First, I would do very close inspection of your own desires through this process as you give the impression you are picking the field based on the ability to get the degree and not what you want to be doing.

There is no specific answer for ease fo finding a job. It depends on your location, existing skill set, timing, interests, library funding, etc. You will get a different answer for this question based on everyone you talk to.

You often hear that to guarantee quick employment you often get two of these 3 goals: location, salary, or type of library/position. This is not always the case as it all depends on the factors I listed above.

Number of grads does not mean anything if students are not focusing on the needs of specific libraries and organizations.

I recommend you visit libraries that interest you to learn more. Library environments vary based on geography, local funding, patrons, parent organization. Librarianship is a far reaching profession so many of these type of questions do not have specific answers.

---

Brian C. Gray
Head of Reference & Engineering Librarian
Kelvin Smith Library
Case Western Reserve University
http://blog.case.edu/bcg8
bcg8@case.edu

I am going to be methodical here, and answer your questions in order.

*How easy is it to find a librarian position after the MLS? This depends on whether you are willing to move, how much you expect to make annually, and what kind of library you want to work in. Academic will most likely require a second master's in your area of specialty. Smaller colleges may not--depends on the individual place, most likely.

*Is it necessary to be geographically mobile to find and keep jobs? Yes, you need mobility to get the first job, or a least be willing to consider different places. You don't say where you are, so maybe there is a good system to work in nearby. This is true for any profession, though, when you start out.

*I hear the upcoming retirement of many librarians is going to open up a lot more jobs, do you think there's enough new grads already to fill these jobs? It seems MLS programs are popular now... I agree that this is grossly overstated. NOt because there isn't a need for librarians, but because the government keeps raising (actually both state and federal) the base line for retirement. People who planned to retire at 62 years of age are now looking at 67 or even 70.

*How stressful or inflexible are the job tasks/environment/co-workers? Stress and inflexibility are matters of personal reaction, I think. Any job can be stressful---if you aren't terribly talented, I imagine being a fry-cook at Mc Donalds would be hard. If you put a great deal of yourself into work, you will have stress. Some libraries/departments will be more inflexible than others, and quite often that depends on the regulations of the system. IF you are working in a very urban area, you will have more stress dealing with the daily non-patrons than if you are in a rural area. But, it is your reaction to this kind of pressure---you probably won't have people threatening to rob you at gunpoint most days.


*Are you happy with the salary and career? Do not go into this profession for the money. You can make a living on what you are paid, but you will earn it. The rewards come from working with people---if you do not like people a great deal, consider a different field of work.

*What skills are needed to be a good candidate? Patience, flexibilty and humor. Lots of humour!!

I agree with librarybob; I'll break my passion set down into three particular passions:

1) The passion to promote. Particularly, a desire to be influential. If you can't be influential, you won't remain relevant.

2) The passion to encourage. Your job is all about assisting people, so have patience and be persistent in the quest for good information.

3) The passion to grow. If you're new to the field, I strongly recommend that you seek out opportunities to work for proactive directors. Proactive library directors create leadership development opportunities for all staff. These directors can take pride in the fact that when they create an inviting environment for staff to further their development inside the library’s walls and outside of them as well, tomorrow’s leaders emerge.

If you possess these passions, you are on your way.

All good points, thanks everyone.

This gives me something to think about. I'm not too bothered by the salary of librarianship (I've been making $10 an hr for the past 3 years) so it's actually a step up for me. I wonder if the increase in students of MLS has something to do with the poor job prospects of BA degrees nowadays.

I don't think I'd go for a public position in any case. Here in San Diego the public libraries are used as cheap daycare and cool places to sit for hobos, I don't think I'd want to deal with that!

I do have a passion for learning and getting information to people. Maybe high school librarianship would be more to my liking.

My 2 cents...public librarianship is not for everyone--heck I don't even know if it's for me, even though I'm here!

If you can get out of San Diego, and are curious about other places, you'll see there's all sorts of public libraries, but we all have this in common: the public, whoever they are, all types of people from all walks of life and their kids and grandparents...

Whether you go for academia or high school, go for it!

Jbruckner--just a question: Since you work in a tourist town, do you have lots of tourists coming to use the computers? If so, do you issue them library cards, temporary cards, have any other set-up? With the print-your-own boarding pass deal, we've seen an increase in out-of-towners wanting to use our Internet accessible computers. We can issue them cards, but I'm just wondering what you do--and if the moderators want to put this somewhere else, that's fine with me!
thanks!
zayit

We have 14 Internet terminals, and they are busy from open (9AM) to close (8PM) every day, non-stop. We limit people to 30 minutes per day on the Internet, and we take reservations. The majority of the time we are booked hours in advance. With the foreign workers working in our town, we serve a clientèle from over 36 different countries, and the requirements for a library card are translated into over 10 different languages (14 right now I do believe.)

The job postings will tell you much more than the class information.

---

Brian C. Gray
Head of Reference & Engineering Librarian
Kelvin Smith Library
Case Western Reserve University
http://blog.case.edu/bcg8
bcg8@case.edu