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Riley - Here's my question to you: WHY do you want to be a systems librarian? And even more specifically, why a systems librarian and not just an IT person? What do you think a systems librarian does all day? The title is as varied as other any job title in library world -- I'm a systems librarian and I can name at least half a dozen other system librarians who have wholly different job duties than I do yet we all have the same title. What do you _really_ want to do and not do? Now on to Ross: On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 7:38 AM, Ross Singer <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > If you want to be a systems librarian, I wouldn't bother with the MLIS, > honestly. Yes, it's still a requirement on a lot of job postings _now_, > but more and more that's being dropped from systems roles in lieu of > relevant experience. I mostly agree with this, but it will vary from market to market and industry to industry. > > The other sad reality is that an entry level systems librarian position > probably makes less than a developer or sysadmin position in the same > department. As someone fairly new in the field, and in her first position out of school, it varies from market to market and industry to industry. I'm a systems librarian at a community college in a mid-sized city and I make $62K. Other job postings I've seen have ranged from $35-80K -- but cost of living, location, industry, experience, and more add whether or not you're going to have hookers and blow lifestyle. > Fwiw, I have no masters in anything, a BA in theatre (the BEST degree, but > that's another thread), and have worked in library technology > professionally for 20 years (oh, hey there, ravages of time). While not > having an MLIS has kept me out of consideration for some jobs in the past, > almost all of them just wanted a masters in _something_, which, in that > case, get a masters in CS or CE. To reiterate Ross' point about experience -- I worked as a network engineer for nearly a decade before dumping it all and going back to undergrad and doing a double major in English/Art History, then on to two masters (one in humanities and then my MLIS). I took some unix classes while my first foray into college and loved it as well as some programming classes and hated those. During my networking career, I was working on my CCIE but everything I learned was either self-study or on the job training and experience. I wouldn't have had it any other way. (Interestingly, when I graduated from undergrad, I couldn't get hired for beans in any field I was applying because it was assumed I was going to jump ship back to tech, which wasn't the case.Which is why I went on a Masters obtaining spree. But in the long run, my having two masters means I can command more money in academia so hey, it worked out in the end.) YMMV. -- Lisa M. Rabey | @pnkrcklibrarian ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://exitpursuedbyabear.net | http://lisa.rabey.net