Anyone here a librarian or archivist?

[Flaxbee]

Can you give me pros and cons to your job, if you'd do it all over again would you, etc.

I am thinking about an MLS program, but did my last degree rather blindly and ended up miserable; I don't want to romanticize the field, I want to know nitty-gritty details, if possible.

I was an attorney and burned out in about 5 years - the big firms ground me up and spit me out and I really want no part of the law again, unless it is NOT as an attorney (maybe a law librarian). But my true love is art and old manuscripts, and wonder if book archival work would be better for me.

Anyway - any input is much appreciated. Thank you!

[Left Is Write]

1. I can't give you any firsthand details, but I'll kick the thread.

While I'm kicking, I'll tell you that my sister and her husband both have MLS degrees and have been using them for their entire careers (my sister is in news archival at a major TV network, and my BIL is a reference librarian). Both seem to love their work, and both have been at their jobs for 17-18 years.

[unsavedtrash]

2. I'm working on my MLIS right now.

I love the program. http://www.slis.ua.edu/

I also work as a library assistant in an academic library. I love my work but during my time on the desk a lot of my time is spent telling student where to find the bathroom, which floor each book they want is on (they sometimes can't understand the huge sign beside the elevator that matches the floor with the call number), and checking out laptops.
The fun stuff is helping people find exactly what they are looking for, and maybe even showing them other possibilities. As for doing the other parts of the job, a lot of shelving, book searches, taking very interesting things out of books and book drops.
It brings me such happiness everyday being in the stacks, and helping the patrons.

You might want to talk to Huskerlaw.


Why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian

Ok, sure. We’ve all got our little preconceived notions about who librarians are and what they do. Many people think of librarians as diminutive civil servants, scuttling about "Sssh-ing" people and stamping things. Well, think again buster. Librarians have degrees. They go to graduate school for Information Science and become masters of data systems and human/computer interaction. Librarians can catalog anything from an onion to a dog’s ear. They could catalog you.
Librarians wield unfathomable power. With a flip of the wrist they can hide your dissertation behind piles of old Field and Stream magazines. They can find data for your term paper that you never knew existed. They may even point you toward new and appropriate subject headings.
People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.
http://librarianavengers.org/?page_id=3

[YDogg]

13. I took a couple of classes in the UA MLIS program as an undergrad

decades ago. Book arts stuff. Enjoyed it. I miss Taco Casa.

[Flaxbee]

3. thanks for your replies, Left is Write and unsavedtrash...

I appreciate it!

Kicking this for the Friday day crowd....

[huskerlaw]

4. I'm a lawyer-librarian

I'm a librarian at a law school library. I have a JD and an MLS. Most of my day is spent doing research for other professors, helping students with research questions, and doing general library things like selecting books to purchase.

However, I also teach first year legal research. Not all law librarians do this, so if teaching freaks you out, that's ok too. But if it interests you, it's a great way to teach without the pain of becoming an "actual" professor. Since classes start on Monday, I'm currently spending most of my time preparing for that class.

Personally, I love my job. Granted, there are days when I would claim otherwise, but I think that's typical. Unlike working as an attorney in a big firm, I have a personal life. I can leave work at work. I nearly always have a normal 40 hour work week--with the exception of when I'm teaching, which is fine because it's for a finite period.

As far as the job market is concerned, there is a law librarian shortage. With your previous experience, once you get the MLS, you really shouldn't have any problem finding a job. However, since most areas only have 1 or 2 law schools, and each school only has 3-4 librarians (unless it's a huge school like UCLA) you may have to move to get a job.

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me.

[Parche]

5. Hey Flaxee

No, I just do Travel!! :bounce: :bounce: :hi:


But I do know that Librarians make really good $$$, more then some people think,
I dont know much about archivist........


:hi:

[Flaxbee]

6. hiya Parche!

how you doing today? :hi:

I made fantastic $$ as a lawyer, but I was miserable all the time, miserable to those I loved, in general, just exceedingly unhappy! And actually, huge chunks of my money went to rent, b/c NYC was so darn expensive and I was too pigheaded to share an apt. Oh well. Past is past. If I can make a good wage that allows me time to do other stuff I'm interested in, I'll be a happy girl.

