Photo: CCAC North Library (CC BY 2.0)
Job description
Beyond lecturing and leading classroom discussions, these instructors build course materials like syllabi and assignments, grade student work, and revise curricula as the field changes. Many combine teaching with research, publishing findings in journals or presenting at professional conferences, and staying current by reading new literature and serving on committees within library-science associations. The work is desk-based and highly structured around the academic calendar, and typically requires a PhD in library and information science.
Pros
- High pay ceiling near $129k, strong for an academic teaching role
- Faster than average projected job growth (3%) despite the field's small overall size
- Combines teaching with research, offering intellectual variety and autonomy over course design
Cons
- Requires a PhD in library and information science, a long and costly educational path
- Only about 400 positions nationwide, so openings are scarce and geographically limited
- Job searches often require relocating since so few institutions hire in this specialty
A typical day
The morning seminar is Information Organization, where a dozen MLIS students wrestle with why classification systems always embed a worldview — the professor steers the discussion from Dewey's biases to modern metadata standards without letting theory float free of practice. Office hours follow: a doctoral advisee's dissertation chapter on rural broadband and information access needs its methodology tightened. The afternoon belongs to research — the professor's study of how misinformation moves through community networks has survey data waiting for analysis, and a co-author on another campus waiting for a draft. A curriculum committee meets at 3 to redesign the cataloging requirement around emerging tools, an argument the field is having everywhere. The evening class on youth services runs online, synchronous, with students who are already working librarians across four time zones. The discipline sits at a genuine crossroads — information access, technology, and democracy — and its teachers train the people who guard the doors.
Tasks at the job
- Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and present findings in professional journals, books, electronic media, or at professional conferences.
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
- Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, giving presentations at conferences, and serving on committees in professional associations.
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting, and most of the day is spent sitting at a desk.
There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. The work is highly structured, following set procedures.
Education necessary or common
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in library and information science
Common college majors
Licenses & certifications
- PhD in Library/Information Science — the entry requirement
- MLIS — the professional foundation beneath it
- Research methods training in the doctoral path
Career path
Related fields
Courses to take
- AP English Literature and Language — texts, research, and writing
- AP Computer Science Principles — information systems are the field's present and future
- AP Statistics — social science research methods
- AP US History or Government — information policy context
- Psychology — how people seek and use information
Clubs, activities & competitions
- Library volunteering or student aide work — ground truth for the discipline
- School newspaper or research-heavy academic work
- Debate — evidence evaluation and argument
- Teen library advisory board
- Tutoring or teaching roles of any kind
First steps you can take now
- Interview a librarian AND ask what they wish their degree had taught — that gap is this profession's job
- Read about a current information controversy (book challenges, misinformation, AI and libraries) from multiple sources
- Volunteer at a library and note which practices seem to have a theory behind them
- Research the MLIS-to-PhD pipeline at schools like Illinois, Washington, or UNC
