US News and World Report: Best Careers 2009=Librarian
Posted by Russell on 16 December, 2008 in Librarians, Library News
US News and Reports says Librarians is one of the best careers in 2009. Librarians are “high-tech information sleuths, helping patrons plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records, often starting with a clever Google search but frequently going well beyond”.
Of course, we already knew this!
For those who are not working in libraries yet or interested in becoming a librarian, US News gives a bit of what a day in a life of a librarian would be:
“You work in a small municipal library, where you have to do a little of everything. You start your day by leafing through catalogs from online database publishers and book reviews in Library Journal to decide which titles to add to your collection. Next, it’s out to the reference desk, where visitors regularly ask how to find something. Sometimes, it’s esoteric; often, it’s the bathroom. Later, you teach a class: an advanced lesson in Googling. Next, it’s back to the reference desk, but you’re soon interrupted by a group of boisterous kids, so you have to turn into schoolmarm: You’ll have to be quiet, or I’ll have to ask you to leave. You end your day reading about “automated librarianship”: data storage systems that let the public get needed resources without the help of a live librarian. Tomorrow, you decide, you’ll start writing a grant proposal to develop a computer kiosk that will help patrons find health information.”
There is more to do in a day than this and our reference resources are greater than Google. We use and promote databases that will exceed Google results any time. Other resources on the web and database subscriptions are specialized and are far more accurate and tend to give users what they need. Many of us spend countless hours raising awareness in advocacy, trying to solve issues like literacy and stretching the library’s dollar. Maintaining or migrating Local Systems, online catalogs and populating catalogs is a day to day job as is preservation of materials and even the library’s facility. Librarians also participate in training and take classes to keep up with changing technologies and information concepts. SOLINET is one of the places available to receive ongoing training. We offer face-to-face, online and self-paced classes. For more formal training or to earned a Masters of Library Science, US News and World Reports also provides links to the top 10 Information Science Schools in the country: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/library.html
I could go one forever about the library profession, what all we do and how great we are but to read more from US News and Reports article click here:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/best-careers/2008/12/11/best-careers-2009-librarian.html
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