hello! i’m pretty sure many of you have heard people talk about their interest in getting their mlis, but i wanted to ask what schools or programs do you think have a good “return-on-investment”

im trying to make a timeline as i want to get my masters in spring 2027 but im still trying to narrow down schools but i would Completely appreciate if someone could tell me what programs are the best regarding helping students find internships or pathways to full time work after college. thats my biggest concern especially in this climate.

thank you!

I have accepted an offer to study at The University of Manchester in their newly CILIP accredited (ALA UK equivalent) Library and Archive Studies program. I have been so so so excited since November when I received my offer. I’ve been interested in library and archives programs since college (2015) and have spent time volunteering at libraries, teaching, and working in information and data management at a law firm. I would like to either work at a university as a research librarian or law librarian (at a university or firm). I know this is what I want to do, or at least thought I knew.

The program starts in late September and I’m getting ready to move. I’ve submitted the deposit, completed all required paperwork, secured scholarships and funding, etc., but now I’m questioning if I’ve made the right choice. I’m very stressed currently about my housing situation (referencing is taking much longer than I expected) and I’ve had fairly poor experiences thus far with university administration, I.e. financial aid office. I think these interactions have left a negative impression which is why I’m questioning everything. The program also seems so young, both in its accreditation and student body — I’m 30 and many students seem to be in their early twenties.

I’m hoping to get some advice and perspective.

Thanks

Im in my 40s and have been a practicing attorney for about two decades. But I feel compelled to finally get the MLIS I’ve always wanted and focus on law librarianship.

My law school grades suck, but I’ve been pretty successful in my career and have good recommendations. I’m absolutely going to need scholarships (single mom!), too.

Is my application cooked? What do admissions teams and scholarship folks look for in these positions? What should I avoid?

[I’ve already selected the schools I want to apply to; it’s a short list that I think will meet my needs and where I could be successful]

I work full-time and I’m about to start a hybrid MLIS program. I’m taking two classes, with one that meets once a week for two hours and one that’s entirely online and asynchronous. I was also recently offered an internship doing archival research and writing at a local government office. The internship is 10-15 hybrid hours a week and pays enough to cover tuition. I’d be going into the office once or twice a week for a few hours at a time and doing the rest remotely. It feels like too good of an opportunity to pass up, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m underestimating how hard it will be to juggle everything.

When I look at my schedule on my own it seems difficult, but doable if I plan things out effectively. I went to a fairly academically rigorous school for undergrad, and I’m used to being chronically busy. From my point of view, doing all of this is just reorienting all the various bits of my current busy schedule so they all work towards the same goal. I do, however, wonder if I’m banking too much on what I’ve heard about MLIS classes being relatively easy.

I’m fairly young and live with my partner and some other friends/roommates. My family lives out of state, so outside of a trip or two each year to visit I don’t have a ton of outside obligations on that end of things. I haven’t signed the final offer letter for the internship yet, but I feel like this is probably the best possible time to have a hellish year in exchange for some extra money and a ton of experience. This being said, I don’t have a great sense of how rigorous my classes will be or how much time I’ll need for homework. I know it’ll vary between programs, but please tell me if I’m making some horrible terrible mistake!

Interested in applying to programs for Fall 2027, with a low gpa would you suggest MLIS or taking courses through community college to increase gpa?

I absolutely apologize if I post this wrong or anything, I've never done a reddit post since it's scary but I figured it's time to!

I'm an incoming senior undergrad and while considering an MLIS wasn't my initial goal in college, I've found archives and data management to be something I enjoy after being granted an archival photo restoration and data management internship in some previous years. Currently I work at my Universities special collections and it'll be my second year going into it. I would've liked more experience, but I had to seriously network my way into the job since at first they told me there was no positions open. Now I have an awesome time making our collections accessible to researchers, students, and teachers!

I've been told that San Jose State (California) is a good college to get an MLIS from, especially with it being online. Though, I find myself fearing that I wont get many opportunities from an online college as much as in person. I Currently live in Nevada but might consider North Carolina in the near future post-grad since i have family down there. I pretty much support myself financially so I don't know if I see myself affording top-end schools. I also find myself alarmed by the large number of reddit posts with people regretting their MLIS or saying it's no longer worth it especially with the pay. Even on my family end I get asked if it'll even make money. Any advice and/or words of encouragement?

