#askosyal

[osyal]

Ask OSYAL: Future Librarian Part 2

I am seventeen and am currently a Junior in highschool. I love books and libraries and would love to become a librarian as I get older. I am looking at colleges and I need to start making decisions. I was wondering how different being a university librarian is from being a public librarian. I was also wondering how good online courses for the degrees really are. I live in Georgia where the only ALA accredited course is at Valdosta which is not the best school. If you would be willing to talk to me about questions I have regarding the career field of librarianship, I would really appreciate it.

In part two we address the second question:

I was also wondering how good online courses for the degrees really are.

K: Talking about online courses is hard, partly because both of us went to (the same) in-person library school **L: It's how we met! And how OSYAL got started!! Sorry for interrupting....**....anyway....and partly because every school handles online courses a little differently. One school’s online classes may be terrible while another’s are great; you have to do some digging to find out if the program is right for you (which, now that I think about it, is really true for all programs of higher education). I recently spoke to a friend who is doing his online MLS while he works full-time in another state. He explained that he likes his program because many of the courses are asynchronous (that is, you can watch the lectures when you want to rather than having to be online at a certain time each day). That helps him schedule his studies around his job. His group work is conducted through e-mail, Google docs, and Skype, plus there was a week-long in-person orientation when the program started, so he feels like he has gotten to know other students in spite of the distance. So it’s possible to have a positive, quality experience with an online program.

Evaluating whether an online course is right for you personally depends on a lot of things: your location and whether you want to change it, your finances, your family situation, your current job and whether you want to leave it, what scholarships are available to you, what grades you have, etc. ad nauseum. Since you’re finishing up high school, it’s impossible to know right now where you’ll be and how you’ll feel once grad school arrives. 

One thing I would say is: don’t think that because you live in Georgia now, you have to go to grad school (or undergrad!) in Georgia. I don’t know your personal situation and what its limitations may be, but the lovely thing about the online environment you’re contemplating is that it erases geographical barriers. There are library schools with very good reputations that have all-online degrees available, and the diplomas won’t be worth any more or less because they were obtained in person. And if you do want to attend an in-person program, there are local, state, and national professional organizations that offer scholarships and grants to MLS students. 

L: I think K summed it up very well and I second everything that she just said. I would make one recommendation for while you are doing your research on each program.  Now, this technique can be [and probably should be] applied to many different things in life, i.e. looking at higher education, career choice, companies, places to live, etc. Ok....here it is...informational interviews! For anyone who isn't familiar, an informational interview is when you sit down, either in person or over the phone/internet, with someone who has done or is doing what you want to do and you ask them questions. This is the perfect opportunity to get an inside look at whatever you are considering.  Get a behind-the scenes look, so to speak.  

In this particular case, I would recommend getting in touch with whichever institution/program you are considering. It doesn't matter if the place is online or in-person. Most places have an alumni program, so ask if you can speak with a recent alum from the program. Then talk to that person and see what they thought of the program. Find out what they liked, what worked, what didn't work, and where are they now and how did the program help get them there?  You can also ask to speak to a current student. Then you can find out what the program is like, are there any changes happening that might affect the program or your interest in it?  Essentially....find out as much as you can about a program before you make your decision and go to the source!  That's where the best information resides.

K & L: We hope our answers helped! Wherever you end up, library school and librarianship as a profession will bring you into contact with some smart, interesting, (weird!) and generous people who share your love of books. We wish you the best of luck!

[osyal]

Ask OSYAL: Future Librarian Part 1

I am seventeen and am currently a Junior in highschool. I love books and libraries and would love to become a librarian as I get older. I am looking at colleges and I need to start making decisions. I was wondering how different being a university librarian is from being a public librarian. I was also wondering how good online courses for the degrees really are. I live in Georgia where the only ALA accredited course is at Valdosta which is not the best school. If you would be willing to talk to me about questions I have regarding the career field of librarianship, I would really appreciate it.

You asked a couple different questions, both of which we could talk about for hours and hours (we can talk a LOT if you give us coffee!), so we’re going to break this up into two posts. So, we are gonna focus on this question first:

I was wondering how different being a university librarian is from being a public librarian

First off, that's exciting that you want to be a librarian!  In our humble opinion, you are among good company, especially on here! As to the differences between public and academic (university) librarianship? There are a lot of differences between the two. Now, keep in mind that whichever route you choose there are ways to specialize within each. Do you want to work primarily with kids? Then you might want to be a childrens'/youth librarian, a position which tends to be found in public libraries. Do you love a particular subject, i.e. law, medicine, history, literature, etc?  Then you might want to be a law librarian, science librarian, subject specialist librarian, or an archivist; all of which would be academic librarian positions. But I digress...

