Library Jobs

A library job should always be considered as a viable option for providing a long-term and stable career choice, one that can provide an avenue to a number of differing goals, from service rendered to the public to staking out a place in academic culture. Though library jobs are sometimes stereotypically associated with a cliché of old-fashioned, anachronistic forms of information technology such as filing cabinets and microfilm media archives, the profession of a librarian is argued by many involved in the field to be one closely linked with the cusp of emerging media technology in the digitally driven age. A library job necessitates an acquaintance and level of comfort with the proliferating array of tools being offered through online functions for the sorting of, access to and utilization of information. By offering the librarian a wide exposure to such skills, advocates for the library field argue that the holder of a library job can attain a unique and secure vantage point in the new media world. Library jobs have already been transformed greatly by the growth in Internet usage and increased sophistication in digitally based filing systems, and is predicted by today’s librarians to be facing a new slew of promising changes and innovations in the future.

Another advantage of a library job rests in the variety of forms it may take. Library jobs can be attained in an array of different fields and embrace a number of different professional settings. The most commonly known and seen kind of a library job is that provided by the existence of public libraries, which are also predicted to be the most common. Such library jobs offer the chance to interact with a broad range of users in terms of backgrounds and interests, which depending on the library professional may be more or less desirable as a condition for working conditions. The basic task of a public librarian has been defined by professionals in the field as providing for relaxation, entertainment and the pursuit of personal interests on the part of the public. For some people, this task may not appear a sufficiently interesting impetus for pursuing a library job. In such cases, another option that bears consideration by the prospective librarian is that of academic library jobs, which are based out of colleges and universities and are geared toward the needs of students and professors conducting research for academic purposes. Though this job may seem simple in the sense that publicly available books will be accessible to users through a straightforward online catalog search, the diverse needs of people in an academic setting can call for ingenuity on the part of library professionals in locating information. Another rewarding aspect of this kind of library job is the chance to participate in new developments that may be taking place in the field of academic research. Library jobs are also available for curating private collections of companies.

Public Libraries

Today public libraries are considered throughout much of the world to be an essential feature of a functioning and healthy civil society. Taxpayer dollars and private philanthropic funds are collected and utilized to maintain the availability of these services offering access to different kinds of information and media for the purposes of the general public. Any city or town that is considered to be thriving will offer its residents and visitors access to at least some kind of public library, though the size of a facility and the range of materials and services it offers may vary according to financial health and the size of the local population being served. In the history of the United States, the development of the concept of a public library has played an important part in the nurturing of the country’s sense of its citizenry and correspondingly in its sense of the importance of the democratic system. Going back further in history, to the English origins of the American political system, one will find that the creation of public libraries also played some part as a factor in the development of political culture and the space it allowed for the participation of ordinary citizens. By providing a relatively inexpensive and largely self directed means for the education of the citizens of a country, the public library concept has contributed greatly to the development of democratic political culture.

The early growth in library systems in world history occurred largely through religious and educational institutions that generally restricted the availability of the materials they owned to members of the institutions. The first institution in England which could be described as resembling the modern notion of a public library was created in 1598 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, with the creation of the Francis Trigge Chained Library, which is still in existence. The widespread proliferation of public libraries organized according to a standardized system had to wait in England for several centuries, until 1847, a time of legislative and governmental change in the country that saw a widening of the political process in terms of its accessibility to the general populace of England. In that year Parliament appointed the politician William Ewart to head a committee that would study conditions throughout the country to determine if it would be necessary to establish a system of public libraries for the benefit of the public. Two years later Ewart’s committee returned with a recommendation that a public library service be made publicly and widely available, noting the poor state of those public libraries then available. This report persuaded Parliament to pass the Public Libraries Act of 1850, which gave all cities in which the number of residents was greater than 10,000 the right to pass taxes for public library support. Another important legislative step toward the development of the public library system occurred with the 1870 Public School Act, which greatly increased the rate of literacy in the English public and thereby increased demand for creating available public library institutions.

Online Libraries

Today online libraries are an important component of information retrieval services, offering access to a wide range of information and media materials for the benefit of users ranging from researches in the world of academe to people seeking relaxation and entertainment. With the development of computer technology through the 20th century, the ability to offer the use of a online library to the general public has been a common goal, which went through many important steps on the way to its present day availability. As work took place for creating the foundations of the technology that lies behind the existence of online libraries in the 1960s, several experimental systems were implemented at the centers for digital research, but without the degree of successful development that would have allowed these systems to be offered for the general use of the public. In the next decade, systems were first successfully created in United States academic settings that could provide for the general availability of online libraries to broad academic populations and the general public. Ohio State University in 1975 and the Dallas Public Library in 1978 created the earliest large scale programs for cataloging media and information materials for the purposes required by an online library, while the first system for allowing a wide public access to online libraries was created by a librarian from the Boston area, Alicia Paige,who then founded an electronics company for the purpose of commercially offering the system she had developed.

