I'm getting my political science degree and plan to enter the police department upon graduating. It may seem like political science is irrelevant to becoming a cop, but as corny as it sounds, i think its important to get an education. The way you learn to think in university is priceless.

I go to Clarion and I know that they have an undergrad LS degree. Is this different that LIS?

Emmi

For what its worth..only about 1% of the worlds population has a college degree...makes ya feel pretty good about yourself doesn't it?

I don't know that this was addressed to me but I'm going to answer it anyhow ;) It does feel nice to know that I will have a college degree, and to also be doing something that I absolutely love, however, considering what teachers make compared to what a college education costs . . . especially what someone in another field can make just on 1 degree is kinda sad and pathetic. My boyfriend will graduate with a BFA in graphic design and his starting salary will be almost twice mine. As a side note, my personal opinion is that there should be more rigid standards in the hiring and yearly review of teacher performance, but on the other hand the starting salary should also be more than what it is . . . especially considering how much of their own money a starting teacher has to spend on supplies that the school won't or can't pay for.

*stepping off the soapbox and turning this thread back over to the reguarly schedualed topic*

Emmi

It's my understanding that it IS different. I believe LS is more of a focus on the standard library services like information retrieval and cataloging. When you throw in the "I," that includes training on more information technologies. Pitt and Clarion have drastically different Master's programs. Clarion is shifting more toward a focus on Information (rather than Library) Science and is training fewer and fewer people who want to become public or school librarians, while Pitt is still training many people for public service and has thrown the "I" into the degree because the IT people were complaining that they couldn't get a job with a degree that read "MLS," everyone thought they were librarians. At Pitt, the two programs have split and they offer an MIS and an MLIS.

More and more schools are going the same direction as Clarion, getting away from training public librarians, and this has created a huge need in the field of public service. There are just as many of not more jobs in the field, but fewer schools are training for the positions. So if anyone's reading this, let me tell you, as a trained public services librarian you will never get rich, but you will also never be unemployed, especially if you're in children's services.

Amen, Emmi! I also would love to see more stringent requirements for substitute teachers (in our area they need not be anything but T.B. free, practically) and therefore higher pay for them (currently it's only $55/day). This would benefit the teachers whose classes would be taught by professionals while they're out and would allow certified/licensed teachers to make some sort of living while they're subbing in hopes of getting a full time position. But, alas, budgets just aren't what they should be...there are soooo many more items an increase in the budget for education would pay for!

Ahem...back to the regularly scheduled topic.

I would definately agree that people's needs & lives change, resulting in changes in careers all of the time.

I started college as a music major. Until that time, that's all I could have imagined doing. After 2 years of music school, though, I'd had enough. So 2 1/2 years into my schooling, I changed majors to "Speech & Communications". I intentially kept a broad major of communications not because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but because there's so much I want to do! And that degree gave me a good general background for a lot of things (from technical aspects of TV and radio productions to management). I am planning on pursuing either an MBA or an MA in the near future (but also want to save up some money for that first since I have racked up enough in student loans already).

At the moment I'm in project management at a copy shop, and vying for a position as an assistant branch operations manager for that same company. My current job is loosely tied to my major, but I hope to eventually pursue something a little more creative and "artsy", one of my goals being to teach communications (especially film studies) at the undergraduate level.

Something funny... one of my friends from school has her BA in Art and Art Therapy. She teaches art part time at a private elementary school, but also works for the same company as me in several capacities. Her focus and best subjects as a student were printmaking and photography: replication and duplication, as she says. And now she's making copies. :D (Her joke, but pretty funny).

I have a BBA in Financial Services/Risk Mangement (Finance and Insurance all rolled into one) I work as a Software Specialist for the Texas Workforce Commission. I do plan to use my degree...someday.

I have a BA in Biology and English, which sounds crazy and unrelated, but I'm currently writing for a healthcare publication, so I managed to find a job that uses both of my degrees. :) I don't know too many other people that are doing anything with their degrees...my boyfriend was a Neuroscience major (basically psychology and biology) and he's in sales, and all of the liberal arts-History, English, etc-majors I know are either secretaries, receptionists, or working in some kind of office until they go to grad school. I don't think you can do much of anything in a specific field without a master's or PhD anymore. :(