Librarian: Executive Executive Summary

There is a reason that I put so little stock in general interest publications. Too often, the research for an article is, at best, a shellacking.

Perhaps some of the other library bloggers reviewed this article earlier last month, but I only saw it for the first time today (thank you, Dennis). The article to which I am referring is the US News and World Report Best Careers article about Librarians.

Before I clarify fiction from reality, I want to make clear that I absolutely love my job and I love the library profession. That being said, I think that it's important that librarians entering this profession be offered a different perspective on some portions of this document:

Forget about that image of librarian as a mousy bookworm. What exactly is wrong with this image? And what image takes its place? According to the author, "high-tech information sleuths". Perfect, we aren't mousy, we're geeky. I guess geeky is en vogue.

Librarians may also go on shopping sprees, deciding which books and online resources to buy. I'm not sure what planet this writer is on, but I've never gone on a spending spree. At most, I carefully select the resources for our school, adhering to a collection development policy. I answer to our students and my managers. Most librarians don't have the privileges of a manager - at most, a librarian selects books for purchase and provides input about databases. Budgets are always strict, and few if any librarians are able to buy what they always want or believe their population needs.

Median Pay National: $51,400. More pay data by metropolitan area (Data provided by PayScale.com) Whaaaaaat? This may be the average pay of a director with 5+ years experience, but in most markets a librarian will start closer to $30-$40k.

"...special librarianship is the field's fastest-growing job market. Unlike public and university jobs, which require night and weekend hours, these jobs are mostly 9 to 5." I'm not a special librarian, so I am not sure I should speak to this. But, let's be honest here, very few jobs are 9 to 5. Do you want to be the kind of person who is super-glued to the clock? And do you think that this kind of person is going to be up for the promotion in 2 or 3 years, or ever?

This world through rosy-colored glasses is not doing anyone justice. Do your homework, talk to others in the profession, and work hard.