The earliest foundations of the creation of online library systems consisted of technology intended to closely mimic the models that up to that time had been used for the cataloging of references in a card catalog. Online libraries at this time would consist of a limited number of indexes for various kinds of information that were organized according to one paradigm and could be thus accessed through a computer terminal in the electronic equivalent to flipping through a card catalog. The basis for this access to information was provided by terminal or telnet clients. The 1980s saw a gradual improvement in the kind of online library capabilities that were available, with commercially offered systems taking the place of internally developed online libraries. New functions were introduced for widening the array of searches available to users, such as those based on basic keywords. Another capacity that was added to online library systems was that of the ability to place holds and requests for various kinds of material. At the same time, another development taking place in the world of online libraries was occurring that initially had less of an impact on public and academic users. This shift took the form of the creation of integrated library systems, which existed to organize and coordinate the internal operations of libraries. In time, a service was offered to the general public in the form of access to the catalog section of these systems. The nineteen nineties brought new creativity into online library technology in the form of search engines.

Libraries

The access to informational and artistic resources offered by the existence of and support for libraries has played a substantial part in the course of world culture and history. The ability to disseminate ideas and concepts integral to political, social or religious systems has been a central motivation for governments or other powerful organizations to create such institutions. Though today countries existing as liberal democracies assume that to a large degree libraries should serve as bases for the free interchange of ideas, even those that may be perceived as threatening or destabilizing for the status quo, in the past the library concept has been more circumscribed by the ideological make-up and pragmatic considerations of the sources for their creation. In understanding how the creation and use of libraries has shifted along with the changes in political systems and in balances of power between different areas of the world, the informed library user who feels strongly dependent on the kinds of services they offer may gain insight into how such rights can continue to be defended.

Historians studying the progressing development of the library as a force in human society frequently point to the first instances in which archives of written records began to be maintained. In the ancient Middle Eastern city of Sumer, for instance, archeological digs have revealed the existence of rooms filled with clay tablets. Other early libraries found in the format of an archival collection of documents are located in the uncovered palaces of ancient Egypt. The early libraries, if these archives can be described as such, consisted mainly of records related to commercial and trade deals. Only a few exceptional cases had anything to do with matters of historical, religious, or literary concern. A notable early source for research on ancient literature exists in the city of Nineveh, which among other things offered access to the epic poem centered on the adventures of the hero Gilgamesh.

Greek society in the fifth century B.C. is believed to be the first with citizens who were in possession of their own libraries. In the late second century B.C. a literary work was published which listed the number of well known private library collectors. As power over the Mediterranean and European world passed over to the auspices of Rome, the first instances of a public library being available to private citizens occurs in the reign of Augustus, as the Republic transitioned into an era of being considered an Empire. Usually users could not take materials, then offered in the form of scrolls, from a Roman library, but they did enjoy general access to the facilities of such institutions, which differed from the model of the classical Greeks. Library creation also came to be considered a reputable and prestige building activity for Roman emperors. Another important step for the development of the library concept occurred during the rise of the Islamic world toward the end of the first millennium C.E, which imported Chinese paper and preserved classic texts in their collections.

Librarians

The role of a librarian can take on a number of different forms in the modern information and media landscape. At a time when the growth in digital technology is fueling the use of and demand for a wide array of kinds of information, librarians are faced with a greater variety of ways in which they can serve the media needs of users ranging from public library users to researchers in the academic world. This period offers widespread opportunities to people who choose to pursue a career as a librarian and should continue to offer ways in which librarians can grow in skill and expertise. People who choose the option of becoming a librarian should be aware of the different forms that this profession can take in order to best achieve their educational, professional and personal goals, which can differ greatly in the settings in which they take place and the functions that they require to be performed.

Perhaps the best known path for a librarian to take, at least from the standpoint of the general public, is into the field of public institutions. Such collections are generally not specialized to any great degree, beyond the interests that may be inherent in a certain geographical area or social environment, in the interests of offering access to an array of items of general interest to the public of library users. The basic task of such a librarian is generally defined by professionals in the library science field as being that of helping users find relaxation, diversion or general information through the services offered by a library. Librarians in a public setting must have the professional and social skills necessary for interacting with library users from a potentially broad range of interests, social backgrounds and levels of education, from people with an easy affinity with library information systems to those who feel uncomfortable in the face of a library’s array of information.

