Comments on: What LIS Students Think About Academic Librarianship http://acrlog.org/2007/04/20/what-lis-students-think-about-academic-librarianship/ Blogging by and for academic and research librarians Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:32:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: J http://acrlog.org/2007/04/20/what-lis-students-think-about-academic-librarianship/comment-page-1/#comment-27903 J Tue, 01 May 2007 20:09:21 +0000 http://acrlblog.org/2007/04/20/what-lis-students-think-about-academic-librarianship/#comment-27903 I agree with you, recentlygraduated, about job creation. It took me 1 1/2 years to land an academic library job out of school (and that was across the country in a place I did not want to live) and I am looking at moving on with little success so far. It seems to be of questionable ethics to promote something that does not exist. And if the profession is interested in "recruiting new people" doesn't that mean you should reach out to students? There was no employment information at my school and the large library at my school had no interest in taking me on for an internship (i.e., free labor). Why even discuss ACRL dues--I never heard about in library school. Might you start there? I agree with you, recentlygraduated, about job creation. It took me 1 1/2 years to land an academic library job out of school (and that was across the country in a place I did not want to live) and I am looking at moving on with little success so far. It seems to be of questionable ethics to promote something that does not exist.

And if the profession is interested in “recruiting new people” doesn’t that mean you should reach out to students? There was no employment information at my school and the large library at my school had no interest in taking me on for an internship (i.e., free labor). Why even discuss ACRL dues–I never heard about in library school. Might you start there?

]]> By: recentlygraduated http://acrlog.org/2007/04/20/what-lis-students-think-about-academic-librarianship/comment-page-1/#comment-27238 recentlygraduated Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:56:13 +0000 http://acrlblog.org/2007/04/20/what-lis-students-think-about-academic-librarianship/#comment-27238 "...getting new people interested..." An important first step would be creating jobs for those interested. A recent article in the American Libraries pointed out that a student with a fresh MLS interested in academic librarianship should anticipate it taking 12 month and 100+ applications to land the first job. Of those I graduated with 10 months ago who were interested in academic libraries most have given up the search and taken jobs in public and special/corporate libraries. The consensus among the half-dozen fresh MLS grads I am in contact with is that there is a shortage of jobs in academic librarianship and many have made efforts to advise friends still in MLS studies to make sure they prepare (through course work and internships) for the very real possibility working in a public library and of not finding a job in an academic one. “…getting new people interested…”

An important first step would be creating jobs for those interested. A recent article in the American Libraries pointed out that a student with a fresh MLS interested in academic librarianship should anticipate it taking 12 month and 100+ applications to land the first job. Of those I graduated with 10 months ago who were interested in academic libraries most have given up the search and taken jobs in public and special/corporate libraries.

The consensus among the half-dozen fresh MLS grads I am in contact with is that there is a shortage of jobs in academic librarianship and many have made efforts to advise friends still in MLS studies to make sure they prepare (through course work and internships) for the very real possibility working in a public library and of not finding a job in an academic one.

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