In my opinion, it boils down to one main difference and that is the audience/clientele that you [want to] serve. This difference in audience determines the types of requests that you get and the type of work that you do.  Public librarians generally deal with a wider variety of people and therefore handle varying types of requests. Academic librarians tend to deal primarily with the students, faculty, and staff of their university. This means helping with class materials, research, programs, etc. Both of us work in academic libraries, but we also both worked in public libraries before we got our masters. Both types of libraries present their own unique challenges and rewards. There is nothing quite like helping someone find that book they remember reading as a kid ("It had a woman with a fan on it...."  "Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith?") and there is something great about helping someone find the primary sources that they need for their research. I can't speak for K, but I prefer academic librarianship. I like working with researchers and hearing what everyone is working on. I am always fascinated. However, I loved working in a public library and there are days that I really miss it. I met a great group of people through my library and I am still in touch with some of them! Now I get to work with another great group of people at my academic library. So either way, I don't think you can really go wrong.  Hope that helps! Good luck!!

~L

[osyal]

Week of Questions: A Thank You

Thank you to everyone who submitted queries during our Week of Questions!  We had a lot of fun and we hope you did too. We still have a couple answers to finish, but we promise to respond to everyone. Also, keep an eye out for our updated FAQ page!  And remember that even though our Week of Questions is over, our Inbox is always open!

Thanks, again, to everyone who sent in questions and posted comments.

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[osyal]

Ask OSYAL: Does an MLS have a point?

My question is, as I plod through finishing my bach of Communications, is there any point in getting the Masters of Library Science anymore? I have a college diploma in Library and Information Technician, and it hasn’t done me any good in 5 years of job searching. (Ontario, Canada). What are the placement rates?

L: First off, congratulations on being nearly done with your bach!! That's great! Secondly, just to be clear, both us went to school and now work here in the US. So, we not really familiar with the situation in Canada. That being said....we will do our best! The short answer? In my experience, yes, that MLIS is still really important, but it does depend on the type of job you want. Public libraries look for different skills and education requirements than academic libraries. Even within that, the various types of positions will require different education requirements and skills. As I am working and looking for jobs within academic libraries, most of the full-time librarian positions that I have seen require a MLIS from an ALA-accredited program, or they want an equivalent degree with relevant work experience. I know the job search isn't easy! Hang in there! From my own job search experiences and from what I hear from others in the field, finding that first job is really difficult. There a bunch of different factors that affect finding that first job. If you want the data of placement rates, you can check out this article from Library Journal. Granted, it is from 2013 with data from 2012 so I am not sure if there is more recent data out there or not. There are a lot of different factors to consider when searching for a library job. Let us know if you need more advice. In the meantime, chin up and good luck!

K: I am going to try really hard not to get up on my soapbox here...while acknowledging that the experience is different for everyone, my personal opinion is that the current North American system (which in almost every case requires a master's degree for a full-fledged librarian's job) is flawed. I was very active in pursuing internships and work experience during my graduate education, and I feel that in all cases those experiences taught me more than my classes. They were also the experiences that helped me land my current job. Meanwhile, I took more than one class where I felt like I was jumping through useless hoops so I could graduate and get the little M.S. next to my name. All of that is not to say the grad school experience is worthless. Some of my classes were great, and I use things I learned in the classroom every day. The connections I made with other students have been invaluable professionally as well as personally (bloggin' buddies 4 life!). I guess that I wish we had the option of some kind of apprenticeship system with fewer classes and more hands-on work rather than, as you eloquently put it, plodding through two more years of school and the accompanying loans. To get properly off my soapbox and answer your original question...yes, at least in the U.S., an MLS (or MSI or MLIS or whichever letter set your school prefers) is still important. Of course, that is for Full Official Librarian status. A lot of work in the library, including some creative and complex tasks, are done by people with Assistant or Clerk status, who do not have MLS degrees. I don't know the placement rates for Ontario, but I will say that five years ago it was the heart of the recession, and the job market was terrible everywhere. It has improved a lot in the last couple of years, but still isn't what it was. The search is easier the more flexible you are regarding location. If you can afford to, also try looking at part-time positions. They often evolve into full-time positions, or at least put you in a great spot to step into a full-time position when someone else in the organization leaves. Best of luck!!

Remember, our Week of Questions runs through Friday, under the hashtag #askOSYAL. Got questions about archivists? Libraries? Library school? Ask us!

