Living in the United States... I felt a little left out by this section because I don't apply for chartership and there aren't trainee-ships. I took a look at the CILIP website. To earn chartership from the CILIP in UK you have to prepare a portfolio that details your plans, your experience, your hours of service, and your professional development skills. CILIP members must also have a mentor. As intimidating and tough as these qualifications look I really like how the UK holds their librarians up to a rigorous and standard professional guideline. I wish librarians in the US were held up to these types of standards....why? 2 Reasons:Reason 1.) I feel that many people in the United States think that any person off the street can be a librarian. A program like CILIP's would show people that Librarians work and train hard to be professionals at their job.
Reason 2.) In the US every state has a different standard, different state testing & requirements to place for public library jobs, and different levels of schooling they require. A country wide standard would definitely make things less confusing. The ALA helps a little with this but there is still are a lot of different channels to go through.
Here's is what I have to do to become a qualified & hopefully successful public librarian in the state of New York:
- Earn a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science (LIS) or an Master's of Science in Information Science (MSIS) from an American Libraries Association (ALA) accredited program
- Become New York State Certified
- (see New York Librarian Associations helpful wiki to find out how)
- Fill out the appropriate paperwork and pay a fee for each city and/or town, and/or county I wish to apply for work in ...the paper work is very similar for each but still tedious
- Since I live in Albany right now here is an example of the different forms I would have to fill out to work in Albany:
- city form
- this form allows me to apply for jobs at any of the Albany Public Libraries
- county form
- this form allows me to apply for jobs at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Community Library and the Bethlehem, Guilderland and Voorheesville Public Libraries
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| NY Counties |
This makes me wonder how much paper work I will have to fill out to get a library job when I move to New York City...in a year or two.....?
Like a good MSIS student I decided to consult a librarian. I sent an email to the reference librarians at the New York Public Library.... I hope to post the response soon :)
Thing 11 Mentoring Unlike the CILIP program, library students in NY are not required to find or build relationships with a mentor but it is encouraged. Personally, I try to learn from professors or supervisors at my internships or volunteer locations...but I am to shy too bluntly ask someone to be my mentor...If I knew someone who advertised themselves as one.. I'd like to think that I would grab the opportunity.
Last semester I went to an "Get a Job! Panel" held at my school where we could ask professionals about job hiring and experiences. I met a librarian there who offered me her email and told her I could talk to her if I had any questions. I plan to hold her to that. Also, there is a woman who works at the museum where I intern who I hope will teach me about grant writing.
It's interesting to read about how different things are outside the UK. People here have differing opinions about CILIP but I guess we're lucky!
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify, chartership is optional and very few jobs require it although it is a good way of showing commitment to the sector and your CPD. People over here sill think any random girl off the street can be a librarian though...
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