[Sca-librarians] Plea for off-topic advice

[Sally Burnell]

Right now, the biggest demand and the highest shortage of librarians, 
and thus, the greatest chance of employment, is in the fields of 
Children's and Teen Librarians in a Public Library setting. Those 
fields are severely hurting for qualified applicants because no one 
wants to go there. There's also a ton of money in scholarships and 
grants for studying in those fields as well.

Frankly, since I have wanted to go to Library School almost since the 
day I hired into a library, but can in no way afford it on my own, it's 
tempting just to get money to study one of those fields, get a job for 
a while in one of those areas, then switch to what I would REALLY like 
to do, that being Special Collections, when and if a job becomes 
available. 

That would be my advice, having worked in a Public Library setting now 
for 21 years as a Library Assistant (although in this library, we've 
all been switched to more "corporate" sounding job titles, so here I am 
called a "Public Service Assistant", which, when I tell people that, 
they have NO idea what I do - they assume that I work for something 
like the City Water Department or some such thing like that.....I'd 
just as soon call myself what I am, that being a Library Assistant!). 

~Saradwen,
aka Sally Burnell
21 year employee of the Akron-Summit County Public Library system's 
bookmobile department