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  • Academic Tech/Library Careers for Ph.D.'s

    By Joshua Kim January 13, 2010 8:39 pm

    The tenure track job market is in the toilet. Have you considered pursuing an academic technology or library career instead?

    Have you thought about applying to a Master's of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program? How about a Master's in Instructional Technology and Learning Services?

    I'm sure you've thought about this option (have you?). Or maybe been given advice that learning technology and academic librarian jobs are wonderful routes to have an academic career.

    If you ever check in with this blog you probably get the sense that I believe that working at the intersection of learning and technology is the best gig going in academia. I love my job, and would be happy to go on-and-on about why I feel so fortunate to have made the transition from an academic discipline (social sciences) and a faculty career to one in academic technology. (Send me an e-mail if you want to chat).

    Same goes for my terminally credentialed academic librarian colleagues. They seem to relish their work, and from what I can see having a Ph.D. is wonderful preparation for a life as an academic librarian.

    I want to be very clear that I do not think you should think about transitioning to academic technology or library careers as a "fall-back." Rather, it may be that you are someone whose true passions and temperament would have you better suited for a career in the library or technology. I'd be curious what our community believes would constitute the right set of skills and temperament to match-up as an academic librarian or technologist? Perhaps the academic librarians could offer some opinions.

    On the academic technology side, I'd say you are good fit if:

    1. You are fascinated by the learning and teaching process.

    2. Innovation in teaching and learning is a major intrinsic motivator.

    3. The intersection of education and technology is where your curiosity and passion lies.

    4. You enjoy collaborating with a range of professionals, including faculty, librarians, media experts.

    5. You are restless with the status quo, and see technology as a lever to support fundamental change.

    Well … that is my list. I'm sure others would add (or take-away) many of the points.

    What would the academic librarian list look like?

    One thing that we don't know is how many Ph.D.'s are working in academic computing and academic libraries. This lack of data drives me crazy. (I'm hoping that someone actually knows where these numbers exist and can point us to them!) We also don't know who these Ph.D.'s working in the library and technology are. Basic things like disciplines they received their degrees, gender, age, and what sort of positions they are working in. It would be great to understand how the levels and trends of Ph.D.'s working in the library and technology have changed over time.

    Are you someone who has made the transition from a faculty life to one in the library or computing? Can you identify the right mix of skills and passions that would make someone a good candidate for this shift? How can a newly minted Ph.D. get information to understand if a library or computing career might be a good option?

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Comments on Academic Tech/Library Careers for Ph.D.'s

  • There Is One Program That Formalizes the Transition
  • Posted by stevenb on January 14, 2010 at 10:00am EST

  • Hi Josh.

    I don't know if you are aware of a program run by the Council for Library and Information Resources called the Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Academic Libraries. The goal is to recruit a few PhDs each year that want to transition into a library career and to give them a year in a library to get some experience. Some but not all then go on to earn the MLS. Read more at:
    http://www.clir.org/fellowships/postdoc/postdoc.html

    I have shared thoughts about this program previously at ACRLog - you might be interested in taking a look at what I had to say about this idea of inviting PhDs who can't get jobs as a faculty member to become academic librarians - http://acrlog.org/2006/10/16/clirs-program-a-real-or-imagined-shortage-of-academic-librarians/

    On one hand it can help to bring in colleagues with a different skill set. On the other hand what does it say about our professional degree if it suggests you only need to spend a year on the job to be qualified (although I appreciate that you are suggesting that the formal degree is necessary or very desirable). What would you think of a program that puts PhDs in learning technology positions after interning for a year in an ed tech department - without any need for the formal degree. Does it then undermine the value of having that degree?

    All that aside, as I point out in my blog post, even if we'd like to welcome these PhDs/ex-faculty to our ranks, let's face it - we are finding it a challenge to find good jobs for the folks who went to library school because they wanted to be working in academic libraries in the first place. It's not as if we exactly have a glut of academic library jobs that need PhDs to fill them.

  • Do your homework!
  • Posted by Dr. Pepper , Academic-in-Training on January 14, 2010 at 10:00am EST

  • Library Jobs are in the toilet as well (and have been for a little while as far as I can tell). I would not endorse going for an MLIS. As a younger professional I looked into it and it did not seem to provide a lot new learning (having already had previous Master level education and having worked in academic libraries). There is a lot of debate out in the library world as to whether or not an MLIS is even a necessity, but of course that is a thorny issue that has been discussed and debated many times on the web. It's like a fire that can't be put out - it subsides and flares up every now and again.

    Having said that, I love working in Academic Tech, I love working and being in a Library, and I think that PhDs who can't find jobs teaching need to look to find what drives them, what motivates them. I can see PhDs who go into Instructional Design/Instructional Technology that work with fellow subject matter experts (SME) to enrich the classes that their fellow SMEs teach. ID/IT, in my opinion, works best when the instructor and the designer speak the same SME language. I also think that the same is true for PhD librarians. Having a SME librarian is better not just for the department that that SME helps, but also students! Who would you prefer helping you out with your Biology research paper? A Librarian who is a generalist? Or someone with an MS or PhD in the field of Biology that is a librarian?

    Now here is a big caveat - this to me seems like an arms race for the next degree. If more and more PhD designers/techies are hired and if more and more PhD librarians are hired, how does that bode for those of us who have not received a PhD? Will that push more people to get a PhD as a credential (just as we are requiring a BA/BS as a credential for most jobs? even if it's not really needed?)

    I think that people who go into PhD programs need to be informed decision makers. If they want to teach, they need to know how the job market is and how it's projected to be. If you are working on a PhD for personal gratification (like I plan to be doing) then the fact that you have PhD isn't really a must for a job, it's just a plus, an addendum, a happy coincidence.

  • Here's the Data (for librarians at least)
  • Posted by Laurabrarian on January 14, 2010 at 11:15am EST

  • We do actually know where these numbers exist (for librarians at least):

    Lindquist, T. & Gilman, T. (2008, January). Academic/research librarians with subject doctorates: Data and trends 1965-2006. portal: Libraries and the Academy 8(1). pp. 31-52. (available thru ProjectMuse: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v008/8.1lindquist.html)

    One of the authors, Todd Gilman, has written extensively on PhDs (in English specifically) who become librarians in his Chronicle of Higher Ed column (full CV at http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/gilmant/gilmant.php).

  • Subject specialties and librarians
  • Posted by Liberal Arts College Librarian on January 14, 2010 at 3:00pm EST

  • A quick comment on Dr. Pepper's post: While I agree with much of the post, these questions are a bit too flip: "Who would you prefer helping you out with your Biology research paper? A Librarian who is a generalist? Or someone with an MS or PhD in the field of Biology that is a librarian?" I admit to being somewhat sensitive about this because I am a generalist, as are so many librarians, especially those who work in liberal arts colleges. I also admit that subject specialties for librarians can be very valuable--especially in fields with highly specific languages (most notably, the sciences.) But it's simply not possible for each student to have the help of a certain subject specialist librarian exactly at the time of need. More importantly, strong generalists have a valuable trait that specialists may not have: they often are better at viewing the undergraduate student's research needs from the beginning researcher's viewpoint rather than from the expert (specialist) researcher's viewpoint. Of course, the generalist librarian needs to have a "big picture" view, a basic understanding of the discipline at hand and the knowledge and skills of a good librarian--i.e. they know more than the student does! But the literature and my personal experience suggests that the expert subject specialist often has such depth of knowledge that they approach research in their subject specialty in a way that is not as helpful to the beginning researcher. I firmly believe that a librarian must be interested in and open to learning the structure and research needs in all disciplines. That very generalism is the core of librarianship.

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