[deadparrot]

7. I'm hardly a librarian or archivist,

but I'll throw in my two cents, as I just completed an archival internship at my local history museum (I'm hoping to pursue a master's in museum studies).

Archival work is a lot of organization and repetition, at least in the project that I was working on. I labeled (and alphabetized/organized by date) hundreds of folders with same basic information (differing only in terms of subheadings), rehoused several thousand photograph negatives for hours and days and weeks on end, entered perhaps two hundred boxes' worth of folders into the museum database, burned three copies each of 90 DVDs, and copied and shredded stacks of newspaper articles. If you want something new and different every day, archives may not be for you--you could very well be doing the same thing for weeks or months or years on end. As an example, we visited the museum's LRC--Library and Research Center--where all the museum's books and manuscripts are kept. A woman had been entering every book in the place into the database...it's taken her eight years, and she's about 75% done--they think. With discoveries of new books and constant donations, chances are she'll be doing the same thing for well over a decade.

That's the (potentially) negative side to it. On the other hand, I absolutely loved my summer there. It was fascinating to look through nearly three decades' worth of artifacts, clippings, photographs, and video. The atmosphere was casual--we had donuts every Friday, we had several office lunches when all ten of us went out, people joked and chatted openly, no one was stuck in a cubicle, there were no supervisors bearing down on us. Politically, it was a liberal group, which was fun. There was also a sort of camaraderie among all of us, in that we were all working within the same project, toward the same goal, staring at the same stuff. It was an unpaid internship, and I much preferred it to my paid job.

In short, the repetition may take a bit of getting used to, but librarians/archivists are by and large a lovely group, and IMHO, the benefits far outweighed the downsides.

[Flaxbee]

9. thank you for such a thorough and thoughtful reply

I appreciate the information. Sounds like you did have a nice internship, and museum studies sounds fantastic! I worked at the Guggenheim in NY for a few months filling in for an attorney who was on maternity leave. The legal department was up with the director (Thomas Krens) and it was very, very intensely political, but I had friends in the museum's other departments, and a few friends who worked at the Met, who LOVED their work.

[Midlodemocrat]

8. LostinVA is a librarian. PM her. I don't think she's around this weekend.

[Flaxbee]

10. thanks, midlo!

I will PM her. We're moving back to Virginia, hopefully, before the end of the year so she should have some great info on jobs in the state, etc.

[ThomCat]

11. InfoManiac is also a legal libriarian.

She has her MLS and she runs the law library for a major low firm. I'm sure she wouldn't mind a PM. :)

She's away this weekend, so you probably would not get a response until early next week.

[Flaxbee]

12. thanks ThomCat.

I'll do that. I'm away next week, but will try to catch up with InfoManiac and LostinVa when I get back.

Is InfoManiac in NYC? I worked at two huge NY firms, and many of my friends were scattered in firms throughout the city. My curiosity is piqued.

[ThomCat]

19. Yes. She works here in NYC a few blocks from me

in Midtown. She works at one of the big firms but she does not mention which one in posts so I'll respect that and refrain from saying which one. She can tell you about it privately. :)

[Inchworm]

14. Thats what I wanted to do

Continue school and get my MLS to be a Reference Librarian.

My past up and bit me in the ass though x( :banghead:

:hi:

[Flaxbee]

16. so- have you ruled it out entirely?

I hope not - I hope you can do what you'd like to do. This will be a major change, after all the effort and stress of a previous graduate degree... I don't think it's ever too late to go back to school. :hi:

[Inchworm]

18. yes, I'm still on it

It's now in my 10 year plan though hehe.

I had a lot of bad debt when I got divorced, and it snowballed. I have to fix that first.

-plugging along-

:)

[Drunken Irishman]

15. I read this as anyone here a libertarian or anarchist. haha

[Flaxbee]

17. well, that too. Aside from a desire to keep order among books

I think a lot of librarians have an anarchist streak in them!

I always think of the scene in The Russia House where the CIA is asking Sean Connery if he knew or consorted with any anarchists, and he said of all the jazz musicians he knew, only one was most definitely NOT an anarchist. Or something like that. ;-)

[madinmaryland]

20. Hi Flaxbee!

Check your pm. It's not from Sonia(the little love muffin)!