Another opportunity for librarians exists in the form of academic collections based out universities or colleges for the research purposes of students and professors. In such settings, an academic librarian may be expected to specialize in particular fields of information science as well as to possess the ability of different kinds of information needs. Because the requirements of people in academic research settings are generally more stringent than those in less specialized environments, academic librarians can expect to face, in what may be viewed as either an opportunity or an obstacle, a greater degree of challenge in satisfying the requirements of clients. Librarians in academic settings can also take on the accreditation of full fledged professors and teach classes in fields other than information science in addition to providing services the student and professor population.

Another post that can be found by the ambitious librarian is the function of corporate librarians, whose job is to curate and provide access to the privately held archives of business organizations. This field may appeal particularly to some librarians because of the higher salaries available.

Law Libraries

The legal field in the United States, as in every country with a healthy and functioning legal culture, is built on the experience and perspective provided by past legal cases, decisions and careers. Access to the legal history of the past is a key component of the institutions that provide training to hopeful legal professionals. Law libraries are a necessary and required aspect of American law schools which are regulated with regard to certain levels of information, both in quality and volume, being available for the use of law students. The guidance that can garnered from a study of the past history of legal processes that is made available through a law library is not restricted in practice simply to legal professionals, but also to practicing legal institutions, particularly courthouses. Making the best use of law libraries is an essential aspect of the educational process for law students and in deciding which law school to attend, prospective legal professionals are advised by experts in the field to pay close attention of the law library provided by an institution.

The requirements that exist in the United States for regulating the minimum quality and size of law libraries operated by specific law schools are formulated and regulated by the American Bar Association in order to ensure that this essential service is available to law students. Though ordinary libraries made available to the public or organized out of colleges or universities may have sufficient legal text holdings for the purpose of general citizens or researchers, it is common for a well equipped law library to have a number of texts in its collection that will not be found in the possession of more general institutions. Such documents are expected by law students and law school professors to be available for their use will generally include “The West American Digest System,” a complete compilation of “United States Reports,” “The Federal Register,” statutes and regulations currently held and enforced by local governments and the federal branch, and volumes of “American Jurisprudence.”

One of the most extensive law libraries in the world can be found in the building that houses the United States Supreme Court. At least within the United States, one of the few law libraries that can be located of a comparable size and extensive collection of materials is the Law Library of Congress. Though every American law school, as is required by regulations, offers a law library, but in practice the physical location of law libraries can vary widely from, from collections which are maintained in the general library of the larger educational infrastructure of a law school to separate law libraries kept in the law school’s own building or in entirely separate buildings. Though no such requirement for the maintenance of a law library exists for courthouses as it does for law schools, it is common for courthouses to maintain their own collection of legal documents. Less commonly, various U.S. states will require counties to maintain a law library accessible to the public.

Medical Libraries

The quality of health care as provided throughout the United States depends in part, as has long been the practice for cultures with robust standards for health care, on the availability of the past knowledge compiled from the study and practice of medical care. A key component of the ability to deliver sophisticated and accessible medical information is derived from the maintenance of medical libraries with the ability to meet the information needs of any one whose life may be impacted by available standards of medical practice. Potential users of a medical library can range from physicians, medical students, researchers on new health care tools and procedures, patients and consumers. The services that can be delivered by medical libraries must thus be adjusted to fit the needs of such potential clients. The setting for a medical library can also be provided through a number of different kinds of institutions, including medical schools, health care facilities such as hospitals, the headquarters for associations dealing with different sections of the medical field or health care, and the private buildings of businesses involved in the health industry. For some of these institutions, the possession of a functioning medical library may be a required prerequisite for the granting of certification necessary for professional functions. Other businesses are not dependent on the presence of medical libraries but in practice and as advised often have them.

In both the United States and Canada, general medical library standards have been created for enforcing the requirement that every kind of medical care instruction facility offer some kind of medical library, of a size and capacity appropriate to the students and educators it serves. The general regulations created for accrediting medical libraries are created by organizations such the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), and typically include provisions for training in the use of digital tools for retrieving information and the presence of staff who can help users access information. It is common, though not required, for medical libraries to have the use of the service “MEDLINE,” which gives access to digitized information from journals and reference works. Practices in this regard have been greatly impacted since the start of the Internet era by the use of free Internet search engines.