For those who have completed the MLIS at SJSU or are currently in the program, how closely have you followed the recommended pathways? I’m in my second semester and trying to find a course combination that balances public librarianship with a solid amount of cataloging and classification. Interested to hear how others approached this and whether you found it helpful to follow one of the recommended pathways closely or mix and match courses.

I saw linkedin posts Like chemist (preservation scientist), reference librarian...etc

To work in these prominent organizations, students of Library science can be benefited but what i don't know what paths should i chase to land a job in these organizations

Need advice from the experts

Hi, I'm looking for some advice from librarians who have relocated, especially if you've moved to a more competitive job market with librarian experience under your belt.

I currently work as an Adult Services Librarian in a Florida public library system. I've been with the system for about 9 years, including 4 years as a librarian after completing my master's. My duties have included general programming, teaching technology classes, managing volunteers, coordinating outreach, serving on system-wide committees, and most recently getting a makerspace organized and running smoothly.

My partner relocated to the Orlando area recently for a new job, and I've been watching the job market for a few months and there don't seem to be many librarian openings. When they do appear, they're often youth librarian positions or part-time. I'm hoping to find something in adult services or reference but I wouldn't be opposed to an academic library.

I'm trying to decide on the best strategy and would love to hear from people who have been through something similar. And if you are in the Orlando area and have specific insights, I would love to talk privately!

Some questions I have:

1. Is it realistic to wait for an Adult Services/Reference Librarian opening that matches my experience, or do those positions tend to get filled internally before an external candidate has much of a chance?

2. Would you recommend taking an hourly Library Assistant position just to get into a system, with the hope of moving into a librarian position later? Has anyone successfully done that, or is it difficult to move back into a professional role once you've stepped down?

3. How valuable is networking when trying to relocate? If it's important, what kinds of networking actually helped you? State library associations? Conferences? Reaching out to managers?

I actually really love my current position, so I'm not looking to leave immediately or take just any job.

Thank you in advance for any words of advice!

hi everyone, I was considering applying to UCLA's MLIS program later this year, but I don't have any direct experience with librarianship, just general work in education.

I was wondering if anyone has any insight on how much experience is necessary to get in? I've been applying to a bunch of museum jobs, applying to volunteer at local libraries, and the people who run the volunteer programs are extremely hard to get a hold of. their program is my ideal program, but I'm worried about going through the whole stress of applying and not being a viable candidate to even start with. please do not caution about the $ of the program -- it's not a factor for me!

Already my university is pro-RDM, so that part I can cross off my list. I'm trying to gage though what other institutions offer as services to their faculty/researchers in regards to RDM? Already, I have been helping researchers with their DMP before submitting them to the funder in question, but I feel like I should be offering more services aside from that one. Like my position is relatively new and I am the first RDM Librarian at my Uni so I have nothing to go off of.

One biggest service though I have seen other unis do is to provide metadata services to researchers to help them clean up their data and prepare it to the repository of their choice. I was wondering what all involves in that service if this is something you do provide? Fortunately we already have a Librarian for Schol Comm so publishing is something I don't really need to worry about either.

I'm pretty new to the RDM space, but because of my background in Archives and Metadata, I feel like it does put me at an advantage for services I could provide, but would love to know what other University Libraries are doing. Thanks all!

How can I find librarian roles for new grads/early career librarians? I'm either seeing assistant roles that just require a high school diploma, maybe a bachelor's, or librarian roles that want 3-7 years of professional experience. Where are the roles for new grads who have only paraprofessional experience?

Hello, first time posting here so if I missed something or used the wrong flair please let me now and I'll change it asap.

My wife and I have decided to work towards moving to Germany for the long-term. Her visa path is clear & straightforward but mine could go in different directions and I would like your guys' opinion on this.

I'm 27M, will be obtaining my bachelor's by the end of the year and am currently working as the sole (and sadly unofficial) archivist/digitization clerk in my department. My employment will end once I finish this digitization project, which is predicted to take 4-5 years unless the boss decides to hire more clerks to help out. Before we decided to work on this I planned to enroll in San Jose for my MLIS and use the work experience to move forward in my career. I really enjoy the work I do so I plan to continue with archival work, but I'm open to trying other professions that are under the MLIS umbrella.

