Library school lied to you

Libraries of the future are big news in the information field. Despite the fact that libraries have been using technology since computers were developed (while it extends much farther back, I can remember using the automated catalog and article database at my local branch at least fifteen to twenty years ago), the emergence of social media onto the library landscape has had tongues wagging for the last few years. Well, maybe that's the way it seems to me because I've been steeped in the issues surrounding the profession for the past two years.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that like anything else, libraries have to change with the times, and when libraries change so do the roles librarians play in the services they provide to patrons. I've seen that in the job ads I've scoured since October. Position titles like "systems librarian", "digital asset librarian", "web librarian", "metadata librarian", "e-archivist", "IT archivist", and "digital archivist" litter the listings. Jobs today require a whole new set of skills beyond that of the traditional public librarian I envisioned becoming when I first enrolled in library school.

So, my expectations were not met in that one regard. Certainly there were other surprises, but I made sure I knew what I was getting into before I applied to graduate programs. I read about the profession, I shadowed librarians and interviewed others, and I checked the job outlook. Even before I enrolled, news on the public library front was grim, with hours and staff being cut, and buildings shut down when millage taxes failed. (And it's still desperate times, as this recent blog post at librarian.net attests.) So, when the American Library Association recruited library school students with guarantees of jobs due to the mass retirement of current professionals, and information science programs used the same line, I took it all with a grain of salt. I knew I was taking the risk that I wouldn't find employment easily, but I knew this was the direction I wanted to go in and had faith.

I still have faith. Unfortunately, there are others who are feeling bitter and their faith is wavering. A recent thread on the listserv of the university I attended dived a little into the anger some students feel about being bilked out of thousands of dollars for what they consider to be a useless degree. I’m sorry they feel that way, and can even agree to some extent (the middle child in me insists that I see both sides), but I also feel that they're being harsh when they insist that library school lied to them. There are jobs out there, maybe not the kind of library jobs one might expect, and certainly not in the numbers that the ALA predicted, but they're there. But, the availability of jobs is never a sure thing, anyway. In the case that retirement would mean abundant jobs, the guarantee of a sure thing is even trickier. Retirement is an individual decision. There may be an average age to do so, but when an economy is depressed, the luxury to retire becomes a more remote possibility, and the positions needed filled become fewer. Second, educational institutions market their programs like any business does its product, and when doing so, it is not the best course of action to say, “Come to our school and you might get a job. On the other hand, you might not.” Finally, this is the information field, in which a primary skill is the ability to know how and where to find the right information and use it effectively. The ALA has one opinion and others, usually those in the trenches who have personal experience of what may be the real situation, have another, and they were and are expressing it. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that.

It takes time, money, effort, and determination to get through grad school. Most of us do it, not to put another degree on the wall, but to grow professionally. When that ability to grow is stunted by a poor economy, changing times, etc., it creates a very big stain of disillusionment. I haven’t reached that point, but I have worried. I can’t blame the school for it, though. The program I went through is very good, with instructors who root for you to succeed, and career help and mentorship programs of which I should have taken more advantage. The burden of success is more on my shoulders than theirs. Like I said, I knew what I was getting into. I just have hope anyway.