One of the most significant presences in the world of medical libraries belongs to that of the United States National Library of Medicine, which contains the single most extensive collection of biomedical information as well as widely based health information databases. The United States National Library of Medicine enjoys particular respect as a medical library service for the access it maintains to its archive of information through an array of different databases and a highly optimized search engine function. When compared to the medical library systems of comparable stature in the world of health care, which include institutions based out of such countries as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, the United States National Library of Medicine is usually felt by informed health care observers to be preeminent.

Criminal Law Libraries

The practice of criminal law is an important aspect of a safe and secure civil society. Both the maintenance of acceptable levels of freedom from the fear of physical harm and theft on the part of citizens and the guarantee of assurances in observance of Constitutional rights and the avoidance of abusive conduct for those accused of a criminal act form part of the fabric of a successful system of criminal law, and can be partly secured through the education of legal professionals in the past cases and precedents that have arisen in regard to this field. One way to ensure that this field remains at acceptable levels for educating law students and reminding practicing professionals of their responsibilities is to safeguard the system of criminal law libraries, through which a wide array of information on the field can be offered. A good criminal law library will offer extensive information drawn from incidents in the past that can provide the guidance and expertise of experience for conduct in cases to occur in the future. Criminal law libraries thus form an important part of the overall legal education system and, by extension, of the legal system as a whole. Both citizens without any active involvement in the legal profession and people who work in the legal field should be aware of the utility to be found in the form of an adequately equipped and staffed criminal law library.

A common location for criminal law libraries to be found is through the library collections that are provided by many courthouses. The setting of a criminal law library facility in a courthouse can be a way to ensure the accessibility of important information related to the practice of criminal law at the most relevant and essential times for it to be available. Criminal law professionals can enjoy access to the most recently updated rulings and cases, while people immediately facing criminal charges without the benefit of any formal training in the practices and regulations of the legal profession can attain some measure of comfort through a criminal law library with the laws by which they may be judged and can gain a sense of whether their rights are being adequately observed and their attorneys behaving within the limits and to the extent that is required by the system. Since people who find themselves facing some kind of criminal charge may be particularly disadvantaged from a social or financial standpoint, the resources of information that are offered through criminal law libraries can be especially irreplaceable. One area where the issue of the needed continuing public support for the maintenance of criminal law libraries has been raised with particular urgency by observers of the legal profession lies in the decision announced by the state of Connecticut in January 2010 to close six of the fifteen criminal law libraries based out of courthouse collections in order to answer budgetary woes. The American Association of Law Libraries points to this case as a vital moment for the public criminal law library.

State Law Libraries

In every American state, the field of legal studies and activities forms an important part of that region’s ability to function on the acceptable level of a safe and secure civil society. The legal professionals who are available for the redress of perceived or actual wrongs or injustices within the acceptable limits that can be found within the regulations contained in a state law library can play an important role in maintaining the fabric of a system in which both private citizens and representatives of the government act within the boundaries of the law. State law libraries are essential institutions for ensuring that law students, lawyers and other professionals involved in the legal field who are based out of a particular state and concern themselves primarily with the affairs of that region can have a sufficient stock of knowledge to draw on in implementing legal strategies. Being aware of how to use a state law library will be an essential tool for law students trying to gain the most from their legal educations and become familiar at the earliest possible stage in their legal careers with the history of legal processes, cases and decisions within the area where they will be putting their education to use.

Leadership and guidance for the system of state law libraries that exists throughout the United States is derived from the American Association of Law Libraries, which provides information on the field to both legal students and the general public. The organization has been providing these services for state law libraries since its founding in 1906, and in the time since, it has maintained a presence in the legal field that had led the group to a current position of being able to have five thousands members from across the country. Another institution that contributes to the support of the state law library concept is the American Bar Association, which sets out the minimum standards for quality of information and services offered by legal information institutions, including state law libraries, in order for them to receive official accreditation. In this way law students, law school professors and practicing legal professionals can be assured of the reliability of the information on legal matters which they derive from such sources as a state law library.

Though public libraries and general libraries based out of colleges or universities typically offer a wide enough array of legal texts and information as it judged to be sufficient for the purposes of their clientele, the existence of sources for legal information such as that of a state law library is geared toward meeting the more exacting demands of people who are actively and professionally involved with the legal field. One advantage to be gained by users of state law libraries as opposed to the special section of a general library dealing with law is the guarantee of availability for such respected sources of legal information and news as a complete collection of “United States Reports” and issues of “American Jurisprudence.”