ianal(ibrarian), but I think if you coupled that MLS with some intense training in SQL, you would find yourself quite marketable.

Good point. The friends I had in the library science program who had computer skills back when I was in college got snapped up faster than everyone else once they finished.

Lots of crotchety old folks tottering around the Library of Congress, and lots of need for computer-trained people, too. I say go for it.

Jessamyn has a tag for the Impending Librarian Shortage. One of the reasons that the Impending Librarian Shortage is a myth is that the profession has always been "gray." The median age at my hip, technology-focused Information school (see? It's information, not a library. That makes it cool.) was right around forty.

That said, I got a job when I graduated three years ago. My wife got a job before she graduated. The people I knew who wanted to be academic librarians got jobs, eventually. Most of them had to move, but a proportion of those that left eventual got jobs in their desired location after they put in a couple of years in locations where it's harder to recruit. The people I knew who were really, really good even got hired for our local public library during, IIRC, a hiring freeze. These were exceptional candidates, native speakers of Chinese, or both. I would not make employment in a public or academic library in the same city you graduate my plan A.

That said, there are a lot of places to use an MLIS other than libraries. I know folks at law firms, at architectures firms, at ad agencies, at department stores (Seriously, do you know that Nordstrom has at least on full-time taxonomist?), and in software design and human factors.

Some folks are getting laid off, but others are getting hired. People in UX/IA/Usability/Marketing get laid off the most, but there are more jobs available and more churn in general compared to the public sector. It's also shittier work.

People that get cool jobs tend to have something other than just an MLS/MLIS. Using the master's to supplement existing experience and degrees tend to lead to greater job getting success. A tech background helps a lot in the private sector. In academic libraries a second master's is also good. However, I know exceptions to both of those tendencies.

Long story short, do it. Some of the coolest, smartest, and most professionally useful contacts I have are friends from library school. Even if the degree weren't useful in getting me hired, the professional network I made in school would be.

Also, if you are in any way nervous that the scholarly expectations and coursework will be overly rigorous, well, don't be.

Oh yeah, I got my MLIS from the UW iSchool in 2006, as did my wife. My wife is still employed though with a furlough/pay cut. I am either unemployed or a farmer, depending on how you look at it. Like most librarians, I'm extremely cynical about the whole library school racket but, in general, it's a good move.

SUNY Buffalo has a pretty good program from what I know, so I would be going there. Ideally, I wouldn't want to move. Buffalo IS a hard-to-recruit area, since the general population who goes to school here doesn't want to stick around, and the people who are around don't have degrees. Like, the schools pay teachers to go to school if they promise to teach here level hard to recruit.

The local public school system is hiring, and the county has an ongoing posting for a entry level librarian. There's also about a dozen (literally) colleges and universities within reasonable commute distance from here. So hopefully finding SOMETHING wouldn't be too bad. And worst case, the city schools accept an MLS and MLIS as a qualified masters to get a teaching certification. (and they're so bad off they actually need English teachers now- not ESL, English LIT).

Well, shit. Why are you asking? :)

DO IT! It's basically a no-brainer with what you've just written.

And, for what it's worth, here are the US News rankings of librarian colleges and here is a former professor of mine explaining why the US News Library school rankings are full of shit.

Well, I didn't know if someone would say "oh, no, since they said that ten years ago the market has been glutted and no one with a degree can find jack shit." Or even "god, it's hell on earth and I wish I'd never done it."

From what I've been told, NY will pay my unemployment the entire time I'm in school, so that would make it very easy to go back. I know a few people who did that. Not sure about the "finishing the last year of my BA and then going to grad school" thing, but I'm calling them tomorrow to find out.

That said, there are a lot of places to use an MLIS other than libraries.

This is very true. One of my best friends is a librarian, and runs the library at a culinary school.

"at law firms, at architectures firms, at ad agencies, at department stores, and in software design and human factors"

Document management. Engineering and architectural firms must keep quite detailed change documents of blueprints for their QA/QC. Not just copies of each version of a blueprint, but the memo authorizing the change and the reasons for the change, and quite often some document from a government regulating body recognizing the change, as well as documents from the contractor acknowledging and incorporating the change.

This is the single-most reason why nuclear power generating plants are so expensive.

Well, I didn't know if someone would say "oh, no, since they said that ten years ago the market has been glutted and no one with a degree can find jack shit."

Well, I do know people that have had a hard time finding jobs. They were, in general, not standout candidates or geographically limited, or had some other things standing in their way. The degree is not a ticket by any means. Of course, I got a job despite being a pretty marginal student and having no particular recommendations so YMMV. Finding a job seems to require flexibility in either what you're willing to do, how much you're willing to be paid, or where you want to live.

Regarding document management, it's one of those things that, as a white heterosexual male, made me realize how devalued things are that are considered to be gendered female. Things like document management seem to be considered secretarial in nature and the people that perform those tasks tend to be less well compensated and have fewer resources made available to them then tasks of similar importance that are gendered masculine. Of course, if you're in a less misogynistic environment than the software industry you might have a different experience.

It's not a field where it makes financial sense to go $100k in debt like, say, an MBA or a law degree but if you don't need to go too deep in the hole to get the degree it seems to be alright.

Also, I want to run the library at a culinary school. I mean, shitballs, that sounds like the absolute most fun job ever and it's a pretty typical sort of random-yet-awesome thing that you find MLS grads doing.

