Should a future librarian get a masters in English?
February 23, 2010 10:00 PM Subscribe
Will a master's degree in English be useful to someone who wants to
be a librarian?
A friend of mine is about to graduate with her B.A. in English. Apparently several of her professors, being very impressed with her abilities and dedication, have recommended that she stick around and get an M.A. in the same department. However, my friend's ultimate goal is to get a master's in library science and become a librarian, and she's not sure whether or not an M.A. in English would be of much use to her.
So, from a career perspective, what should she do? Should she stick with her department and get that graduate degree in English? Or should she just make use of her professors' goodwill to help get her into a really good MLS program?
Other potentially relevant facts:
- She's interested in being a systems librarian.
- She's planning to do the MLS through some kind of "distance learning" program, as there's no library science program offered near where she lives.
- If she doesn't go for the English master's, she'll probably take a couple of years off before starting the MLS.
A friend of mine is about to graduate with her B.A. in English. Apparently several of her professors, being very impressed with her abilities and dedication, have recommended that she stick around and get an M.A. in the same department. However, my friend's ultimate goal is to get a master's in library science and become a librarian, and she's not sure whether or not an M.A. in English would be of much use to her.
So, from a career perspective, what should she do? Should she stick with her department and get that graduate degree in English? Or should she just make use of her professors' goodwill to help get her into a really good MLS program?
Other potentially relevant facts:
- She's interested in being a systems librarian.
- She's planning to do the MLS through some kind of "distance learning" program, as there's no library science program offered near where she lives.
- If she doesn't go for the English master's, she'll probably take a couple of years off before starting the MLS.
Unless she really wants the masters, I'd suggest taking those couple of years off and finding a job of some sort in a library.
posted by kbuxton at 11:06 PM on February 23, 2010
posted by kbuxton at 11:06 PM on February 23, 2010
Best answer: Not if she wants to be a systems librarian. Even at universities, systems librarians tend to have a tech background (or significant experience) and an MLS. I would favor kbuxton's recommendation, with the caveat that she should look for library staff positions which are technically oriented or (if she doesn't have any tech experience) look into training in that field.
The biggest factor in successfully getting a job is experience, experience, experience. People who come to library school with library experience or while working in a library (in a non-professional staff position) or who get a great graduate assistant position have much better career outcomes.
If she really wants to do the MA for her own satisfaction and it is paid for by the university, then I don't think it would hurt anything, but I wouldn't give up two years of potential work experience or a headstart on another degree unless it was a fully funded program, and not many English MA's are - on the contrary, they're usually a profit center for the university and the department.
posted by clerestory at 12:01 AM on February 24, 2010
The biggest factor in successfully getting a job is experience, experience, experience. People who come to library school with library experience or while working in a library (in a non-professional staff position) or who get a great graduate assistant position have much better career outcomes.
If she really wants to do the MA for her own satisfaction and it is paid for by the university, then I don't think it would hurt anything, but I wouldn't give up two years of potential work experience or a headstart on another degree unless it was a fully funded program, and not many English MA's are - on the contrary, they're usually a profit center for the university and the department.
posted by clerestory at 12:01 AM on February 24, 2010
If she wants to be a systems librarian, a Masters in English isn't really going to give her much benefit. As clerestory said, she'll really need a tech background, or a lot of experience, in order to get into a systems librarian job.
If she can afford the English masters, and will enjoy it, then that's great, and it certainly won't do her any harm, but it's not going to be much help to her in the field unless she plans on becoming university subject librarian.
As an aside, if she doesn't have a tech background, then she may want to really think about the systems librarian thing - most of the systems librarians I know have first degrees in some sort of tech discipline (IT or web design or similar), and she is likely to find that most systems jobs will require that level of knowledge.
Also, nthing the suggestion that she get some actual library experience before she embarks on the MLS - it will give her a much better idea of what the work actually entails.
posted by shewhoeats at 2:51 AM on February 24, 2010
If she can afford the English masters, and will enjoy it, then that's great, and it certainly won't do her any harm, but it's not going to be much help to her in the field unless she plans on becoming university subject librarian.
As an aside, if she doesn't have a tech background, then she may want to really think about the systems librarian thing - most of the systems librarians I know have first degrees in some sort of tech discipline (IT or web design or similar), and she is likely to find that most systems jobs will require that level of knowledge.
Also, nthing the suggestion that she get some actual library experience before she embarks on the MLS - it will give her a much better idea of what the work actually entails.
posted by shewhoeats at 2:51 AM on February 24, 2010
As others have said, if her only goal is to become a systems librarian, these two years would probably be better spent studying more technical stuff and/or working in a library (or in a library system's IT department).
If she thinks she might want to become a different kind of librarian, or if she'd just like to spend a few more years studying something she really loves, or if her goals are more complicated than just getting a job as a systems librarian as soon as possible, the question becomes more complicated.
posted by box at 6:07 AM on February 24, 2010
If she thinks she might want to become a different kind of librarian, or if she'd just like to spend a few more years studying something she really loves, or if her goals are more complicated than just getting a job as a systems librarian as soon as possible, the question becomes more complicated.
posted by box at 6:07 AM on February 24, 2010
Even if she doesn't get/want a systems job, there's a glut of librarians with humanities degrees (at any level). Science, social-science, engineering, law, technical backgrounds are all more "marketable."
posted by feelinggood at 6:15 AM on February 24, 2010
posted by feelinggood at 6:15 AM on February 24, 2010
Best answer: I am a systems librarian with an English undergrad. I think I can safely say that if your friend is angling for systems, having an English master's will probably be useless, unless it's some university that requires *everyone* to have a second master's.
If she has any other systems questions she'd like to ask, please feel free to memail me and I'll give you my contact information to give to her.
posted by the dief at 8:13 AM on February 24, 2010
If she has any other systems questions she'd like to ask, please feel free to memail me and I'll give you my contact information to give to her.
posted by the dief at 8:13 AM on February 24, 2010
That's nice that her professors still want her around, but seriously, every career-type library job posting I've seen lately has required the Master's in Library Science.
posted by Knowyournuts at 10:25 AM on February 24, 2010
posted by Knowyournuts at 10:25 AM on February 24, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by fifilaru at 10:07 PM on February 23, 2010