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Edited on Sun Aug-31-03 04:43 PM by Gloria
public schools. Mold got to me and that was the end of that.
I can see from the curriculum at Rutgers that the coursework has changed a lot. It is heavily oriented toward "information science"--computers and data base management now. I probably wouldn't do it again. However, public and school work are OK. I like school library work the best because it has the best vacations and pay scales along with the teachers. The grades can be frustrating...little cooperation from teachers and they tend to dump kids and leave. Middle school can be the same. High school is where you see better use. However, you can make a real difference if you take control in the grades...in other words,create lessons that are not just library drill, but build "units" around topics...in other words, you take the place of the teacher/curriculum and superimpose library skills on themes or topics. Same thing in middle school, where I started by cultivating the art and music teachers, then finally won over the mainstream English and Social Studies teachers. You have to have the mindset that you ARE a teacher, not just processing books. I did enjoy the creative end, doing displays, including "events of the months" but not standard stuff..things like "Seafood Month" stuff like that, anything to break the mold.
Public can be a pain with weekend/night work. Young adult or children's librarian jobs are pretty calm, maybe too calm unless you have to do a lot of programs or things to entice kids in. Reference is OK if you like that sort of thing...I preferred technical work...cataloging, but a lot of that has been taken over by outsourcing...Changes are made via computer programs and it can be tedious...but calm.
Academic libraries usually require a second masters in your subject area! in addition to the MLS.
I found library school 30 years ago very simple and often like they were trying to make it into a big deal. Cataloging was the real meat then. Now, you really have to be sharp with computers and that sort of stuff, which would probably turn me off to it (unless you do school media or possibly public.)
You can tell by the name of the schools what is going on...Rutgers School of Library Science is now the School of Communications, Library, and Information Science or something like that. Which reflects the increased focus on technology..., less on people, I think.
PS...Corporate libraries are definitely specialized in terms of areas served and tend to be heavily into working with data and doing searches.
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