"document management seem to be considered secretarial in nature"

True, this is a position that can be as dormant or dynamic as suits her personality, but if a document manager can write the prevailing procedures, draft subsidiary documents that plug gaps, manage the databases, keep the government regulators satisfied, and assure that the contractor's documentation is current, all while constantly seeking ways to expedite the streams, her worth increases several fold. A good document manager does not sit and wait for her inbox to fill; that's just a file clerk. Rather, she actively ensures that her documents accurately reflect reality, that she understands exactly how her company operates, how its various departments interface. Her biggest weapons are audit schedules and bullet lists -- not her own but those of other managers. Her goal is to shift her duties from being overhead to integral to growth in production, to plant her office squarely neighboring the QA manager and to target his position squarely in her sights. If that goal does not fit within the company's environment, then the time has come to seek a company with a more progressive outlook.

If nothing else it would mean lots of time in the habitrails of north campus.

Ardiril: The last thing I want to do is disagree with you. I absolutely know the importance of document management and the value it brings to an organization. All I wanted to do was point out that it's less valued than it should be. I and my colleagues have nothing but respect for document managers but it'd be a lie if I pretended that that's how the world at large sees us. From what I've seen, document managers are valued far less than they should be. Shitty, but that's the reality of the field and something that someone considering going into librarianship should be aware of.

If the situation is different for nuclear power plants that I'm sorely under-informed. And I really hope that I am under-informed. What I meant to communicate in my comments is that sometimes the job receives less respect than it should.

And I'm going to step away from the thread now on account of I'm talking too much. Also, FWIW, QA folks seem similarly undervalued.

I don't know anything about the job of document manager but I have sold a lot of software and I know that a lot of executives and technical people see document management as something you buy software for. The people who run that software are not seen as worth a high $ amount. I think that's wrong but it seems to be the norm.

KD, I am a librarian who went to SUNYAB ten years ago and I'm going to say a few things you can take or leave.

The program accepts whoever has money, and will qualify you, but is under accreditation stress right now and is rather haphazard. Understand that you are paying for the paper, but you will have to roll your own actual education there as best you can (practicums, etc).

WNY is completely and utterly saturated with librarians and so is a very poor place to try to get a job as a new (or even old) librarian. Salaries are not up to par in this region because employers know that competition is so fierce.

I got my MLS, left, made good money elsewhere, and now I'm back here making a salary which qualifies me for food stamps, and I have ten years in the field and a lot of technical experience.

Caution.

In this area, banking and health care are who is hiring.

Kelly, I'm at UW in the MLIS program, and people here are *freaked* about getting jobs when they graduate. I'm really stressed about it myself, and I still have a year to go.

From what I can tell: English BAs+MLIS are a dime a dozen, and you will really need to haul ass to make yourself stand out. Computer and technology skills are an absolute must. When looking for a job, you can be picky about location or about what you want to do, but not both. I want to stay in the PacNW but I really, really don't know if it's going to be possible.

My bottom line: If I hadn't gotten a graduate assistant job that included a tuition waiver, I would probably not be in school for this, because the debt just wouldn't make sense.

Feel free to email me if you want to talk more - username at gmail.

Just chiming in to let you now that MLS is a NAFTA job so if you are okay with moving around you can work in Canada as well (pay is higher here). I was just talking with my CEO last week and she said she got 150 resumes for a job posting. That is the highest she has ever gotten but she did point out that it was the most advertised job as well - with at least two job fairs. I love working in libraries personally - it is an awesome job for me.

What Riverine said (especially about the local job market), and what stet said, and what Fuzzbean said. And let me say this as clearly as possible: that boomer-retirement librarian-shortage thing is a lie.

It seems insane somehow to make this comparison, but being a librarian is a little like being a working artist or actor or something--if you're sufficiently committed and dedicated and whatnot, you can find work. Also if you're patient and/or willing to move to a shithole and/or get paid crap and/or do something that, while it's in your field, isn't your dream job by a long shot. Oh, and, also, the only way it makes financial sense to go into debt for a graduate degree (in these fields) is if you're using it as a networking opportunity.

There are a lot of questions on AskMe from people in similar situations to yours, and reading them might be helpful.

Oh, and I, too, would be happy to talk more about this stuff--popular spice starting with g at gmail. Not ginger--the other one.

Well, it's also good to get a graduate degree in order to get promoted at a place you already work. Lots of librarians got their start that way. And even in my little branch, which has only been open four years, there are people working there who have worked for the library system eight, ten or more years. All libraries are loyal to their employees (sure, I overgeneralize), but public libraries especially so.

Lest I talk you out of it.

Thanks for the input everyone. As it stands, I don't know what I'll do. I do plan to go back to school since there's NO WAY I can get a job paying what I was making without at least a BA. And I'm not at a point in my life where I can go back to $9 an hour until I put six years worth of dues in again.

Teaching is looking like a more and more viable option. Which is, oddly enough, what I planned to do ten years ago when I started college. Particularly since I'm not adverse to "bad" neighborhoods and the like.

In any case, school is on the horizon for sure. And no matter what happens, it'll keep me out of the job market for a couple years, and maybe things will be a little brighter then.

I've got a call into the office that handles job retraining. I'll see what they tell me and go from there.