has indicated that they were considering adding liaison work to my duties, and while I would love to do that work, I don't necessarily want to do it *on top of all my other work* and especially not for no more money. I made it very clear to them, I hope, that we have got to have more staff before I can change anything about my duties, because as it is we can't keep our core systems going because we have to jump on the new hotness every few months.
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Feb 11, 2015 20:43
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VideoTapir posted:Unless you can get some really solid trustworthy assurances from and about the managers at that job, you don't want it. Insane Totoro posted:Run and don't walk from that potential job and get you to the state liquor store.  )
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Feb 12, 2015 05:45
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Giant Metal Robot posted:Is it possible to say what kind of ridiculous things the librarians want? Nothing really specific off-hand, but basically if it's designed to have function X performed in Y fashion, it actually needs to be performed in Z fashion, even though making that happen would break functions A-E. The vendor will just have to do something about it. We're innovating! Also we need an explanatory paragraph about the very plainly worded function X and maybe a glossary of the library terminology we'll be using in that paragraph over on the sidebar, along with a news feed of the cool events we'll be hosting soon that no one seems to come to, and some clipart of a book, and a link to our chat service. The concepts of "show, don't tell" and good interface design are absolutely mindblowing to them. How will our users know to click that thing that clearly looks like a button if we don't say "CLICK HERE" in big red letters?! /rant Well, the plot has thickened, and there is a possibility that they'll be offering me a significant raise along with the position. So now I get to decide whether that is worth a job description that can be best described as 
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Feb 12, 2015 23:12
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a friendly penguin 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? Maybe. It is new territory for everyone. "Other duties as assigned" tends to get SUPER broad here, though. VideoTapir posted:I worked under a woman who insisted that on the public for-patron-use map of the library that the catalog terminals be labeled "OPAC." I had to argue with her for a while before she agreed to compromise on spelling out the acronym. I pointed out that approximately none of our patrons would know what "OPAC" means. Her response, verbatim, was "well, they need to learn." It has taken 3 or 4 rounds of LibQual (and some well-placed early retirement offers) for people here to finally start lifting out of that mindset. Super frustrating.
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Feb 13, 2015 15:55
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Chicken McNobody posted:Well, the plot has thickened, and there is a possibility that they'll be offering me a significant raise along with the position. So now I get to decide whether that is worth a job description that can be best described as Official offer has been made, and "significant raise" turns out to be $2500/yr. Worth it? I don't know. The rest of my day will probably be absorbed in making pro/con lists.
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Feb 17, 2015 16:32
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Insane Totoro posted:Is the increase in responsibility proportional with said raise? And are the job responsibilities clearly defined? In my opinion it's "no" on both counts. 1) That amount of extra money I'd probably be able to get in the next round or two of raises; 2) they say they have a good idea of what they want this position to do, but I sure as hell don't, and that's after talking to a whole bunch of people. Sigh. Unless some great revelation happens overnight I'm going with "no." Someone else come start this whole new department and then leave and maybe then I'll take up the reins.
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Feb 17, 2015 18:43
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