When you start college, you are likely thinking about what type of degree you want. Many colleges pressure you into naming your major in your freshman year. If you haven’t decided on a major, you need to give consideration to earning a degree in library science. Often this area of study is dismissed by students because they automatically think that earning a degree in library science simply means that your career is limited to being a librarian. This could not be further from the truth. The following are are few of the career opportunities available to you with a degree in library science.
So often people think of libraries as being a depository of physical books, and granted, libraries usually have many books. However, there is so much information that is now available in digital format. This includes not only books, but magazines, journals, newspapers and many other types of information that is stored digitally. A lot of this digital information was originally in print form and was transferred to a digital format, but today, so much information has originally appeared in digital format. There never was a physical book or printed copy available. All of this information must be cataloged and preserved, so it is forever protected from loss. It must also be available to those who are allowed access to it. This type of work is done by someone with a degree in library science.
Those who understand library science are well versed in managing data. Although this type of knowledge crosses over into the field of information systems management, this latter area is often used by businesses to understand their data, so profits are increased. Those with library science degrees often works with data, so it is organized in an intuitive way for others to access. The ability to manage data so that it is decimated to as many people as the system allows access. Some systems are open to everybody such as is the case of a public library. Other systems may be open only to researchers in a particular field or to certain members of an organization. Whatever the case may be, it is the library science graduate that is involved in managing this data.
These are collections of information that are made available in certain institutions for a narrow group of people with certain skills or professions. Most people are unaware of these libraries, and many are not libraries in a traditional sense, but they require at least one librarian. In many cases, there may be an entire staff with skills in certain areas to support the library. Media services, acquisitions and research are only a few examples of this. The list of institutions, both non-profit and profit making organizations, that need the services of someone with an education in library science is a long one. Examples include hospitals, corporations, science research facilities, law schools, architecture schools, museums, newspapers and medical schools.
A library science degree opens a lot of doors because at the heart of this field of study lies information, and we are living in a world of information. Today, there is so much information, the big problem is not gathering it, but how to organize this information in a way that becomes useful to people. This is what librarians have been doing since the Dewey decimal system.
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