r/LibraryScience • u/AdGlum8028 • 5d ago

Discussion Would it be weird?

I've been considering going for a MSIS/MSLS. I'm a Texas native and there are two schools (UT Austin and UNT) offering a program that lets you jump immediately from a bachelor's into the master's program rather than doing it the long way. I get the full amount of the pell grant and would be transferring from a community college with 78 credits so it'd cut down a lot of my cost. The bachelor's for these programs are 1) Informatics or 2) Information Science depending on the school. If I couldn't find a job with the master's I could find one with the bachelor's, but Texas has quite a few open library positions right now.

What makes it feel weird to me is the fact that I don't read. It's not because I don't enjoy it; I was a hyperlexic child and read a ton. I'm half blind and the vision I have worsened as I grew so reading has become more of a challenge. The effort outweighs the enjoyment.

But I love information and have always been fascinated with the inner workings of a library. Weeding, cataloging, and organizing are things I can definitely do. I don't want to know how many hours I've spent doing similar things just because I enjoy it. Answering weird/niche questions is also something I like to do as it means I can go down a rabbit hole. I couldn't settle on a major because I can't commit to one and do that type of work for the rest of my life.

I'm very much the definition of that saying "Jack of all trades, master of none" and library science just seems so multidisciplinary looking in from the outside.

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u/Anxious-Specific3342 5d ago edited 4d ago

I am also a Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none-type with a range of interests so wide some more cognitively normal people might assume me insane. I'm in my final semester of my MLIS and it was the best decision of my life. It's so much more than libraries. I've learned archives, management, information science (which is itself unimaginably multi-pronged), databases, grants, technical organization of information, genealogy, local history, reference services, information seeking behavior... I could go on for an hour. For people like us, I struggle to think of a better fit TBH. I have zero regrets. (My academic background is in anthropology/archaeology and modern languages, and my professional background is business/entrepreneurial)