|
|
|||
|
The Library & Information Science Professional's Career Development Center |
|||
|
So
You Want a Career in LIS? by Jill Emery |
||
|
On September 11, 2001
all bets were called off. For the first 3 days after the attacks, the
world wanted information, pure unadulterated facts. What happened? Who
committed these acts? Why didn’t the U.S.A. see this coming? Why would
someone do these things? The search engine “www.google.com” changed
over a matter of hours from a basic, pure search engine into a web
portal. Suddenly, librarians and information specialists had a valued
role to play. We could gather together the resources people wanted. We
could serve these resources to our patron bases. We could validate the
fact from the fiction. Many in the field rose to this occasion. These
librarians and information specialists went into action, compiling
links, evaluating the good sites from the bad, trying to find ways to
fill this newly created and demanding information niche. Being able to
help in this capacity and aiding someone in their desperate need for
information is what makes this career exciting, enlightening and
worthwhile. In average day-to-day
terms, librarians help those who save the world. Our daily crises are
more in the vein of which servers went down and which links aren’t
working, which IP addresses are or are not valid, and which descriptors
does our library want to give to book x and serial y. You deal with
problem child X beating up problem child Y and bathrooms which overflow
and buildings that flood. Not to mention that damn book that the library
catalog clearly says is here is not anywhere to be found much less on
the shelf where you expect to find it. Our work is undervalued and
underpaid in the non-profit sectors. University presidents/City Hall
managers rarely stand up at meetings and announce what a fabulous
contribution the library is making to their campus/city environment. In
the for-profit sectors, we are treated as information miners, web
monkeys and data entry drones. While in the for-profit sectors, the pay
may be high, the hours are long and innovation goes unrecognized and
rarely rewarded and the information specialist jobs are the first to go
in a declining economy. Most of the work we
accomplish in any given day is behind the scenes of the actual working
environment. How many times have you heard the librarians speak on NPR
or show up in front of the camera on CNN? We are a low-profile
profession overall and rising stars give papers on things like metadata
and e-book readers. We provide the backbone, the gristle for the world
to wrestle with and make sense out of and this is a fine role to play in
today’s world. Carl Castle would be hard pressed to pronounce half of
what he does on NPR without the help of capable and proficient
librarians. You want a job in
library and information science? Bear
these three things in mind:
Jill Emery is Director of the Electronic Resources Program at the University of Houston. Article submitted Nov 2001 Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.
|
|||
|
Page last updated
10/03/2005
|
|||
