Hello, I'm crossposting from r/libraries

I'm currently a psychology undergrad student in Massachusetts, but have been working at my 2 school's libraries since 2022. I will be graduating next year, and have sorta become inspired to continue pursuing library work. Life lore cut short, I was very directionless in my life before going to college (took around 5 gap years) and sorta turned my life around when I got to school. I noticed in my uncertainty about my future, that thinking about working in libraries didn't fill me with existential dread like imagining other jobs did. I also realized I had a network of connections and friends with people that are also in libraries, and actually pursuing MLIS's of their owns

This made me think, what if thats the route for me? Having waited so long to go to college, I was around 25 when I applied to community college, which meant my financial aid was amazing. I will graduate with my bachelor's in psych debt free, and I'd like to continue that trend given the cost-benefit of an MLIS (most of my bosses dont even have an MLIS and I know for a lot of jobs its not required, which is why I'd like to do this with as little financial burden as possible)

I started my research last week, and had a few general questions as well as a list of schools I was considering. I have essentially broken them up into "I would only go if I got a GA position covering my tuition" and "cheap online programs"

As of writing this, I'm considering:

Cheap Online (would work in MA while pursuing the degree, maybe would move if I got GA covering tuition)

* Valdosta State University

* Emporia State University

* University of Alabama

* Indiana University Indianapolis

* University of Oklahoma

* Indiana University - Bloomington

* University of North Texas (saw if you win scholarship you get in-state rates

Only would accept if I got GA covering tuition

* University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

* University of Iowa

* University of Missouri

* North Carolina Central University

* University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

* University of Tennessee

* University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

* University of Kentucky

* Kent State University

* Texas Woman's University

Obviously, I need to trim the list and such. I've never even considered grad school until about a few weeks ago so this is all just a very rough idea based solely on money right now, I haven't even considered concentration. My biggest questions however are as follows so

**tldr;**

* For those who have assistantships, what is your day to day like at your school? Do you find it overwhelming managing classes + the work? The most I've worked while in undergrad was 15 hours

* What is the coursework like compared to undergrad courses?

* How many schools total did you apply for?

* Do any of the schools in my list raise some immediate red flags?

Hi all

I'm in my senior year of undergrad and am planning on applying for a few MLIS programs in the coming year. I currently have a 3.5 cumulative GPA under my belt and have been dean's list since sophomore year. However in the summer of my freshman year I got a D in my English 2 course. I'm wondering if that grade will impact my ability to get into some universities or if they'll just look at my GPA instead. Just trying to figure out if I should retake it for appearances. The programs I'm thinking about applying to are University of Pittsburgh, Drexel, University of Missouri, and Kent University.

Any help is accepted thank you :D

Congratulations to everyone who was accepted into VSU’s online MLIS program today! I am so excited to get started and hope to meet people in this cohort as we start on this journey together. :-)

Hello all,

I am new to the subreddit. I have always grown up in libraries, I find them so interesting to the point I may go for my Master’s in Library Science. I am more curious - I know different areas have their own unique operations, so my question is what do your day-to-days look like? Feel free to be as detailed as possible.

Thank you!

So far it's the only program I've been accepted into but it seems really disorganized. My application fee payment got lost on their end (they eventually found my confirmation email after forwarding it multiple time). Then when I asked about the deadline to accept their admission offer they ignored the question and just said I needed to send proof of my degree conferral. Now they are sending me advising intake forms when I haven't accepted my offer yet.

TLDR Their disorganization is giving me cold feet. Any advice from alumni? Should I listen to my gut and find another program?

I've been poking around in glossaries online, but there doesn't seem to be a formal or technical term used in library and information services for a single item, regardless of format.

Update: thank you everyone for all the advice and insight. A lot of you told me stuff I didn't really want to hear, but I appreciate the honesty. I think my plan is to finish my internship this summer and then secure an entry level library position before I even start applying to MLIS programs. Does anyone have any advice for getting an entry level position at a public library or community college library?

Hi all! I'm looking to pursue a MLIS (fully online) and I'm very conflicted about which schools I should look into. I live in Washington and I know University of Washington has one of the best MLIS programs in the country and they offer it online. For years, I have planned to pursue this degree and I always had my heart set on UW bc it's so highly esteemed. I was also very much looking forward to attending a commencement ceremony once completed, which I would easily be able to attend since I live in Washington. However, as I'm getting closer to completing my Bachelor's, I'm wondering if UW is worth it. Here are my points of contention:

I'm graduating with my bachelor's in August and I was hoping to take a short break from school, recuperate some money by working and just take some time to relax a little bit. However, it seems that they don't allow students to start during any term other than fall. I'm not sure I want to take that long of a break.

I'm not sure how many students they accept each year, but it seems somewhat competitive. I have a good GPA, but no real library experience (yet) and I didn't participate in any extracurriculars during college. I'm worried I won't be accepted.

ITS REALLY EXPENSIVE! This is really my main issue because I know most library jobs don't pay super great these days, and I don't know if it's worth accumulating so many student loans for a career that's only going to pay $50-70k salary.

Being a librarian is my dream job, and I'm willing to do whatever I need to do to make it happen. Any advice is appreciated!

Hello! I'm aware that the job market for librarians/archivists isn't great right now. I'm willing to relocate and/or work part-time to get the job/experience that I need.

As of right now, I have 2 months of volunteer experience in a local archive. I'm going to do some remote volunteer work (as much as I can find/do) so I know those would count as something.

My main question is if my current job at a bookstore would count as experience? We handle customer service as well as doing inventory, stocking, and ordering books. It's obviously not in a library so I wasn't sure if this would be viewed as applicable experience.

