Simple little bookworm, buried underneath is the sexiest librarian
Pretty much since I went back to school, I've been planning on going to grad school to become a librarian. It's a job I could see myself really enjoying. It gave some sense of purpose to my "frivolous" English major, and I just heard a statistic today on NPR that something like 27% of recent grads with humanities majors are unemployed, so it was nice having a career goal in mind.
But lately I've been having second thoughts. One of my favorite LJ communities to read is library_mofo and in this recent entry (F-locked, but I figured I'd link to it anyway), yet another member vents about the impossible task of getting an entry-level librarian position - in this person's case, 2 years since graduating with an MLIS with absolutely no luck. The comments include tales just as bleak, if not worse, and this is not the first time I've heard that librarian jobs are hard to come by. Especially in this economic climate, and in an age when, thanks to Google, many people seem to think that librarianship is a profession that should probably just die out.
There's also the fact that I've never had any luck getting a job at a library, other than volunteer work. I've never even gotten an interview at places where I've applied. I think the most recent experience of this hurt the worst. A month or two ago, Andy came home from work and told me he heard from Theresa, the school librarian (whom I should point out that, starting this school year has had to split her time between the high school and elementary/middle school because the district laid off the elem/middle school librarian) that there was an opening for a page at our public library. The library had contacted her so that she could pass on the info to students, but she let Andy know first so that I could apply right away. (As far as I could tell, the job opening was never formally advertised, just through word of mouth.) Theresa was also one of my references, so I thought that would at least guarantee me an interview, and I was really excited about this job prospect. I never heard from them. I found out they hired some girl because she offered to work for free for the first month or some such garbage. It's just so frustrating. From reading library blogs, I know that, perhaps even more important than a degree, library experience is essential to landing any kind of librarian job, and I can't even get that.
So I don't know what I want to do anymore. I'm pretty sure I just want to put grad school on hold. From the comments in that LJ post, several people stated that if someone had been honest about how bad the job market is, they wouldn't have wasted the time/money on it. And I can always go to grad school later. But it was nice having a "dream job" in mind, and it's hard to let that go. But as one commenter put it, "When you're a kid they tell you you can be anything you want to be. The qualifier should have been included on the end, 'As long as they're hiring.'"
But lately I've been having second thoughts. One of my favorite LJ communities to read is library_mofo and in this recent entry (F-locked, but I figured I'd link to it anyway), yet another member vents about the impossible task of getting an entry-level librarian position - in this person's case, 2 years since graduating with an MLIS with absolutely no luck. The comments include tales just as bleak, if not worse, and this is not the first time I've heard that librarian jobs are hard to come by. Especially in this economic climate, and in an age when, thanks to Google, many people seem to think that librarianship is a profession that should probably just die out.
There's also the fact that I've never had any luck getting a job at a library, other than volunteer work. I've never even gotten an interview at places where I've applied. I think the most recent experience of this hurt the worst. A month or two ago, Andy came home from work and told me he heard from Theresa, the school librarian (whom I should point out that, starting this school year has had to split her time between the high school and elementary/middle school because the district laid off the elem/middle school librarian) that there was an opening for a page at our public library. The library had contacted her so that she could pass on the info to students, but she let Andy know first so that I could apply right away. (As far as I could tell, the job opening was never formally advertised, just through word of mouth.) Theresa was also one of my references, so I thought that would at least guarantee me an interview, and I was really excited about this job prospect. I never heard from them. I found out they hired some girl because she offered to work for free for the first month or some such garbage. It's just so frustrating. From reading library blogs, I know that, perhaps even more important than a degree, library experience is essential to landing any kind of librarian job, and I can't even get that.
So I don't know what I want to do anymore. I'm pretty sure I just want to put grad school on hold. From the comments in that LJ post, several people stated that if someone had been honest about how bad the job market is, they wouldn't have wasted the time/money on it. And I can always go to grad school later. But it was nice having a "dream job" in mind, and it's hard to let that go. But as one commenter put it, "When you're a kid they tell you you can be anything you want to be. The qualifier should have been included on the end, 'As long as they're hiring.'"