Attention Librarians

[Alenda]

How exactly does one become a librarian?

The world of Librarianship breaks folks who work in libraries into 2 categories:

Professional Librarians (those with Master's Degrees)
Paraprofessional staff (those without Master's Degrees)

To become a "professional librarian" you enroll in a 2-year Master's program at a Library School accredited by the American Library Association.

To become a paraprofessional staff member, you apply for jobs at a local library and if you have relevant experience, you can get hired.

So what's the difference between the two jobs? In the perfect world, professional positions would come with higher-level responsibilities. In reality, paraprofessional positions often have just as many responsibilities, but are paid less.

FOR EXAMPLE:
Right out of grad. school, I took a job as a paraprofessional because jobs were hard-to-find. I supervised 4 staff and ran my own section within a department. I oversaw huge projects, and served on 5 committees.

When I got my first professional job (which I'm currently in), I supervised 0 employees, was the low man on the totem-pole, contributed to projects rather than ran them, and served on 2 committees. Even so, I make over $12,000 more in my current position than when I was a paraprofessional.

Tell me is that fair??

Oh, and one more quick thing... Professional Library positions are REALLY hard to get. It takes an average of 6 months to 1 year for a recently graduated library student to find a full-time permanent professional position.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a librarian. But it certainly ain't the dream occupation that you might think it is.

 

[ken-ichi]

I just thought I would chime in as I was on the lower end of the totem pole.
For about 3 years I was the one and only page at my small, local public library. I was the only one putting away books, organizing the shelves, and reorganizing them after the kids got to them.
I knew my shelves so well that if you told me a dewey decimal number or the subject, I could tell you the aisle, shelf, and exactly where on the shelf the book would be.

In my spare time I also worked behind the desk doing check in/out, assessing book fines, creating library cards, and generally dealing with the public. All on part-time hours.

Our library does not have a computer for the desk crew and still uses the old punch cards and stamping machines. The loud thunk, thunk, thunk of someone checking out a book still brings a smile to my face.
I still prefer and am faster using the card catalog than doing computer searches for a book.

The days where it was me and my book cart putting away books and straightening shelves were the best. I had so much time to think and daydream while keeping myself active and busy. On the other hand, working behind the desk varied. Some days you would be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Others you would spend the entire evening with only 3 people coming in the and you rewinding every video in the place out of sheer boredom.

Even now several years later I have a hard time resisting straightening out shelves. Last time I went to the library I reorganized a couple of shelves because they were slightly out of order.

 

[Nareau]

I just recently got a job as the computer consultant for the library at my alma mater.

Spider

 

[craftyrat]

How exactly does one become a librarian? Seems like a great job -- quiet, (I'd expect) low stress, surrounded by books ... almost the exact opposite of my job now.

Like a lot of other librarians, I started out working as a library page (or clerks as we were called). After a year of doing that, I decided to go back to school and get my masters degree. I think it's a great career choice, but it isn't a big money maker (though I do pretty well in my current position). However, it is a fairly reliable way to take a degree that will usually lead to a decent job. Many people choose librarianship as a second career - I know librarians who were previously teachers, lawyers, dentists (well, just one), journalists, etc. The average age of my class was over 30.

Under NAFTA, librarians can work in both the US and Canada, with some restrictions.

To answer the question, most of the time my job is like that. However, working in a special library, when someone needs something, they need it NOW. I used to work in a big downtown public library - that could get pretty crazy sometimes as well.

Each question is a little intellectual puzzle, so I'm always learning something new, and just plain thinking and using my brain.

craftyrat

 

[Alenda]

The loud thunk, thunk, thunk of someone checking out a book still brings a smile to my face.
I still prefer and am faster using the card catalog than doing computer searches for a book.

I know exactly what your talking about... Thanks for the great reminder of the way things used to be