MLS/MLIS degrees and your career path

[Laurie]

Hi everyone! I hope you all are having as much fun as I am while doing the More Things program.
I am a recent college graduate and am planning on going to get my masters in library science soon. I am very interested to know what degrees you librarians out there have and possibly where you went to library school. I would love to go to grad school physically but that would involve moving away from northern Minnesota, which might be difficult for me. Do any of you have library degrees that you earned from an accredited institution online? I would love if I could hear what you guys think are the values of both going to a grad school traditionally and getting your degree online? These are big decisions and I can't wait to start a program but I want to make the right choice!

I would love to hear about what areas of librarianship people are involved in. I am thinking about going into academic or reference librarianship because I love the research aspects of the library work I have done in the past.

If you have any tips or experiences that you have encountered on your path to librarianship, I would love to hear them!

Thanks all and visit my blog........http://lubaurubie.blogspot.com/

[Minnemom]

I will say this: the best advice I ever received was to go to grad school right after college, while it was possible to get away. If I'd waited 5 or 10 years, I never would have gone back for my degree. Life had changed too much by then.

That being said, in my day (mid-90's, not really so long ago) there were no online programs, so I did have to leave home. I completed my program in one full year. The benefit of being in a program physically was building relationships with a variety of library-school students, even if they weren't in the same track or classes as me. My focus was on school library, but my friends were specializing in public, academic, and special libraries as well.

It was also good to leave the comfort zone of my home area and go off to school for a year. It broadened my horizons to be at a large university and live in a different state.

Linda

[Laurie]

Yes, I agree that going soon after graduating is the way to go. I'm planning on going next year (which will about three years since I graduated) but I've had amazing experiences in this time (like being a library technician at a local public library - such wonderful work experiience!) so I think I've made the right decision.

My plan right now is to go to University of Columbia, MO if I get in. I think it will be great to go away for a couple years too, I've been in Duluth my whole life. Thanks for your input :)

[Karla Gedell]

All right, repeat after me: "You Are Never Too Old To Go Back To School." I worked in the printing business for 15 years before it TANKED and I quit my job and decided to go to library school. Went to St. Kate's (1996; 3rd class - that was fun). Best decision I've ever made. Because I was 45 years old at the time - I think I had good focus and just a different point of view. Yes, it's great to go to graduate school right after college, but that may not be possible.

Re: type of library. Because my undergrad degree is Marketing, I thought for sure I'd want to be in a corporate library doing business research. My advice now is Prepare for Anything. Be broad in your choices because you never know where you'll end up. As it turned out - I ran into a CSC classmate going to one of my part-time library jobs, and she was leaving her job in a law library, which I got. Fortunately, I took Legal Research because "Special Libraries" wasn't offered. Get ready for anything. Good luck; you'll love librarianship!

[Peg Lawrence]

Hi:
I finished my MLIS from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I did the degree entirely online and MANY years after my first degree. The only reason I could afford it now is because I am working full time. The price of online classes increased each year that I took classes and I can see how young people end up with so much debt. I got both a scholarship and a grant which helped. Good luck to you!
Peg Lawrence