Online Degrees

Library Science Degrees

Salaries For Degrees in Library Science

People with a degree in Library Science can be employed in a variety of occupations. While no one can say with certainty what you personally will do with a degree in Library Science, our survey panel picked the following occupations as likely options:

• Librarians (Best salary!)
• Archivists
• Library technicians

Salaries are highly dependent on how skilled one is at negotiation, experience, policies at your employer, region, and more. The estimates we show on these pages are just that: estimates. Your individual experience will likely vary.

Where does this come from?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the US government, classifies all workers into some 800-odd occupational categories.  We paid a team of freelancers to get their view on what type of degree a holder of each type of job would likely have majored in.  For pairs which had a high degree of consensus, we created a link between the degree and the job.

From this, we calculated the average salary for Library Science degrees and converted it into a lifetime value.  We then compared it against other degrees at the same level of schooling (such as associate's, bachelor's, or master's), so that you can make informed educational and employment decisions.

What Can a Library Studies Student Expect to Learn?

In studying for a master's degree in library science, which is required to be a librarian, a person will learn a variety of things that build upon the skills she already possesses upon entry into the library science graduate program. It is necessary to have a desire to serve the community of the library one will work in, whether public, private, academic or K-12 school. It is important to be able to exercise initiative and to use independent judgment, especially in upholding the principles of intellectual freedom.

It is important to have at least a basic understanding of computers and how to use the Internet, as much of the training will be using digital resources and interacting in various online environments, which is good practice for the day-to-day job as a librarian in all venues. Being an analytical thinker is usually a core trait that most people with an interest in library science as a career already possess.

In library school, one will learn the history of the profession of librarianship; the underlying principles of librarianship; the basics and importance of the concept of intellectual freedom; the various types of librarianship and libraries that one may work in; how to conduct reference work in a generalized sense and how to conduct reference work in specialized environments, such as in business, law, medicine, etc.; one will learn the principles of cataloging and how to catalog materials, at least in a foundational sense.

Classes will be taken on management, as most librarians are supervisors at some point in their career and many go on to manage libraries and some become directors of library systems. Classes will be taken on a variety of library materials, depending on the type of librarianship path that the library science student has chosen. For instance, public librarians need a wide variety of understanding of the types of popular materials desired by the public. Children's librarians will need to study children's literature.

One will study about the acquisitions of library materials as in some libraries, a librarian will wear many hats and will perform the functions that in a larger library would be divided among specialist librarians. Large libraries will have cataloging librarians, reference librarians, a library manager, acquisitions librarians, systems librarians, etc. Courses will be taken on choosing software applications for the library and the library in the modern digital environment. Much of what librarians do today is related to the online world and is managed in a digital environment.

Online Schools Offering Accredited Library Science Degree Programs

There are currently 50 programs at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada that meet the American Library Association standards for accreditation. Some of these are online:

• Ashford University
• Clarion University of Pennsylvania
• Drexel University
• Florida State University
• North Carolina Central University
• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• San Jose State University
• Texas Woman's University
• University of Alabama
• University of Puerto Rico
• University of Southern Mississippi
• University of Tennessee
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, and
• Wayne State University
• Southern Connecticut State University
• University at Buffalo,
• State University of New York

Top Colleges & Universities Offering Campus-based Library Science Degrees

Two of the most prestigious programs in the field of Library Science are at the:

• University of Illinois at Urbana and
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

However, any of the accredited programs must adhere to the rigorous requirements of the ALA and are able to allow a librarian to prepare for a career in the field of library science.

Famous Students of Library Science

One of the most famous librarians in modern history is Laura Bush (pictured right), wife of former President of the United States, George W. Bush.

Some other famous librarians are:

• Melvil Dewey, an American educator and librarian who invented the Dewey Decimal System of Library Classification
• Zenodotus, the first superintendent of the Library of Alexandria and a noted scholar of the 3rd Century B.C.
• S.R. Ranganathan, an Indian mathematician and librarian who is known for his Five Laws of Library Science and his colon classification system, one of the first analytico-synthetic classification systems
• David Hume, the philosopher
•  Antonio Panizzi, Chief Librarian of the British Museum Library in the 19th Century
• Roland Barthes, French writer and philosopher
•  Hector Berlioz, French composer and Librarian of the Paris Conservatoire
• Lewis Carroll, author
• Archibald MacLeish, 9th Librarian of Congress and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
• Beverly Cleary, novelist of children's literature and librarian
• Anne Tyler, novelist and librarian

The online environment is causing significant changes to the fields of library science & information retrieval. Here is a guide on evaluating the credibility of online information.