Not Wanting to Give Up on LIS?

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Not Wanting to Give Up on LIS?

1Teacup_
Maio 28, 2017, 8:58 pm

Hi,

I left my job after 12 years and I'm currently at home concentrating on a small home business but a part of me just loves LIS so much. I do miss my old job of running a library but I do not miss the bureaucracies and baggage that came with it. I have a masters degree in Information Studies and was thinking of doing my PhD (for personal gains if anything) but I don't want to travel at the moment and I'm based in an area with no schools offering PhD programs.

So I thought to myself what could I possibly do on my own that involves me with the field of LIS without needing to take these obvious paths. I thought about continuing research in the field. There's lack of that in my area. I also thought of setting up a website as a gateway of information pertaining to my region but not sure how useful that would be.

I was hoping to hear some ideas from someone in a similar situation. I'm not retired yet (I'm 36 this year) although I do feel sometimes like I'm too old to venture into new things. Maybe someone retired or at home is doing something related to LIS that I could find inspiration or the motivation from. Or just your thoughts I guess.

2Hope_H
Jul 29, 2017, 10:19 am

So sorry this thread got buried!

I'm not sure I have much in the way of advice or suggestions, but at your age, you certainly NOT too old to start a new venture.

What about looking into an online program? I'm not sure about a PhD program, but I know a lot of the Master's programs have online components.

Consulting may be another way to go.

3Teacup_
Ago 6, 2017, 8:58 pm

Hello Hope,
You're so kind, thank you. I actually finished my MLIS. I miss it immensely though.
Can you tell me more about consulting work? What type of consulting can an MLIS holder do?

4Hope_H
Ago 10, 2017, 7:21 am

I don't know tons about consulting. (In the field of K-12 education, driving over 50 miles to present something makes you an expert, and if you fly in, you'd better not be too boring.)

Try looking at some of the projects mentioned here: LIBRARY CONSULTANTS DIRECTORY ONLINE http://www.libraryconsultants.org

5Teacup_
Ago 11, 2017, 1:33 pm

Thank you so much Hope. Very interesting indeed. Going to look at it soon :}

6WeeTurtle
Jul 3, 2018, 1:57 am

Success so far?

Curious, as I'm 35 and just getting into library work, so I would certainly hope that it isn't considered old yet!

7ferthalangur
Jan 12, 2019, 4:45 pm

I started library school at age 41, and I was not the youngest there. It is a very common place for people to pursue a second or third career. I had burned out as an I.T. specialist and fell in love with archives. I worked for some years as an archivist in a local historical society, before taking another I.T. job, but brought some of my archivist / library skills to that job. So, I guess that I'm a hybrid. Even now that I am in a state of "career hibernation" ... doing a bit of consulting and mostly volunteering, I have no regrets about finishing my MLS, even though it is really hard to make a comfortable living as a librarian or archivist if you don't have other resources.

There are plenty of consulting opportunities for people with an MLIS who can apply themselves. The hardest part about consulting (in any field) is that you have to be your own marketing department.

If you market the generic skills that come with an MLIS ... especially emphasize the "I" for Information ... there are all kinds of things you can do. Much of it 100% remotely. Organizing information ... that is not just about books in a library ... that is what a modern information professional does. You can put yourself out there as a reviewer / organizer of web sites that people are building, to help them present their material in a way that makes sense to their intended audience. Help a business without library staff get their collections organized online using LibraryThing and Tinycat for example. Assist authors or researchers or editors by doing their research ... randomly Googling a couple of terms is not the way to do good fact-checking, and people will pay someone to get it right. Like dealing with librarians and information professionals and people in general? Make yourself available to companies / non-profits, etc. that need to hire a librarian / archivist / etc. but don't have the background to make an intelligent hiring decision -- you can review the resumes, do the phone screens, even sit in on the interviews with the final candidates and advise the manager / director who will be making the hire whether the candidate will be a good long-term fit from a professional skills perspective. Hiring the wrong person, even for a small non-profit, can cost a lot more (in real cash and also in reputation and good will) than hiring a temporary consultant to help make a good permanent hire the first time. And so on.

8Teacup_
Maio 20, 2020, 3:00 pm

Hi WeeTurtle :)

I sadly parted ways with the library world. I signed up for MBA to help me kickstart my business but I couldn't stop thinking about the world of books and data. Every assignment, every example, every lecture, I find myself somehow linking it back to LIS. In the end I couldn't keep going and dropped out of MBA. I did learn a lot from Economics class though. I just couldn't justify learning all the formulas and equations which I felt were a big waste of time.

Now I'm studying publishing (second masters) through distance learning. It's not library work but it's an interesting world. Library work is all about serving others, offering help, understanding people's information needs (which is truly where my heart is). Publishing is all about selling people information. It's kind of the glam side of the book world. Libraries are humble, down to earth; bookshops are buzzing and charismatic :D

I'm enjoying it so far. I honestly don't see myself in anything yet but I'm slowly getting there. I would "like" to start my own information services one day as a info professional and specifically in the academic field but before I do that I need to understand business and how publishing works in general.

Don't give up. The world of book is MASSIVE. There's bound to be a place that feels like 'home' for each one of us 💔

9Teacup_
Maio 20, 2020, 3:11 pm

Ferthalangur, thank you so much for sharing this. It makes me feel so much less alone because I always feel the sting of regret when I realize I wasted so much of my life stuck in places instead of playing my cards right and fast. I'm in my late 30s and I definitely feel weird studying masters again in publishing. MLIS was the JOY of my life. Literally. It was one of the hardest and most horrible phases in my life but it completely opened my eyes to something new. I thought I was going into literature/linguistics and stay there forever.

I totally agree. The world of information is HUGE. The opportunities are endless. My only problem is that I don't have the confidence :( I'm struggling really hard to make it on my own. I don't have the motivation. At the same time working in an institution killed my spirit for years. I was miserable there despite having the dream job I always wanted.

Marketing is VERY hard for me (when I'm marketing myself that is) because I don't find it easy to go to people and tell them HEY-- I'M WORTH YOUR MONEY. I feel I'm better suited to "help", assist, listen, think WITH someone, understand their needs, listen to reference questions. It's all I know to be honest. I don't know anything else.

I'm trying hard now to understand publishing. It feels uncomfortable a lot because I feel like any other business--- there are sides of it that I don't agree with. But I think editing, reviewing, research is where my heart is. Like you said, I'm trying to keep an open mind and just allow myself to take different courses and learn new things (despite time running and feeling old hehe).

IT is a HUGE asset. You should be so proud. If I ever have the energy, I would love to study something in IT. It's a huge asset, especially for MLIS. When I was in library school, a lot of students with us were from IT backgrounds and engineering. They went into data management later and I hear they're doing really well.

I don't know what the future holds to be honest, especially now when everything feels so scary and the world is in a mess but I try :( And your message cheered me up hehe. Thanks.