After I wrote several columns offering practical advice to Ph.D.'s who might want to consider a career in academic librarianship, I began to hear from some of my fellow librarians who were less than thrilled with my encouragement.
Careers in academic libraries, these critics said, should not be considered a haven for Ph.D. refugees who "failed" on the faculty job market. Some librarians -- in comments made directly to me and to one another on various blogs -- said the profession should reward those for whom librarianship was a first-choice career, not something resorted to in desperation.
Let me state up front: I am an English Ph.D. and an academic librarian. So I suppose it's no surprise that the criticisms I've heard about Ph.D. applicants strike me as fallacious, based as they are on an either-or reasoning: Either librarianship was your first choice or you didn't really choose it at all, you just fell into it against your will, and hence don't deserve its rewards.
If you are a Ph.D. applying for a position in an academic library, you need to be prepared for the resistance you might encounter from some of your would-be colleagues. I'd like to offer a few suggestions on how to nip such negative perceptions in the bud.
It may be true that some Ph.D.'s who pursue library careers do so with limited enthusiasm, although I don't know any such people. But many others legitimately re-evaluate their priorities and become librarians because they genuinely want to, and possess the aptitude for such work. Those Ph.D.'s may have been failed by the competitive faculty job market but they are anything but failures. Moreover, many people without Ph.D.'s choose librarianship as a second career path, so why single out doctoral recipients for derision?
You would think there would be no need to explain any of this, yet some members of my profession persist in regarding Ph.D.'s who wish to become librarians with suspicion -- when not treating them with outright hostility.
I remember a guest lecturer in one of my library-school courses -- a woman who headed a department in a significant research library -- telling the class about her preferences when it came to potential employees: "Someone once said a Ph.D. is a person who has plodded along long enough to get the degree," she said. "And I have to tell you, in my experience it's true."
What shocked me was not that she thought that, or even that she said it to a class of graduate library students -- which typically included a few Ph.D.'s -- but that the acid rolled off her tongue so trippingly it became clear she had said it countless times before and encountered no objections.
One reason for such attitudes is that librarians conflate the categories of "Ph.D." and "faculty member." And the truth is, many faculty members regard librarians more as support staff members than as colleagues. Librarians know that, and some bristle at the thought of being lorded over by Ph.D.'s "slumming it" among their ranks. Many librarians assume that the administration will regard the Ph.D.'s as superior, or that the Ph.D.'s will see themselves that way, which is just as irksome.
Such attitudes are a lose-lose proposition for both libraries and Ph.D.'s, but they are nonetheless real, fairly prevalent, and unlikely to disappear. So, if you are a Ph.D. looking to join the ranks of academic librarians, you need to become adept at reassuring potential employers of your value -- not as a faculty manqué -- but as an academic librarian-in-training with a thorough understanding of the research process.
How do you accomplish that? Begin by familiarizing yourself with the library-journal literature. Learn about the most pressing issues in academic libraries such as serial pricing, duplication of print and electronic resources, material selection for remote storage, or digital reference services. Practice searching some of the standard electronic databases found in academic libraries, especially those with which you are not as comfortable as you think you should be.
Then try interviewing librarians in an academic or special library. Contact the librarian who heads the department in which you hope to work. Find out which duties professionals and especially paraprofessionals (i.e., employees who don't yet have a master's in library science) perform there.
Sell your commitment to, and aptitude for, library work. State your intention to complete a master's degree in library science. Under no circumstances should you question your need for the credential openly, whatever your feelings on the matter. Don't forget to write a thank-you note to follow up.
Then keep your eyes peeled for job postings there. That way, when the right opening appears you'll have an advantage: The librarian will already know you, like you, and appreciate your potential as a future coworker.
While waiting for a job opening, or even shortly after you land that first job, consider attending the conference of an organization for librarians and other digital-information specialists, such as the Association of College & Research Libraries, Educause, or the Library & Information Technology Association.
You might even try submitting an article for publication in the library-science literature. The acceptance rate tends to be much higher than you're probably used to when approaching the standard journals of other disciplines. Consider specifically journals with a more academic or cultural and historical (as opposed to practical) orientation, such as Portal or Libraries & Culture.
As I mentioned in a previous column, when you send in your application materials, you don't need to submit a standard academic vita. Just send in a résumé, but one that is fuller than you might submit for a corporate job. For example, rather than listing all of your publications, presentations, and courses taught, consider summarizing them. Emphasize your skills and experience over your formal education. (The exception is people applying for library positions specializing in a particular subject who already have a master's in library science, and either a Ph.D. or a master's in another subject. Those positions are more academic in nature, so candidates should submit a standard academic vita.)
When you get to the interview stage -- especially for a paraprofessional position -- remember that your major selling points will be different from those of a traditional applicant with a master's in library science. Different, but not better or worse.
For example, you may know the literature of your discipline or subspecialty well but be fuzzier on the corresponding resources of other disciplines and subspecialties. Traditional librarians seasoned in reference generally have a wider-ranging knowledge of reference-related resources across the curriculum and how to use them effectively than you will (at least initially), while you may make up in depth what you lack in breadth.
Depth and breadth are complementary qualities, both of which should be regarded as essential to library work, so play to your strengths without claiming to have a greater command of the world of information resources than you can believably demonstrate. Emphasize your teaching and research background, your willingness to learn new skills (especially technology) and information resources peculiar to the setting in which you seek employment. Above all, emphasize your enthusiasm for team work.
If you are interviewing for a professional position, avoid asking about grants and release time for your own research: Academic libraries rarely have much of either to go around. They don't, as a rule, value librarians' research agendas to anywhere near the same extent as academic departments do.
Finally, although I don't recommend that you call attention to this explicitly either on paper or in person, you can take comfort in knowing that you possess at least one crucial advantage on the market: Since you'll eventually have both a Ph.D. and a master's in library science, librarians and faculty members alike (at least the enlightened ones) will think of you as "one of us."
