Worst Master’s Degrees…(drum roll please)

Last month Forbes Magazine published an article titled The Best and Worst Master’s Degrees for Jobs.  Not surprisingly, careers in the medical field are on the rise as are careers in computer science and engineering, economics, and physics.  The worst master’s degree to have currently, according to Forbes…. you guessed it Library Science.

Now, some of you may be reading this and saying to yourself… “I didn’t even know you needed a degree to be a librarian.”  Well guess what.  You not only need a bachelor’s degree, you also need a master’s degree.

Forbes reports that a degree in Library Science can be pricey for a career where employment is not supposed to grow significantly in the next 10 years.  They also point out that the salary you earn as a librarian is extremely low for the education requirements.  “Library and information science degree-holders bring in $57,600 mid-career, on average.”  We always joked in graduate school that we weren’t there because we were going to be making the big bucks.  Most people attend graduate school for library science because they love it.  Check out the whole article inForbes.

Just yesterday Maureen Sullivan, the president of the American Library Association, responded to the article.  She made a number of valid points about job satisfaction, how librarians help their communities whether it be in a public setting, in a school, organization, or business.  Most librarians are passionate about making a difference in someone’s life and giving them the information they need.  If we did it for the money, there would be very few librarians, but instead you are able to gain quality information on a variety of subjects from people who are passionate about their jobs.  The Washington Post provided the full response written by Maureen Sullivan.

I know that I’m not working in a library to make a 6-figure salary, I do it because I genuinely love to come to work.  I love getting kids excited about books and reading.  My mantra is that no one hates to read… you just haven’t found the right book yet.  It’s exciting to me when I can find something that gets a child excited about reading. It’s a very rewarding job and I can’t think of doing anything else.