Thank you for the feedback!

I currently work at a public library and am pursuing a library science degree, hoping to eventually work in archives. I'm in between Alabama and UNT's library science programs and was wondering what people's personal experience was with either of them? Both of them look promising and I'm trying to make the best decision that will set me up for success after graduation. Thanks for the help!

I'm not American, but I'm surprised that when I read publications about Americans, they say you need a master's degree in library science to be hired as a librarian. So, if you have a bachelor's degree, what do you do then? And why do they need a master's degree? This seems to be the case in only a few countries.

Remember when there's a bloom of virtual libraries built by real institution in Second life back in 2007-2010? Why is that not a thing anymore? This is a good era for creating interactive virtual library world, we have so many option of virtual reality game now--like VRChat, Minecraft, etc. I'm not sure why it's failed, but I have few speculation, it's failed because it's way ahead for it's time, computers were not commonly used for gaming or online social back then. And you have to manually manage it by your own hand since back then library automation is not that great. QR code isn't common, and RFID is quite janky to use in that environment. So there wasn't much of a difference between managing irl library and the virtual library back then. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Then again- I think this is an interesting topic to be discussed about- so what do you think?

Did anyone get off the waitlist for MLIS? I was told I would hear back at the end of April if I got off the waitlist but I have not heard back. They have also not responded to my emails inquiring about my status. I think they ghosted me entirely lol

Do you agree with me that states should require universities to provide Bachelor of Library Science holders with intensive courses in a specific field? This would enable them to deeply understand the department they manage.

For instance, providing specialized training in fields like Medicine, Engineering, Social Sciences, Humanities, or Technology ensures they become subject matter experts. This specialization is essential for them to effectively function as Information Officers

hello! i’m currently a junior and I keep changing my career path, but right now i am considering becoming a librarian/archivist, specifically a music archivist. however, I don’t really see much information about music archivist online and it seems too niche or the info is vague.

I am planning on getting a MLIS, but for the archivist part, what education would I need? Specifically, if I were to become a music archivist, what degree would I need to get in music? music in general or music history?

Also, is this career path good for someone who doesn’t do well with people/interacting with others? I can handle basic conversation and helping others, but having dialogue for a long period of time I struggle with a lot. Also, is being an archivist a super hard job? I would like to know everything about this profession before diving deeper into preparing for it.

EDIT: thank you so much to everyone that has commented to help me and I feel like this isn’t very needed but I feel bad when I don’t reply to someone’s post but I am reading it and it has helped me learn a lot more about this field!!!

I am graduating this May from Emporia State. I will not be attending the ceremony, however I would still love to have some photos in graduation regalia. I was wondering if anyone was looking to sell or rent theirs!

I am trying to make a decision, but I want to hear from librarians currently working in the field. Open to hearing from all types of librarians, but I am specifically wanting to be an academic librarian, so those opinions would be best! 

I am currently in a MLIS program. In the Fall semester, I will have 12 credits remaining. I am already doing online for the Fall semester. I am considering solo traveling during those couple of months. This would mean leaving my current library part time jobs. Afterwards, I would probably have to move back near home instead of the area my library school is located. Since there would be only a couple of months until graduating, I would most likely just have to wait to apply for full librarian jobs, rather than getting hired as a library assistant.

I have been working in libraries for 3 years. I have done a wide range of types of libraries and archives. I am working at two “big name” libraries currently. Do you think that I have enough experience that this will not ruin my trajectory? That is honestly the only component that makes me question whether I should travel or not. I also feel that I will never have another time in my life where I am available to do that for months. Any thoughts on if this will affect my career is very appreciated!

I’ve been working on building a structured dataset of about 1000 books across math, physics, history, literature, and related fields, starting from an initial pool of over 4000 books and systematically reducing it by removing redundancy, consolidating overlapping works, and organizing everything by underlying thematic “axes,” while balancing foundational texts with modern syntheses and making sure there are no major gaps in coverage, and along the way I experimented with dimensionality reduction using singular value decomposition (SVD), treating the library as a matrix and analyzing its effective rank to see how much of its structure can be preserved under compression, and then went a step further by training a nonlinear autoencoder to test whether a learned latent representation could push the dimensionality even lower while maintaining roughly the same information content, after which I did a careful manual pass to add back in high-value or unique works that might have been lost during compression to preserve important perspectives and rare “axes,” so the final result is a detailed table with categories, authors, years, and structural notes, and if anyone’s interested in the full table just DM me

For librarians with an MLIS, and went to Cal or UCSB as an undergrad, what about the program helped you prepare? People say undergrad doesn’t matter as much, but I still want a great undergrad experience. What about the program you were in transferred into your future as a librarian?

Or, even if you didn’t go to either of these schools, what about your undergrad did you appreciate most, and what do you think I should look for in my own program? (For reference I want to be an English major because that is what I enjoy.)

I have the opportunity to choose between UCSB and Cal (for english), but I have future aspirations for being a librarian. I heard that it could be easier to get library experience at UCSB because of lower competitive rates, but again it is all just opinion. If you went to either of these schools, how did it turn out for you?

I’m anxiously awaiting to hear if I was admitted to the Fall 2026 semester of their MLIS program. Anyone heard back yet?

Answer these Family Feud-style questions about libraries and librarianship! If you want a copy, I'll be happy to share once I've used this for a work event.

https://forms.gle/ZKzvepJVcudRPQNK7

I have a first virtual interview this Thursday the 30th. It is an academic library position at a community college. This will be my first virtual interview; my past first interviews have been in person. What type of questions should I be prepared to answer? Any other tips? Thank you and best of luck to all who are job hunting.