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Getting a MLS

post #1 of 12
12/19/09 at 10:29pm
Thread Starter 
Does anyone have a Master's in Library Science or know anything about what kind of doors the degree opens? General commentary? Thanks.
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post #2 of 12
12/19/09 at 10:32pm
If nothing else, you'll be able to get a job shelving books. Which actually might be kind of fun. And you'll probably get to meet more fat Panera-loving lesbians. Except these ones will wear glasses.
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post #3 of 12
12/20/09 at 12:24am
I have this degree; it goes by a number of different titles: MLIS (Library and Information Studies) or Masters of Information Studies. There are a number of different specialities available: Archival studies, Librarianship, Knowledge Management and some others. I did the KM stream and am making excellent money, there is huge demand for KM services, particularly in Law. You can be a tenured librarian (if you want to go the academic route) which is Equivalent to a full fledged University professor (with the associated perks). Let me know what else you want to know. I went into it because I knew that information (particularly information management) is exploding and important. For everyone that laughs, I ask them to organize all the webpages in Google. I ask them how much time they spend searching for information. There are a lot of different opportunities in this field, but again I did not do the librarianship stream. BTW, Job shelving books are done by pages.
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post #4 of 12
12/20/09 at 12:25am
I'm not suggesting this will be you, but the only two male MLS students I've met in my life were both nerds. Liking to read and wearing cardigans is a fun past time, but making a career out of that might be overkill. Besides that, you might want to research private (versus working at the local public library) positions where you can make some $$$ to offset the image. To clarify, MLS and MIS are totally different and I agree with ^^^. I've actually needed the help of an MIS once and a while (in law).
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post #5 of 12
12/20/09 at 12:28am
Go to UNC

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post #6 of 12
12/20/09 at 12:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Benzito View Post
I'm not suggesting this will be you, but the only two male MLS students I've met in my life were both ghey. Liking to read and wearing cardigans is a fun past time, but making a career out of that might be overkill.

Besides that, you might want to research private (versus working at the local public library) positions where you can make some $$$ to offset the nerdy image.

I can assure you that there is a huge bonus to being a male student in a faculty full of women.

In my class, there were about six guys and three of them were gay. The other two were married and then there was me. My two years doing the degree were pretty crazy with the women

There are a lot of people who buy into the stereotype. I didn't fit in with some of the weirdos though
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post #7 of 12
12/20/09 at 12:36am
Are the female students mostly like the chick from "I'm Hot for Teacher" or mostly neckbeards?
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post #8 of 12
12/20/09 at 12:38am
Thread Starter 
I wouldn't want to work in the Bumblefuck Public Library. The knowledge management thing sounds neat.
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post #9 of 12
12/20/09 at 12:46am
Yes. The Knowledge is power, but collating and indexing The Knowledge is even more power. People in my office think I'm smart, but the truth is that I just know where to find the answers.
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post #10 of 12
12/20/09 at 12:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Benzito View Post
Are the female students mostly like the chick from "I'm Hot for Teacher" or mostly neckbeards?

There's a mix. I would say there were more attractive women then ugly women in my program, but there were definitley some hotties. You know those quiet times; I also confirmed that crazy in the head = crazy in the bed lol

Most of them were pretty nerdy though, there was some movie called the Hollywood Librarian which they loved as if it was some sort of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Connemara View Post
I wouldn't want to work in the Bumblefuck Public Library. The knowledge management thing sounds neat.

To be honest, I don't even read books. My bachelor's degree was in Business Administration, so my combination of education and work experience was very unique. I'm working for a Pension company managing all of client information; without the MLIS I would not have gotten this position.

Most people in the program had arts degrees (english, history etc etc). I think there was also one lawyer in the mix who simply didn't like practising law.

Public Librarians at an entry level are somewhere around 40-70K (there's a huge variance, especially if you work in Bumblefuck). If you are a CEO of the library, you should be making a solid six figures (110-120K fairly easily).
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post #11 of 12
12/20/09 at 2:32am
Thread Starter 
As I understand it, university librarians who are tenured tend to make quite a bit.
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post #12 of 12
12/20/09 at 2:43am
One of my college roommates did his MLS at the University of South Carolina. He is now a librarian at Clemson and heads up a lot of their electronic database type stuff. I'd assume he's tenured but we haven't talked in several years. And yes, he was pretty much a nerd in college.

Another friend has her MLS, although I don't recall from where, and she is a research librarian at one of the biggest lawfirms in the country. I believe she's actually the chief librarian for the entire Western region.
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