Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Some of this is true, and on a daily basis I don't do much that would require extensive education... but the overall requirements of my job, and what I am expected to know, were mostly learned in library school. The things I've learned on the job are quite different - like conducting an effective reference interview, dealing with "problem patrons," maintaining a collection, and managing a book budget. All in all I don't feel my degree was a waste of time/money, and without that background knowledge I'd have struggled much harder & longer once I started working.
A lot of what you said is also dependent upon the specific neighborhood, and thus the needs of your patrons. I've worked in a variety of places now, from small towns to big cities, and with literally every demographic base you could imagine... each of these libraries had their own challenges, along with their own common tasks.
For example: When I worked in an agricultural town with mostly low-income Spanish speakers, I spent much of my time assisting patrons with job/school applications, running ESL programs, guiding people to local services, outreach, and maintaining a collection with a TINY budget. Now I'm in a high-income suburban neighborhood, where I do more reader's advisory (visit my branch if you want to find readers!), eResource training, cultural/literary programs, and quite honestly, socializing with lonely seniors. So your comments do hold some truth, but not for EVERY public library or librarian.
Gizmo,
I agree, and you've explained the public librarian's functions better than I did. My experiences in public libraries have varied, as well. I now work in a large, downtown, public library with 20+ branches. At the Main library, the children's department is very active and well-supported, as are the many library programs, including great author events. The Collections and Acquisitions department, which is where I now work, is extremely busy and creative, with staff dedicated to various outreach programs that benefit the entire metro area. Overall, however, most of the daily work that the reference librarians do involves constantly dealing with the sizable indigent population in the downtown core.
But the last public library I worked at, was, like your current library, in an affluent suburb of a large city. Patrons LOVED the library, were committed to supporting it, and the library was a dynamic, integral part of the community. Yes, because it was a well-educated demographic, readership rates were much higher than in my current library, and the book budget (particularly for new releases) was generous, to say the least.
But, even there, we librarians spent far more time fulfilling clerical-type tasks at the information desk than we did real "librarian" duties. And it was clear that patron interests - and, in response, the library's focus - were quickly shifting. I was responsible for developing and maintaining the DVD collection (which was fantastic, if I do say so myself ), the budget for which was huge and continued to grow every year. Not long before I left, the library eliminated 99% of the reference collection, and planned to reduce fiction and non-fiction space to make more room for DVD and CD shelving.
I know this is a separate issue from the topic of this thread, but my public library experience has taught me that, even in communities with a higher socioeconomic demographic base, reading of printed or electronic material is in decline.
Yea. It's more of like a cafe. People go there to sit and do work and read computers. I would most of the people who walk in there don't go to get a book. I'll browse the shelves to take a break from what I'm working on.
I agree it would be really sad.
But then again, record stores disappearing was really sad too, but it happened.
A better question is, what presumes that you have any idea what Librarians do?
One would think, with the borderline erotic fascination that people have placed on anything with the word "science", Information SCIENCE would be a heavy hitter.
Strangely, that's not how it's perceived. But who needs libraries, or books, right? Who needs to read or write either? The defective generation currently in college--which is now the equivalent of 16th grade with moms still hovering overhead--can't read, write, or spell anyway. For what purposes would such people need a library, when they could just like OMG plagiarize from Wikipediaaaaa....
You are so right about the current state of literacy, 43north. We moved to a new city in 2011. Before starting to work at my current library, I was a writing tutor for an academic year at the local community college.
I was stunned at the low levels of writing ability of the vast majority of these students. But what shocked me even more was that the instructors pandered to, or even encouraged this laziness by assigning one or two page term papers ONLY. Given how much trouble these caused, I can only imagine that panic and resentment these students would feel if they had to write even ONE 10-20 page essay that we routinely has to write in college.
In addition, it is astounding what college instructors (and I think this is the norm at highly-reputable, 4-years colleges, as well) will accept as authoritative, relevant sources. There is an almost exclusive dependency on Wikipedia and laughable websites. Heck, even at the academic library I used to work in, I had graduate students who didn't know what a database was, let alone how to search within them. How on earth did they earn undergraduate degrees?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,576 posts, read 81,167,557 times
Reputation: 57813
Quote:
Originally Posted by bongo
As a teacher, I have found it interesting that schools are now using para-professionals as school librarians, much lower pay scale & educational requirements.
That's typical, now, due to school budget problems. Actual libraries are also struggling but can still find plenty of people with advanced library science degrees willing to work for the salary they offer, and it's a fairly popular major for those that love reading. I sometimes wonder how the public libraries can continue to function with the popularity of e-books but here they have joined in and lend out readers with books loaded onto them. here in our city they just built a new library despite the old one only being a few years old, because it became too small very quickly.