[osyal]

Ask OSYAL: Silence in the Library

One of my local librarians completely ignores the “whisper in the library” social rule. Is this the norm now? Or are we still supposed to be quiet. I LIKE the quiet in the library!!

K: I’m a little divided about this one; my romantic heart loves the image of the Victorian library, with shiny woodwork and long reading tables and a silence broken only by the whisper of pages. But I also love all the innovative, non-silent things libraries often do now: family game nights, preschool storytimes, computer classes, video conferencing, and on and on. One of my local public libraries has even built a mini recording studio patrons can use for free! One solution I see a lot of places using is designated areas for collaboration and quiet. The academic library I work in now has a policy that the higher you go the quieter it is: the ground floor can get pretty lively, especially during exam week, but the top floor reading room is so silent that students report being glared at for walking through in flip-flops. Of course, we have the luxury of a large building where we can create effective quiet zones. To answer your original question, I think noise in the library IS the new norm, whether we like it or not.

L: The times, they are changing...whether some of us like it or not. I find that I agree wholeheartedly with my compatriot here. I am torn between the new and the old norms. The answer to your question, I think, really depends on the type of library. In my experience, public libraries are shifting away from the "whisper in the library" rule and moving into a more "it's a collaborative space" frame-of-mind, meaning that normal speaking voices are to be expected. I work in an academic library where the volume varies by floor. Our system is not as straight forward as at K's library, but the same general rule applies. If you sit on one of the main floors or in one of the collaborative spaces, the volume is bound to be closer to what in elementary school we called "indoor voices." However, if you head into the stacks, it's going to be very quiet in there. As a someone who does a lot of reference work, it is quite beneficial to not have to constantly whisper with a patron. So there are both pros and cons to the "whisper rule." It really depends but the long and short of it is this...in this ever changing society, the role of libraries has changed into being more of a gathering and community place. As this shift has occured it has changed the overall vibe of the library setting, meaning, unfortunately, that the volume levels are rising. I'm sorry!

Remember, our Week of Questions runs through Friday, under the hashtag #askOSYAL. Got questions about archivists? Libraries? Library school? Ask us!

[osyal]

Ask OSYAL: Weird Archives

What IS the weirdest thing you've found in the stacks, the archive... wherever!

What a great way to start out! I guess we asked for it, but we had to really think about this. We have come across so many odd things between the different places we have worked...pillows in the shape of states, porcelain figurines of Shakespearean characters, wooden animals, but the single weirdest? That's tough! Here's what we said:

K: Aside from occasional grossness when I worked in the public library (used band-aids=no fun), I'd have to say the single weirdest thing came from the archive of a film director. It included a prop newborn baby from one of his movies, which was extremely realistic and made of this odd, semi-gelatinous material that was bizarre to touch. Everyone in the archive called it The Creepy Baby, and touching it was a sort of rite of passage for the interns. I have no idea how it was entered in the finding aid.

L: I have also stumbled upon some pretty gross stuff (small rodent excrement?) On the other hand, I have gotten to hold some pretty amazing stuff (George Washington's notebook!!)  But the weirdest? I would say that prize would have to go to the lock of Thomas Jefferson's hair. My initial reaction was "wow!! Thomas Jeffer....wait....did you say his hair?? That was taken from his deathbed??" That went from cool to creepy in under a second! How do you even catalog that?

Our Week of Questions runs through Friday, under the hashtag #askOSYAL. Got questions about archivists? Libraries? Library school? Ask us!

[wuzzies-by-steph]

My question is, as I plod through finishing my bach of Communications, is there any point in getting the Masters of Library Science anymore? I have a college diploma in Library and Information Technician, and it hasn’t done me any good in 5 years of job searching. (Ontario, Canada). What are the placement rates?

[osyal]

Oh, so you want to know about Librarians?

We’ve been running this blog for just over three years, and a number of people have messaged us asking for advice about librarianship, library school, archival studies, etc. We thought we’d collect the most-asked questions into an info-page, along with some of our favorite library/archives links. To that end...

Today until next Friday we are hosting our WEEK OF QUESTIONS!

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Wondering what it’s like to be a library student? Want to know the weirdest thing we’ve ever found in an archive? Need a good book recommendation? Ask us! We’ll do our best to answer whatever you throw at us using the hashtag #askOSYAL, and we’ll gather up the most common questions for our FAQ page. There are no questions too silly, stupid, or small! Please, also, do not worry about repeating a question someone has already asked. This will only ensure that your question makes it on the FAQ page!  So, you want to know about librarians or OSYAL?