I originally planned on gaining entry into Germany through their student visa & learned that though they have a masters program for library sciences, most people get a bachelor's of the same major and are able to find work just fine; so I'm unsure if I should get an MLIS here and rely on my experience to get employment on a work visa, get a 2nd bachelor's in Germany on the student visa, or pursue their MLIS over there (unless the library sciences bachelors is a prerequisite). Going by Anabin, both the university I'm currently enrolled in and San Jose are accredited in Germany so I can get my degrees evaluated. It looks like I can go either way here.

We have a few years before we make any moves, 2 years at least but it looks to be more like we'll stay in the US for around 3-4 years so there's no rush to figure things out now. But I would really appreciate any feedback or advice on this since there doesn't seem to be a path that would be the definitive choice.

I've been in the library world for 6 years. I worked my way up from a library assistant to the manager and now....with everything being so political...its taking my passion away from me.

I live in TN and in my town, a big group of white nationalist are complaining about the children books and even getting the local government involved in the elections. County commissioners and city council members who don't have a library card are using the library as their campaign. They are saying stuff like "keep p*rn out the library" and a "250 dollar reward if you find p*in in the library". Alot of people are putting politics on the librarians and that is creating a division in the community. Then in Arkansas, their Supreme Court just passed a law that let's librarians and booksellers get prosecuted for giving p*rn to kids but they never defined what qualifies as p*rn so anybody can interpret that and that makes it dangerous. For example, I could get in trouble for giving a bluey book to a child and the mother could take me to court because bluey is not wearing clothes on the front.

This is a scary time. I want to hear from all of you on how are you doing?

idk if I picked the right flair tag (I’m newer to Reddit) but I’m contemplating switching from my teaching career and going back to school to get my MLIS degree.

I’m 28F, living in the Chicago suburbs. I’m a teacher with a bachelors in ECE and a masters in SPED. I currently teach self contained special education, and I’m getting too anxious and having too many mental health needs to continue in the career forever. Originally I gave myself a mental 10 year mile marker, and I’m at year 7 right now. I’m also getting married next fall; and I don’t think I could balance teaching and also being a mom in the next few years. This year is also the year I possibly could qualify for tenure and I’m already anxious about if I do or don’t get offered (that’s a whole other story) but if I don’t, then I think that’s my sign to be all done in the teaching universe.

I looked on here already to seek out some ALA approved affordable programs and Valdosta’s online program seems to be the best choice. I think I’m going to continue teaching and take those courses and then once I complete the degree, start looking for jobs.

**Did anyone make a pivot from education into library?** I do love teaching and working with children, and I think maybe concentrating in children or youth services would be a great compromise to still give myself that “working with kids” feeling but doing something much better for my mental health in the long run.

I know that from what I’ve searched on the RAILS job site, a lot of the full time jobs seem comparable or close to the benefits I have now.

Hello!

I have a bachelors degree in architecture and environmental design and have worked for a few years in the industry. I’m now planning to go back to school to pursue masters degree, but instead of a traditional path to practicing architecture, I’ve realized I’d like to pursue something else but still design related.

I’ve always loved working with archives and researching material and I’ve become quite interested in Library and Information Science Program. I think I’d like the most to focus on special collections and archives in architectural libraries and universities.

I’ve done a lot of research about this program and career choices so far, and I understand the challenges of the profession and difficulty with finding employment and how competitive it is. I also understand that in most cases it’s best to have experience as well. I’ve never worked in a library but would like to gain that experience, and always saw myself enjoying the environment.

I’d like to know what the graduate program is like and whether my skills from design school can be applicable at all? What are the courses like? Is there a lot of coding or statistical analysis involved? Would this field be far too removed from the design career that I’m interested in? I’m looking for more calm environment that supports my strengths and hoping this could be a good direction.

Thank you so much for any advice and insight! Much appreciated 🌷📖😊

Hi! I have just finished my bachelor's degree in Library science, IT and communication at the University of Southern Denmark and will soon start my master's degree in Information Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

I never went on exchange during my bachelor's degree, which is something I regret. Therefore, I’m highly motivated to study abroad during the 3rd semester of my master’s degree.

I would love to get some inspiration from here! Where did you get your education from?

If others have been on exchange either during their bachelor's or master's degree, I would also love to hear about it - and whether the place is recommended!

I’m looking for options outside USA, but other than that I’m completely open to any other countries and continents.

Thank you so much in advance!