I've set up a monitoring system for most of the region in terms of local government jobs (New England).
The vast majority of librarian jobs that are good jobs require a MLS. It's very very rare to find even an assistant librarian job without a MLS..I've seen a handful in maybe the past few years.
Having said this though the needs of the community dictate what the library systems do and does not do. Years ago it came out that someone tried to dump their kids off at the library as if it was a cheap day care...um no. I quote and this is exactly
"What do you mean he can't stay here all day?"
Research is kinda iffy because it can be argued that with more information and internet access someone should be able to do good research. However there are limits to what can be found without databases. JStor for example is pretty expensive and there's entire debates about what the real cost should be for research documents.
For communities without a high percentage of degrees they might not be able to really conduct research to a point. Making twist a bit is sometimes they are used for resources for employment. States run unemployment offices, towns and cities run libraries.
So yes it can be argued that in a world of netflix and kindles circulation obviously can go down but sometimes you have to have more access to information for those that didn't attend higher ed. I would also add and this is kinda odd that vs other forms of buildings libraries can also be emergency shelters. Where I live the library is the youngest government building in town. It's large, near a major road in town and has wifi and electrical outlets. It's been used in the past for people to charge up phones, laptops and a warming center. If cable/internet is out the dvd's can entertain kids.
In larger cities with budget cuts there can be logistical issues if demands are mixed. It can take more time managing part time employees scattered if there are six or so libraries rather than full timers.
The job posting is no longer available. They must have found their candidate with a Master's degree.
What made me start this thread was that I was looking if there were any city jobs I could do, as it's hard to find a job in my career. But even the City of Chicago has a pathetic jobs listing, except for one highly paid job as a machinist. I was very surprised a Police Cadet would start at a lowly $9/hr.
Well if the purpose of public libraries "was" to provide informational items the public so individuals don't have to buy personal copies then demand for this still exists albiet with greater competition from the internet. I've read that libraries have to pay a much higher price for ebooks. How about for DVDs and CDs? Books and magazines? (academic journals can be crazy expensive)
The "signal to noise" ratio is IMHO so much higher on the internet. The amount of "good" information is increasing rapidly as well - but not as fast as the crap. Effectively filtering and navigating all this is/will be a sign/requirement of being "educated" and librarians will have an evolving role in this.
Kind of ironic that with so much more information so easily available, ignorance and vapidity also seem to be increasing... a new dark age. Oh boy how dreary - Happy New Year! Taking solace in drink. :-)
Well if the purpose of public libraries "was" to provide informational items the public so individuals don't have to buy personal copies then demand for this still exists albiet with greater competition from the internet. I've read that libraries have to pay a much higher price for ebooks. How about for DVDs and CDs? Books and magazines? (academic journals can be crazy expensive)
We pay a lot less than an average consumer, as we get professional discounts through our vendors - usually about 30-40% off books & DVDs, not sure about eBooks, and academic journals are still expensive! That's why we purge our electronic resources annually, and dump anything that isn't getting enough use to be worth the cost. Thankfully, I now work in a library system that is VERY well funded.
When I was in junior high, I was an assistant in the library. I cataloged books, shelved them, did inventory at the end of the year. Anyone with an IQ above 80 could be a librarian.
Whether a librarian's job will require a MLS will be completely irrelevant in 20 years or so anyway since libraries won't exist. Pursing a career as a librarian today would be like pursuing a career as a horse-drawn carriage driver in the 1910s.
Kindles and Nooks are wiping out the need for physical libraries just as Netflix and Redbox have wiped out the need for a physical movie rental store. I have a nephew who is in school and each of the students is issued a Nook at the beginning of the school year. There has been a lot of discussion about firing the full-time librarian and replacing her with part-time minimum wage help to shelve books and run the catalog system.
If you did actually work in a library, I think it's good you don't any longer... because only someone with no clue as to what we do would say it only requires an 80 IQ, let alone that libraries will be extinct in 20 years. They've been saying that already for 20 years, and yet we still remain! Our responsibilities and knowledge base has changed, sure, but we still have a very important role in most communities. Did you know that having a good library system actually raises local real estate values?
You are also clearly unaware of the fact that we provide eBooks, eResources, technology training, and use of electronics many people cannot afford. Maybe you're lucky enough to have the means to buy everything, but that is not true for many folks. But keep telling yourself that, and we'll see how wrong you are in a decade or two.
P.S. Working in a Jr High library is very different from a public or college library, and we don't do half of the things you mentioned. Even cataloging is more simple for them, as they usually just do copy-cataloging. Can you create a MARC record from scratch? Doubt it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
), the budget for which was huge and continued to grow every year. Not long before I left, the library eliminated 99% of the reference collection, and planned to reduce fiction and non-fiction space to make more room for DVD and CD shelving. 
