Head Tale

I had a conversation today that made me remember the internal debate many of us (including myself) go through when we first graduate – namely, do we hold out for a professional librarianship position or do we apply for whatever's available?

I know there are people reading this who fall into both camps so I thought I'd try to summarize the arguments for each.

I also want to
stress that I'm not making judgments here – I think both are valid
options and I recognize that we all do whatever works for us as
individuals.  So with the patented Hammond Disclaimer out of the way…

Only Professional Librarianship Positions
– that's what you went to school for (duh!)
– for the most part, professional librarian jobs pay more than a library assistant/library tech position
– someone once told me that you only have one chance to set your entry level spot into a profession.  That resonated so I'm including it here.
– there are people out there who feel that other MLIS grads taking anything less than a professional librarianship position somehow devalue the entire profession
[edit
added via someone's e-mail comment – like it or not, there is a library
caste system which means that you will be treated differently than the
other “real” librarians if you're not in a capital-L *Librarian* position.  This
ranges from not being invited to PD opportunities to social functions
that the librarians have.]

Take Whatever's Offered and/or Available First
– bills don't pay themselves
– often a clerk/tech/assistant job gets you that foot in the door that allows you bid on internal positions (ie. in a union environment)
– it's a good way to get frontline experience that will serve you well for your entire career, especially if you've never worked in libraries before and/or are going to end up managing people doing the jobs that you start out in.
– some people are able to return to positions (the same or similar) in libraries where they worked before, retaining their seniority/benefits and reserved seat in the coffee room.

Have I missed anything?  I'm whipping this list off the top of my head pretty quick.  Personally, when I had this internal debate, I was really close to applying for a couple library assistant-type positions early in my job search when they were the only things out there.  But I decided to hold out at least for a bit longer and it worked out in the end (though I'm very conscious that it could have easily gone the other way.)