Riley,

Like many others here, I came from the humanities and stumbled into this
line of work. I have BAs in philosophy and religion. There were virtually
zero job opportunities with those degrees, so for various reasons I did an
MLS program and at the same time got an entry-level IT job, and from there I
have just learned through experience and self-teaching.

If I could go back, I would definitely have majored in something
computer-science related. There are usually (at least) two tracks of
computer science offered at schools: the "hard" computer science that learns
about the inner workings of processors, languages, etc, and the applied
computer science that focuses on learning how to design software or
administer systems. Personally, I would definitely lean towards the applied
branch. As a systems librarian, I don't need to know how to write a kernel
or anything, I just need to know how to write web apps and actually do stuff
with the computer.

Also, there is a pretty huge chance that by the time you get to the end of
college you will have changed your mind several times about what kind of
career you want. A degree related to software development or systems
administration pretty much guarantees you job security _forever_ in the
event that you are no longer interested in library work.

And, as others have stated, under no circumstances should you major in
library science as an undergrad. You can't do anything with that degree
except library work, so you have effectively pigeonholed yourself in the
event that you are not interested in libraries in the future. There is a
strong sentiment among many librarians that even the MLS degree is of
questionable value, and an undergraduate library science degree is even more
questionable. I'd say get an IT- or CS-related bachelor's degree, and later
_if_ you are still interested in working in libraries, _consider_ getting an
MLS degree.

Something to keep in mind is that you make a lot more money in an
entry-level programming job with just a BA as you would in an entry-level
librarian job with an MLS. At least in the Midwest, programmer salaries
typically start in the $50k range, and library jobs pay something in the low
$40k range for professional librarian positions and somewhere between $18k -
$30k for a paraprofessional staff job. And then you also have to pay off
student loans for the MLS. In perspective, my (very cheap) MLS cost about
$20,000, and my loan payments for a 10-year payment plan are $240/month or
$2880/year. And that is on top of whatever debt you incur as an undergrad.

As far as which school, I'd just look for an affordable public university
that has smallish class sizes. IMO the big-wig Ivy-League type schools are
good for graduate studies because you get to study with leading scholars,
but as an undergrad you will probably be taking classes with TAs and
adjuncts. The massive amount of debt you will incur at those schools is not
worth the extra bit of prestige that will come from your degree. You want a
school that has an established program in your field of study and not huge
class sizes. Look for somewhere with 3 or more CS profs and class sizes less
than 20 if possible. All my best learning in college occurred when I got to
interact with my profs, and that is a lot easier when they don't have 100
other students competing for their time.

Well this message got long. Sorry for the textwall.

Josh Welker
Information Technology Librarian
James C. Kirkpatrick Library
University of Central Missouri
Warrensburg, MO 64093
JCKL 2260
660.543.8022

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Riley Childs
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] College Question!

I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to
college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major
in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I
wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they
are now.

BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the
admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster...   🎢

Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my
BFF :P


Riley Childs
Student
Asst. Head of IT Services
Charlotte United Christian Academy
(704) 497-2086
RileyChilds.net
Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes