ALA president responds to Forbes.com post that library and information science is among the worst master’s degrees

This is an incredibly disappointing response. Why would you gloss over a very real - and very important - issue? It’s very true that librarians are underpaid (and underappreciated), and it shouldn’t be accepted as a fact of life. It’s disgraceful. What we do is important, and we deserve compensation that reflects that. Furthermore, if we need a professional degree for a position, that position should at least pay us enough to cover our student loans!

I received my MLS in 2011 and thought that my combination of Library Science education and Teaching Certificate would make me more marketable and I would be able to get some sort of teaching position. Boy was I wrong. Teaching positions are few and far between as well. Luckily, I have solid cataloging experience and was hired by a vendor that sells records to libraries with their products, thus allowing libraries to eliminate cataloging positions and offset their operating cost to their collections budgets. I also do research on how to better sell their products. I try to tell myself that I am providing a much needed and quality service to libraries, but honestly, I just want to work in a library. I want all that happiness and job fulfillment that Ms. Sullivan talks about, but with the current and projected job market, I had better be happy with the job I have.

As a librarian in a public library, I often have people ask me about librarianship as a career. I tell them the educational requirements and urge them to research job listings. That’s often a discouraging eye-opener. Anyone who thinks they will spend the time and money to get an MLIS and then find a full-time job with benefits is semi-delusional. If you can’t afford to pay for grad school in cash and wait several years for an entry-level part-time job without benefits, seriously reconsider librarianship as a career. It’s tough to “find fulfillment” when you can’t pay your rent.

Having read all the responses to Maureen’s letter, I wish to heaven that I had never gone through with getting my MLS. I received my MA in English in 2009, and the MLS seemed to be the next logical step. I have always loved reading and books, and helping others to find information. I knew that I did want to teach, but it is the only way that I can make a living now (supplemented by working at convenience store).

Ms. Sullivan’s response does not address the basic premise of the article that a Master’s degree in library science is a poor choice for getting a job; nothing more, nothing less. There are not a lot of library jobs out there and there is fierce competition for the jobs that are available. Of the jobs that are available, the pay is relatively low compared to other industries requiring a graduate degree.

These are facts that are quite clear to anyone who has graduated with an MLIS and has tried to get a library job within the last four years. How many libraries have hiring freezes? How many libraries have cut and are continuing to cut hours and staff? How many libraries don’t have budgets to buy books? How many libraries are unable to fund programs and events? How many libraries have eliminated the reference staff?

The Forbes’ article was not about which Master’s degree is the most rewarding or the best degree for making a difference, contrary to what Ms. Sullivan’s response would indicate. Her rebuttal ignored the fact that libraries are on the decline and the prospects for growth are not good.

The Internet, Wikipedia, Google, e-books and smart phones have rocked our world. These advances in technology, combined with the housing crisis have radically altered the paradigm of public and school libraries. I honestly felt the Forbes’ article was optimistic in the projection that there will be 8.5% growth over the next 8 years.

Most of us went to library school to become librarians and I find it disingenuous to say to can readily apply these skills to other industries. What other industry uses Dialog? How often are you going to catalog something in another industry? Heck, my library school actively promoted the fact that someone at some point in time got a job at Google and Yahoo. I’m happy for any of my colleagues who are able to find gainful employment in any industry, but no one is purposely going to library school to get a job in the tech industry.

I know far too many excellent librarians who are working in other fields because there are simply too many MLIS graduate and too few library positions.

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Study Librarianship and I am proud of my profession. Only he who studies it and provides an information service feels wonderful to be part of this race.

Another benefit to holding the library science degree which bears mentioning is the freedom to seek jobs in virtually any geographical location. As a person who values where I live as much as what work I do, the ubiquity of libraries was a deciding factor in my choice to pursue the degree. I continued to apply for positions in the region where I wanted to live, and ultimately ended up with a great job in a place I love.

I do realize that Forbes writes from a specialized point of view and for a specific audience, but I would like to add that a society that equates value with money, and measures success in purely monetary terms will, in the end, get exactly what it desires: a crass, commercialized, money-driven culture in which the price of everything (but the real value of nothing) is the only thing that matters.

