Libraries have been around for 4,000 years, and are an integral part of most human societies. They collect and organise the records of human knowledge and experience in the form of books, periodicals, newspapers, audio-visual items and electronic formats, and make them available to anyone who wants them.

The work of a librarian is varied and can include dealing with collections of fiction and non-fiction, old, rare, and beautiful books, or compact discs, tapes and films. Modern libraries make extensive use of computers, online databases, CD-ROMs, and the World Wide Web to locate, record, store and disseminate information.

Education

Information Studies may be taken as a subject in UCD within the following academic programmes: Bachelor of Arts (BA), the Bachelor of Social Science (BSocSc), and the BA in Computer Science.

Students entering their first year choose Information Studies as one of their three subjects. As the course continues, it is possible to acquire a professional qualification in librarianship or information science by selecting specific units.

Core subjects in the first year include Information Literacy: Developing Information Skills for Effective Academic Writing, Information Design, and Papyrus to Cyberspace: Information and Society. Specialisations possible in second and third years include Information in Finding Information in Everyday Contexts, Human Information Behaviour, Web Publishing, Information Architecture and Book History – Print Culture.

Selecting Information and Library Studies as part of your BA or BSocSc guarantees professional accreditation by the Library Association of Ireland (depending on those pesky exam results of course!) and will entail six weeks’ full time work experience in a library or other information environment.

Options After Qualification

Librarianship is a profession, like accountancy or law, and graduates must gain a professional qualification to be recognised. Graduates of the Information Studies course automatically qualify as librarians; people from other courses must take a postgraduate course in library and information studies to be recognised.

Librarians are employed in the public library service of the local authorities, in libraries of academic institutions, in Government Departments, semi-state bodies and in various specialised libraries where information needs to be stored and accessed – TV and radio companies, professional associations, hospitals, solicitors’ practices and so on.

Graduates generally begin as assistant librarians, moving up the ranks to become librarians and then county/city or borough librarians. Librarians are constantly learning and updating their qualifications, particularly in the area of information technology.

The Work

The main duties of a librarian are storing and cataloguing information and helping people to access that information. Traditionally, this information was only in books, papers, manuscripts, photographs, periodicals and other printed material, but technological advances mean that information is now available in a variety of formats.

Technology has had a huge impact, with new ways of storing and accessing information such as DVDs and the Internet radically changing the librarian’s role. In recent years, many librarians have moved into web content and management and have helped organisations and companies devise new strategies for storing and accessing information.

A large part of a librarian’s job involves aiding students, researchers, lecturers, managers or just ordinary members of the public in their research, particularly if you work in an academic library. This can involve advising people of a document’s whereabouts, liaising with other libraries to find rare books, interpreting questions and preparing reading lists. Some libraries house special collections focusing on one subject or author – so librarians there would become experts in the subject.

Public libraries often stock a wide range of material covering community events, public information and educational resources, which librarians must collect and distribute to the public. Other tasks can include providing training to library users, purchasing new stock and materials, leading staff, shelving books and managing IT resources.

Personal Qualities & Work Environment

Key skills for a librarian include excellent organisation and communication skills, a helpful attitude and an enquiring mind. The work environment for a librarian is obviously most often a library. Working hours tend to be regular and routine.

The Money

In the public sector, an assistant librarian can earn around €28,000 a year, while a county librarian can earn up to approximately €75,000. Salaries in the academic sector tend to start a little lower but also tend to increase with time and promotion.

The Jargon

Dewey Decimal Classification: The most widely used system of library classification in the world incorporates ten major subject divisions (for example, Religion) that are broken down into a thousand subdivisions (e.g. Moral Theology)

Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC): A computerised catalogue of the materials held in a library (or network of libraries) that can be viewed by members of the public

Archive: A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of (usually) historical interest

Job Titles

Librarian
Library Assistant
Information Manager

Further Resources

Library Association of Ireland
53 Upper Mount Street
Dublin 2
Ireland
Web: www.libraryassociation.ie

National Library of Ireland
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
Phone: 01 603 02 00
Web: www.nli.ie
Email: info@nli.ie 

The Library Council
53/54 Upper Mount Street
Mount Street
Dublin 2
Phone: 01 6761167
Web: www.library.ie & www.librarycouncil.ie
Email: library.ie@librarycouncil.ie 

Chester Beatty Library
Dublin Castle
Dublin 2
Phone: 01 407 0750
Web: www.cbl.ie
Email: info@cbl.ie 

“Do We” Really Know Dewey?
Web: http://library.thinkquest.org/5002/