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[quote=Anonymous]MLIS holder here. I got my degree in 2003, in my late 20s, and at the time was initially surprised to see how many people in their 40s and 50s were in the program as they sought a second career. But as I progressed I better understood why this was and I do think it can be a great option. I ended up not working in a library (although I had a couple of offers in the academic and public realm) but at a higher education non-profit and what I've found is there are actually a lot more options available to a person with a "library degree" - which these days can cover a pretty wide range as many traditional library science programs have morphed to include or even nominally become "information schools." I think that's all to the good as it allows one the opportunity to get a sense for all the vast possibilities out there because most programs offer a wide range of classes in all kinds of different tracks, so you can try a bunch of different ones out in the early stages of your degree to see what you really like and are good at. So many people I meet, and even I myself when I started, vaguely consider a librarian to be the person sitting at a desk in a public library or perhaps in a K-12 environment. Those can be very fulfilling jobs but as a PP mentioned don't necessarily tend to pay very well and it's not surprising to see salaries for those jobs around here in the low $30s, or even $20s when in the case of private schools.

But there are so many more options out there. Colleges/universities, museums/historical societies, government agencies (NOT just the Library of Congress), law firms, hospitals, non-profits (all those political nonprofits downtown - lots of them have in-house libraries), corporations...these are all places where a librarian can find a good job. And these places often look for someone who's in the field as a second career because you'll bring with you all the knowledge you have gained in your particular field. So think about what it is that you do now, what have you learned that people outside your own field wouldn't know that could be really valuable to an organization seeking someone who has that specialized knowledge in addition to the skills you'll have learned through your Masters program? This is where you can really have an edge. It's probably particularly true in fields such as the sciences, business and law because a lot of people in those fields don't even think about becoming librarians...but they need them in their university programs and often in their companies. And if you're willing to take on contract positions, you can find short-term (say a couple years) positions in libraries and museums who have discrete projects where they need people who have specialized knowledge related to a particular collection.

There are two good programs in this area (UMD and CUA) and then also an increasing number of online programs (Drexel, University of Illinois, etc.) so you can pick one that suits your needs/interests. I'd recommend perhaps starting with ALA's list: http://www.ala.org/accreditedprograms/directory.

Yeah, I'm a proselytizer. I have never regretted my library degree. [/quote]

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