Mark Williams

Perhaps what needs to be done is have experience in libraries incorporated into the programs? As a profession, we should be looking for ways to help those pursuing librarianship to see the rewards of it. I firmly believe that it was my experience during library school that has gotten me the rewarding library related positions of my relatively young career. Also this will help future librarians to build experience while others raise the ranks with the eventually retiring librarians in management positions. I believe that the economy has had a big part in the delay of retirement, so to those who have their degree and are still looking for work, hang in there. I’d recommend looking for ways to volunteer within your local library or through library organizations to build connections and experience during this period. Additionally, for those who chose librarianship recently as a second career, I would recommend looking for those unique ways to bring your established skills into the profession to continue to build on the efficiencies, development, instruction, fundraising, etc. that can help sustain our wonderful profession.

I think Forbes just needed something to write about that day. In May, they said this:

“As customer information becomes more and more vital to the retail experience, businesses are compiling data in droves—and hiring experts to make sense of it. From different datasets including structured (transaction), semi-structured (user behavior) and unstructured (text) information, data analysts and scientists look for behavioral patterns to help retailers and businesses predict future trends or to build recommendation engines or personalized advertising.

“Library science is a really hot degree right now,” says Purdy, “And data-mining could be one of the reasons. It’s a helpful knowledge set for someone hoping to manage large amounts of data” Hopeful data-minded candidates can include library science majors, researchers, engineers or applied scientists.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/05/11/10-jobs-that-didnt…

So, they changed their view of library science degrees over the course of a month? I think they just wanted the “hits” a “best of/worst of” article brings.

Laura Young
Business Librarian
Austin, TX

I agree with posters that acknowledge that being a librarian provides rewards and joys that go beyond salary and recognition (however, it would be nice to get a good salary and recognition) but that anyone entering the field should be aware of how bad the job market is right now. As much as I like to see new, bright, enthusiastic people entering the field, students need to make informed decisions about their career and educational choices, and that means knowing that right now library jobs are very tight and may involve relocation. Some may opt to enter the field anyhow; people who go into the performing and fine arts take that risk all the time. However, they should know about the problems as well as the joys that may come with getting that MLS.

At Colorado State Library’s Library Research Service, I’ve kept a close eye on the LIS community’s response to Forbes’s June 8 article on the “best and worst master’s degrees,” which labels the MLS as among the less lucrative. I was pleased to see ALA President Maureen Sullivan’s Washington Post response emphasize the intrinsic benefits of librarianship— such as the opportunity to make a significant difference in other people’s lives—as a counterargument.

LRS recently published the findings of our 2011 survey of almost 2,500 people in the LIS field on the topic “What is the Value of an MLIS to You?” Sullivan’s observations echo theirs: Librarians value their profession because of its intrinsic benefits, rather than its monetary potential. For example, one respondent commented: “Every day I go to work excited about what I do, whether it’s doing story time, visiting classes, doing readers advisory for our patrons or teaching classes to the staff and public, I feel like what I do matters to the quality of life of our individual patrons and to the vibrancy of our community.” The majority of respondents also agreed that their degree was worth the time and money invested in it, and would still recommend pursuing an MLS.

More details about our study and links to the full report, as well as a “Fast Facts” containing study highlights, are posted at: lrs.org/news/2012/06/19/what-is-the-value-of-an-mlis-to-you/

Linda Hofschire
Library Research Service
Colorado State Library, Denver

I know the job market is tight, but I am seeing more and more openings on the various listservs. Some of them are management, and some require experience, but not all! What they may require is relocation. I live and work in a mid-size midwestern city and we don’t always get a good pool of applicants. We have parks, universities, cultural and historical events and a fairly low cost of living. But we aren’t “glitzy”. I know not everyone is free to move to another city or state, but don’t rule it out!

Yes, many graduates are applying for paraprofessional positions because they can’t find librarian jobs. Why should they be excluded from these jobs just because they have an MLIS? You could have somebody on board with the knowledge to do the job and they could get library experience plus some income. Just a thought.

