Library & Information Science Careers: A Guide to Education and Career Resources

• Education

• Financial Aid

• Internships & Fellowships

• Careers

• Jobs

• Web Sites

• Associations
  
  LISTA (index to library journals)

• Contacts

 

 

Good place to start:   ALA's LibraryCareers.org website

Education

American Library Association's Education for Librarianship webpages

•    American Library Association-accredited master's programs

Virginia Library Association list of master's programs

U. S. News and World Report's Ranking of Library and Information Studies Graduate Programs

Comparisons of Information Technology Education in MLIS Programs by Katie Fortney (Library Student Journal, January 2009)

 

To find ADMISSIONS/ACCEPTANCE rates and other information about library science programs, look in:

• Graduate Programs in Business, Education, Health, Information Science, Law, and Social Work (published by Peterson's).
  Shelved in Swem Library's Reference Collection at REF L901 .P459
  
  Note: Peterson's also has a web site where some of the same information can be found (but not all!): http://www.petersons.com
  

 

School librarianship--graduate/licensure/endorsement programs:

     Old Dominion University

     National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education: nationally recognized programs
              Note:  search by School Media Specialist (AECT)

 

Financial Aid

• American Library Association's lists of scholarships and other financial aid
  American Library Association's information about student loan forgiveness opportunities

  Financial Support for Library Education for Virginia Residents
  Includes information about the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV) partnership with non-Virginia universities, allowing Virginians to attend at in-state tuition rates.

 Academic Common Market (Southern Regional Education Board):

 Search for opportunities to pay in-state tuition for programs in the 16 Southern Regional Education Board member states.

• Grants for Individuals: Library & Information Science (Michigan State University-produced site)

 

Internships & Fellowships

   Note:  many of the graduate programs in library and information science have internships available to their students.   Some other sources include:

• Association of Research Libraries Residential and Internship Programs Database
• Grants for Individuals: Library & Information Science (Michigan State University-produced site)
• Library of Congress Jobs & Fellowships web page
• Fairness.com Internships
• UNESCO Libraries Portal/Fellowships

 

Careers

Occupational Outlook Handbook

American Library Association's web page on library careers

Types of libraries:

• Academic, including separate libraries for sciences, art, music, etc.
• Public
• School
• Special, including libraries for historical societies and museums
• Law
• Government
• Medical
• Business

Types of professional library jobs:

• Reference Services
• Children's Services
• Young Adult Services
• Administration
• Archivist
• Curator
• Cataloger
• Bibliographer/Collection development
• Manager of departments such as Acquisitions, Cataloging, Technical Services, Serials, Interlibrary Loan, Preservation, and Access Services
• Systems Administrator
• Professor of library science

 

Jobs

• Virginia Library Association Jobline
• Lisjobs.com - Jobs for Librarians and Information Professionals
• Library Job Postings on the Internet
• American Library Association Employment Opportunities web page
• Association of Research Libraries Careers web page
• Chronicle of Higher Education careers web page
• HigherEdJobs.com
• Library of Congress Jobs & Fellowships web page

 

Web Sites

• American Library Association's Recruitment Clearinghouse
• Association of College & Research Libraries' Recruitment and Retention wiki
• Library of Congress
• Library of Virginia
• LibrarySpot
• Internet Public Library
• Librarians' Index to the Internet
• Internet Library for Librarians
• Scout Report : Research and development projects that provide better tools and services for finding, filtering and delivering online information and metadata.
• University of Tennessee's Information Sciences Subject Guide

 

Associations (selected)

• American Library Association (ALA)
• Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL)
• American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T)
• American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)
• Society of American Archivists (SAA)
• Library & Information Technology Association (LITA)
• American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
• Public Library Association (PLA)
• Special Libraries Association (SLA)
• Virginia Library Association (VLA)
• Visual Resources Association (VRA)
• Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS)
• Music Library Association (MLA)
• Medical Library Association (MLA)
• International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

  

 

LISTA (index to library journals & other literature)

LISTA is "a free resource to anyone interested in libraries and information management.....[it covers] librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Delivered via the EBSCO host platform, LISTA indexes more than 600 periodicals plus books, research reports, and proceedings. With coverage dating back to the mid-1960s, it is the oldest continuously produced database covering the field of information science." [source: EBSCO]

 

Contacts

For more information about library careers, please contact:

Mary Molineux
Reference Librarian and Liaison to Sociology, Psychology, Women's Studies, and Neuroscience
Swem Library, College of William and Mary
757-221-3076