A Day in the Life: Career Options in Library and Information Science

Congrats to Filipino Librarian (aka Vonjobi, aka Vernon Totane) for being published in Chapter 77 of this book (see the content page).

Von's chapter is about being a Freelance Book Producer. Not something you'd associate with a career in Library and Information Science, but hey, it's there! Read what Von has to say at his blog post.

I'd say most of the jobs listed in the book are available in Singapore, just that some may not be advertised. Or they may be advertised with generic job titles but the scope could be more specialised. You'd only find out when you go for their interviews, I suspect. E.g. some LIS posts may advertise for "Librarian" and they might end up considering you a position that deals with metadata, development of taxonomies, and systems architecture.

Some of the more unusual jobs listed in the book are:

• Chapter 45: Librarian/Vice President, Financial Company (Dan Cherubin)
• Chapter 53: Librarian, Private Social Club (Mary Jo P. Godwin)
• Chapter 54: Golf Librarian (Doug Stark)

Some LIS professionals go on to establish careers in fields like:

• Chapter 69: Sales Coordinator for International and Special Markets (Ann Snoeyenbos)
• Chapter 72: Senior Product Strategist (Candy Zemon)
• Chapter 73: Editor, Publisher, Author, Speaker (Judith A. Siess)
• Chapter 75: Author of Young Adult Novels (Clare B. Dunkle)
• Chapter 79: Electronic Marketing Manager (Betsy Van der Veer Martens)
• Chapter 93: Competitive Intelligence Analyst (Michael Russell)
• Chapter 95: Community Evangelist (Jenny Spadafora)

The content listings show how wide ranging LIS jobs can be. Of course the definition of the "Information Profession" could be rather broad. But imho, the significance is that these jobs are held by people who'd easily be called "librarians" (check out the list of contributors).

Incidentally, there was a recent discussion at the Librarians-In-Singapore group about job titles and development. It started after I shared this post, which subsequently led to Ivy commenting that "many are still in this profession because we choose to - not because we can't find a better job" and then about "professionalism & attitudes", then to LAS' proposal on the Professional Development Scheme.

I bet the group would have more things to say about this new book. :)