Library roots/routes

Thing 20 - The Library Routes Project

Library Roots
Way back when I had the careers progression 'chat' with the progression coach at school I first wanted to be a vet (this quickly changed when I found out I would need to be good at Biology) then I wanted to pick subjects which appealed to me so I did a BSc in Environment and Development. For all the school provideed a progression coach the idea of a career was never discussed, all he wanted was to get as many people as possible to do A levels and go on to university, what happened after that was never discussed. Consequently I was so focussed on doing Geography and doing well in that subject that everything else was stuck firmly in the background, I was aware that at some point I would need a job as I wanted to buy a house and have nice things in it, but that was something that 'grown ups' thought about.

That magical time of the end of the first degree was looming and I had no idea what I was going to do with  my life, noone at uni discusses careers, they want you to pay the money on time, hand in assignments on time and that was my experience of university, they didn't care what you did after you left as long as you could tick a box saying that you had either went on to postgrad education or got a job so that they could say that a high percentage of students were engaged in something worthwhile after graduating so they looked good.

At this point I was really fortunate to be talking to my aunty who happens to work in a library, she got me a temp job here to finish the book move and RFID the books. Until that point a library was one of two things to me (both happy things!) there was the public library which provided the means to escape into different worlds with different characters and then there was the academic library which was full of knowledge and wonderfully knowledgable staff. I had never considered a career in librarianship, I wasn't even aware that being a librarian could be a career, how I wish I'd known this when I was having my career 'chat'.

Library Routes
I think I'm making progress in my career, still waiting for that break though I am prepared for when it happens. After gaining a permanent position here I realised that I was happy and that this was something I could actually spend my life doing (happy times!). I started looking at job adverts for higher positions to see what experience I needed to move up the career ladder. The first thing that struck me was the need of a qualification, after completing my BSc I could not afford to then do a second undergrad course, nor could I face another 3 years of lectures and assignments, fortunately Northumbria offers a distance learning MSc. This seemed perfect, my employer was willing to part fund it which made it even better, it would fit around my work so I could still afford to live. First step achieved (I'm on the right ladder, below).

After completing the MSc I then began applying for jobs, after a failed interview a senior member of staff noticed that I wanted to move up but was lacking the experience and so arranged some volunteering opportunities for me, therefore adding experience to qualifications (I'm now on the left ladder).

I hope to soon be on the centre ladder! I'm almost ready to submit my application to Charter, adding the professional body qualification to an educational qualification and experience. One thing that does worry me, though I am confident that I have done everything I can to professionally develop, is the jobs market. It is one thing to be ready to move up but when that dream job presents itself I am always aware of just how many people are going for it due to the current economic climate.

A waste of time and money?

Having found myself with some (rare) spare time I decided to investigate a few of the blogs I have heard great things about. One of which is Ned Potter's (aka The Wikiman) which is often mentioned. After having a look through some of his posts I came across this one: The LIS Masters is a qualification of convenience. The wikiman makes some valid points, I did not know I wanted to be a librarian at 17, I could not commit 3 years to a full time undergrad BSc and the MSc delivered by distance learning was really the only option open to me unless I won the lottery and could afford to live for 3 years without working.

However, although I did do the course 'just to get a bit of paper to get me a better job' I also got a lot more out of it, not just the 'interesting stuff' I learnt. I learnt a lot more about the organisation that I work for, not just the business side of it but also what different people do, people which I had seen every day for 3 years and smiled at but never really spoke to. I also got to know people who had done the course in previous years and got to be good friends them.

I agree that the level isn't really of a high standard until you do the dissertation, I don't see how it can be when it's a one shoe fits all Masters. It's not even something that could be split into a series of narrower focussed degrees, where would you draw the lines? Public/academic? What about HE/FE? What about by size? By speciality? The library world is very good at drawing all these classifications, but by making things so specialised has the library world created a situation where it is impossible to have a meaningful qualification? The BSc is a suitable introductary course but what about people who don't have the luxury of knowing what they want to do with their lives at 17?

How far does a bit of paper get you? It depends on how you measure it really. The experiences I have because of my MSc have been valuable to me, but I don't think I'm any better at my job because I have another 3 letters after my name. I'm better at my job because I went out and spoke to people, the MSc was the impetus for it but it was how I chose to tackle the assignments that made it happen.

My experiences so far...

I got into librarianship by sheer luck, I finished my undergrad degree and realised that I would have to get a job, having very little experience in my chosen field (Geography) my aunt was kind enough to get me a job through an agency to work on a book move in the library that she works at. I started here, found I liked it and was fortunate to get a permanent position when one came up. After working here for a year I realised that I wanted to be a librarian and had completely gone off the idea of being a geographer (the idea of bugs and mud did it), looking at job adverts I came to 2 conclusions: the first was that I would need a degree in librarianship to get where I wanted to be and I needed to look into Chartership.

As I knew that I wanted to continue in education for a higher degree I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and applied to do a Masters in Information and Library Management by distance learning at Northumbria. The best part about this was not so much the course but the way I got to know more people at work as I asked for them for help on various aspects of my assignments, I now have a better idea of who does what and why.

When the MSc was finished I knew I wanted to do more, I love learning things and like to go training courses and events, so Chartership seemed the logical next step. I am now past the half way point and have benefitted from the goal setting imbedded into Chartership. Previously I had simply attended courses/events which were relevant to my current post, after writing my PPDP I found it was better to have a section for the future so I could have aims and direction to achieve my goal of becoming a librarian. At this time I am at the start of my career but I have a plan of how to get where I want to be.

So although I ended up doing temp work at a library by chance it's been really good for me as I've found a career i'm interested in and can see myself being interested in long term.