I will accept either or both. And, as you know, am always happy to babble at people under the guise of informing them about stuff I have experienced.
-- It was (or more accurately, it seemed like) an outgrowth of classics. Mostly I knew I didn't want to go to classics grad school, and I thought "here is a way to have a career about learning stuff and also old things and preserving old things that does not involve archaeology or the tenure track."
What you need to know about this is that I was WRONG about the old stuff. If you want a career in old stuff, you want to look into special collections, more than archives, and most preservation-based jobs are a little closer to apprenticeship side of the spectrum than the rest of librarianship is -- it's more about the experience you've got (or can get) with your materials of choice.
It WAS a natural outgrowth of classics education in that I think classicists, by the nature of being willing to devote so much time and energy to learning for learning's sake, are often very passionate about enabling learning and information access in general.
-- I narrowed to places that had an ALA accredited ML(I)S that offered an archives concentration (rather than a straight MLS or a masters in archival science). I got into three of them, felt the vibes, and then went to the cheapest because it was WAY cheaper. (I hated it with a firey passion and wondered for a long time if I should have gone to Denver, but my work!buddy went to Denver and is sad enough about how much money it cost him that I feel like it was the right call.)
-- I super weirdly lucked into my job. I was tired of meaning to move to Boston and not moving to Boston, so I just moved to Boston and decided if that meant I couldn't get a library job so be it. Which meant I was temping with a lot of places that were super confused by my total lack of non-library work experience. But then a corporate library needed a temp library/archival assistant and put a call out for anyone with any library experience or an interest in history. And then I literally just never left. (In theory I could, but in practice I have discovered that I am very spoiled by corporate/special library pay and somewhat typecast in terms of future positions.) So, I ended up a pseudo medical librarian. Which is not where I saw this going, but still well within my personal scope of "I like helping people find the information they need."
-- I'm functionally a solo librarian, so I have three big buckets of work: 1) collection development (making sure all our journal subscriptions are the right ones and work and all that jazz and also sometimes buying books) 2) research and reference (Special librarians do a lot more "Yes I will do that research/analysis for you" than most other librarians will) and 3) Archival work (for digital, company materials with technical value that is long term for digital company materials but not done for long-term preservation).
So, yesterday involved a meeting to look at our archives priorities and potential stats we can pull on usage; a question about how to track use of our publications; trying to figure out how to find historic work we've done with particular partners; an external permissions request to use our stuff; sending out overdue notices; and reading through the latest update on enterprise data management at my company.
-- My big advice re: considering library school is to go after all the non-degreed level positions first. It will give you a sense of which sort of library you'd like to be in (and how much experience you need to get the degreed positions, which can vary pretty drastically by type) and give you a big leg up on the "straight out of undergrad; just not ready to go into the real world" yet MLIS-holders. Also because, even if you can afford to take an entry-level position post-MLIS, most libraries will not hire you for the entry level positions with the library degree.
Also, depending on what sort of library you end up in a non-degreed position, they may be willing to help fund your degree. (I think it's fairly rare these days, but probably less so in academic libraries where the school has a library program.)
That's my babble! Happy to babble more (here or via email which is just firstname@lastname.com)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 12:53 pm (UTC)-- It was (or more accurately, it seemed like) an outgrowth of classics. Mostly I knew I didn't want to go to classics grad school, and I thought "here is a way to have a career about learning stuff and also old things and preserving old things that does not involve archaeology or the tenure track."
What you need to know about this is that I was WRONG about the old stuff. If you want a career in old stuff, you want to look into special collections, more than archives, and most preservation-based jobs are a little closer to apprenticeship side of the spectrum than the rest of librarianship is -- it's more about the experience you've got (or can get) with your materials of choice.
It WAS a natural outgrowth of classics education in that I think classicists, by the nature of being willing to devote so much time and energy to learning for learning's sake, are often very passionate about enabling learning and information access in general.
-- I narrowed to places that had an ALA accredited ML(I)S that offered an archives concentration (rather than a straight MLS or a masters in archival science). I got into three of them, felt the vibes, and then went to the cheapest because it was WAY cheaper. (I hated it with a firey passion and wondered for a long time if I should have gone to Denver, but my work!buddy went to Denver and is sad enough about how much money it cost him that I feel like it was the right call.)
-- I super weirdly lucked into my job. I was tired of meaning to move to Boston and not moving to Boston, so I just moved to Boston and decided if that meant I couldn't get a library job so be it. Which meant I was temping with a lot of places that were super confused by my total lack of non-library work experience. But then a corporate library needed a temp library/archival assistant and put a call out for anyone with any library experience or an interest in history. And then I literally just never left. (In theory I could, but in practice I have discovered that I am very spoiled by corporate/special library pay and somewhat typecast in terms of future positions.) So, I ended up a pseudo medical librarian. Which is not where I saw this going, but still well within my personal scope of "I like helping people find the information they need."
-- I'm functionally a solo librarian, so I have three big buckets of work: 1) collection development (making sure all our journal subscriptions are the right ones and work and all that jazz and also sometimes buying books) 2) research and reference (Special librarians do a lot more "Yes I will do that research/analysis for you" than most other librarians will) and 3) Archival work (for digital, company materials with technical value that is long term for digital company materials but not done for long-term preservation).
So, yesterday involved a meeting to look at our archives priorities and potential stats we can pull on usage; a question about how to track use of our publications; trying to figure out how to find historic work we've done with particular partners; an external permissions request to use our stuff; sending out overdue notices; and reading through the latest update on enterprise data management at my company.
-- My big advice re: considering library school is to go after all the non-degreed level positions first. It will give you a sense of which sort of library you'd like to be in (and how much experience you need to get the degreed positions, which can vary pretty drastically by type) and give you a big leg up on the "straight out of undergrad; just not ready to go into the real world" yet MLIS-holders. Also because, even if you can afford to take an entry-level position post-MLIS, most libraries will not hire you for the entry level positions with the library degree.
Also, depending on what sort of library you end up in a non-degreed position, they may be willing to help fund your degree. (I think it's fairly rare these days, but probably less so in academic libraries where the school has a library program.)
That's my babble! Happy to babble more (here or via email which is just firstname@lastname.com)