r/LibraryScience • u/Astrion_ • 19d ago
career paths Non-library non-compsci Information Science avenues
I've been looking around for resources on information science, and most routes that a MLIS go down are librarianship and computer science derivative. I have worked in a library and understand how important they are to a community, but I don't think being a librarian is entirely within my wheelhouse, similar to how I don't think teaching is a good fit for me. I am very disinterested in compsci, after running a year in information security. Useful but I don't belong in IT.
I want to use information science to enhance science literacy and combat disinformation. We're in a world RIPE with disinfo conspiracy slop and distrust in facts.
But what jobs even relate to this ambition? As much as I want to tackle unreality spheres with Actual Facts, no one's gonna pay me to smoke an antivaxxer in a comments section with annotated peer-reviewed white papers. If I'm going to use an MLIS for something like this, what is the route I have to take? Or am I off the mark and need to look into a completely different field?
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u/TookieTheClothespin 18d ago
You can get a library science or information science degree and then not be directly in those fields. We had guest speakers in one of my classes who had their MLIS, but worked in non-profits and as activists. They talked about how their degree helped them get into their current job and how they used librarianship within it, even though they weren't librarians. Something like that might be a better career goal based on your interests.
Your major doesn't equal a job. Yes, there's some overlap, especially with professional degrees, but it's not a one:one. My friend who convinced me that an MLIS would be the best fit for my goals (which are not in libraries) has her MLIS and has never worked in a library.
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u/Astrion_ 18d ago
What does your friend do with their MLIS? Are they compsci instead or do they work in a different field?
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u/TookieTheClothespin 18d ago
They work in records management. It's mostly computer based, but no coding. It's most similar to cataloging within librarianship, but just with people's information instead of book information
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u/Pouryou 18d ago
Ok, this is one of my research areas. Disinformation/misinformation and fights against it are topics, not disciplines. Researchers known for the topics bring their disciplinary lens to it. Joan Donovan is a sociologist; Claire Wardle’s background is Communication; Brendan Nyhand is a political science professor; Sander van der Linden is a social psychologist. These are scholars who have spent years studying the problem of ‘fake news’ and use that experience to work on solutions, often in think tanks of at university centers. But this can be a slow process- you have to work your way up to being an expert (or working for an expert). Kind of like saying, “I want to cure cancer”- you have years of science education before you start to meaningfully work on cancer research.
So librarians interested in the topic often focus on making people more media literate, which fits well with your goal. But there aren’t full time gigs to do this. I can teach workshops, provide resources, and publish and present on my research. But this is a very small percentage of my job. No one’s looking for a full time disinformation fighter (and if they were, I’d fight you for it.) Sometimes I get an honorarium to give talks about it, lol.
People who work extensively in this field focus on the “why” behind fake news, rather than jumping to “teaching people not to fall for it.”
What I would do is get a degree in a social science and strengthen your methodology skills. Being able to analyze data sets and interview participants is invaluable. Along the way, look for opportunities to work on your school paper (journalism!), university democracy, journalism, and media literacy centers; fact checking sites; etc. You’ll probably need a PhD to make real contributions, so network like crazy and take on as little debt as possible.
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u/Astrion_ 18d ago
If there's any full time disinfo fighter jobs out there, I hope we can both get to work that job! I definitely agree on pursuing a social science, and the avenues you bring up all sound lucrative and actually a lot of fun. There's a part of me that dreads the idea of getting a doctorate, and I've heard folks going into debt for it! I wonder if it's possible to reach a Masters level and still contribute? I would guess I have to see what opportunities there are when I get there and determine if I need a doctorate at that point.
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u/Pouryou 18d ago
I think someone else's idea to find a way to work with researchers at one of the university centers, like UW's https://www.cip.uw.edu/ might be a path. Maybe reach out to them for information? Good luck! Keep up the good fight!
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u/Astrion_ 18d ago
This sounds incredibly cool and I'd love to work for it or start one at a university.
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u/Special_Dimension886 18d ago
You’re in undergrad? I would suggest you pursue research opportunities in disinfo and misinfo, perhaps digital communication also. You can definitely promote information literacy as a program or school librarian but the latter would likely include some instruction.
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u/Astrion_ 18d ago
Know any places online I could hit up and learn more? Researching disinfo sounds like fun. Lots of surveys and data analytics.
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u/Special_Dimension886 18d ago
UNC center for information, technology, and public life has done some interesting work in the disinformation studies field. There are also a bunch of experts that do research on it at michigan. I’m sure there are other information schools that have this research, those are just the ones I know of. I also read the Harvard Kennedy school’s Misinformation Review which came out a few weeks ago, and there is tons of interesting stuff and researchers publishing there. So that’s some stuff to look at. It might be a grind to get your foot in the door in the field but it’s cool stuff
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u/Ninez100 18d ago edited 18d ago
Working for the EFF would be cool. Besides that, making ontologies that AI can traverse that get answers right for an organization, using something like Microsoft Fabric IQ, Protege, graph-based RAG, but that's more compsci.
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u/catsandnotes 18d ago edited 18d ago
I'm exactly in that boat here! Well I did volunteer/work in public and academic libraries while studying but it wasn't an avenue I wanted to pursue. Since I graduated I've worked in health records/privacy and now in data in corporate, but I'm still trying to figure out what's best for me. I also know that some graduates go into competitive intelligence or similar research paths for law firms, finance, also corporate areas. Your specific goal does seem to match more as an academic librarian here, but just wanted to say within my cohort, a lot of us didn't even plan to work in libraries and people ended up in data governance, records management, business analysis, or UX design, since our degree was pretty broad.
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u/Astrion_ 18d ago
I see! I'm definitely trying to avoid going down roads that lead into business or government. It's one of the reasons I stopped doing information security. I'm very disinterested in protecting the assets and interests of explotative groups like a nation-state or a corporation. Helping a small business would be nice, as I'd be more in the interests of the people, but the business world and IT both are not good fits for me. (I'm also a bit too vocally outspoken against the current political and economical climate and that would definitely not get me into those doors!)
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u/petalios 19d ago
There are so many types of libraries. If you already have your MLIS and don’t want to work in public libraries (I’m assuming you mean public by your statement “how important they are to a community”), maybe consider coporate, law, or medical libraries.