Maureen has provided an excellent rebuttal for the issue of pay rank but not the problem of job growth. MLS are great degrees for those who are able to land “professional” jobs due to their masters. Unfortunately, many graduates are stuck in the “paraprofessional” track that did not require the degree in the first place. As the market realities set in, the functional difference between the two starts to diminish, while the pay and, frankly, respect accorded to the positions remains as different as ever. Additionally, the standard BLS OOH prediction of baby boomer exodus has not happened, and the professional positions vacated by the vanguard retirees rarely seem to stay full time, professional or even extant.

But yes, it is a wonderful profession if you have the passion, talent and good luck to make it. If you are already employed and have a promotion waiting in the wings, the the MLS is a fantastic idea. If not, skip it and the associated expense and frustration.

Like the other commenters, I certainly appreciate Maureen’s response, especially her comments about job fulfillment in librarianship. I am a full time reference librarian and assistant director of a small academic library, and I find great pleasure in going to work every day, as I find librarianship to be a rewarding career.

My problem with this article is that ALA is in no way acknowledging the great paucity of job openings in libraries for recent MLIS graduates. There are literally thousands of bright students graduating every semester from MLIS programs, many now paying thousands of dollars to attend online (receiving little real world experience that way), and yet there is no where near that number of job openings!

Jobs simply are not available for these recent MLIS graduates. We had an opening in our library recently for a NON-professional position with an extremely low pay scale, and we had literally DOZENS of MLIS graduates applying. They were all over-qualified and we did not hire any of them, and yet looking at Georgia Library Jobs website, I see why so many would apply. In the last month there has only been 4 postings for professional librarians that *might* hire a new librarian. It made me truly sad, knowing all those people had spent money and years of their time for a master’s degree, and yet they were begging for crumbs, so to speak, trying to get any sort of job in a library.

Please, ALA, do your part and acknowledge to the world that there are VERY FEW JOBS open for librarians. Please, stop telling people that there are so many great opportunities for library positions. You are costing individuals thousands of dollars on these degrees, and you are also helping expand the degree racket known as online MLIS programs. Certainly we have a wonderful profession, but it is a small profession with limited openings.

I tell every person I know that is considering an MLIS to think twice about it because of the reasons I have poorly presented here in my comment. I am a fairly recent graduate of top-three nationally ranked MLIS program, and I have a number of friends from that same program who were never able to find a library position. Please stand up, ALA, and tell the facts about the availabilty of library jobs.

Maureen! Thank you so much for this insightful letter! As always, you get right to the heart of it.
Sara Slymon
Director
Turner Free Library
Randolph, Ma.

Thank you so much for your insightful and comprehensive response to the comment from Forbes. As always you balance the heart of our profession with the increasing need for librarians or “informational professionals” in our global digital society. Because I work in education my goal is and always will be to teach our children the skills they will need to survive and thrive in globally powered information society, as well as creating life long learners who will be ready for the future changes that we can’t even begin to imagine! Thank you again and kuddo!

Liz Philippi
Manager of Library Services
Houston ISD

Thank you for your response to the Forbes article. Librarianship is indeed a fulfilling profession which can make a difference in our world and people in libraries are dedicated workers. It would however be a good thing if all the people out there who invested in the degree were able to find work in this field. Nobody got into library work for the money, but I think most people hoped they would be able to find employment in a field they love.

Well said, Maureen!

Gretchen McCord
TALL Texan 1997; mentor 2005, 2006

A major research institution, the University of Southern California, and a private one at that, has determined that librarianship (not information professionals) is a career for the future and is investing heavily in its development. The Marshall School of Business, one of the top ranked in the nation, is hosting the new Master of Library and Information Management (MLIM); its advisory councils of business leaders have indicated a strong interest in graduates. In our view (I have been selected as the new director), the discipline is LIS, the profession is librarianship, the environments where one might practise are endless and the job title irrelevent.
—Ken Haycock

Thank you very much Dear Maureen Sullivan, ALA President for your response to a recent Forbes.com post about the value of a library and information science master’s degree.

Best,
Kamal