Careers Night

I spent last night relaxing in a hall full of teenagers, all looking to find a career. Where was I? I was sitting at the "so you want to be a librarian" stand. I was lucky enough to get to talk to several nice bright kids, who were considering libraries as a career option. I was also lucky enough to talk to lots and lots of kids whom I'm quite happy won't be becoming librarians.
But ALIA were a bit remiss in sending me appropriate stuff, so I made my own ADHD librarian's career guide. I stole things from the net and put it together in an afternoon. I am happy to say it was well received, so I shal post the text of it here. The images I used were steriotypical librarian - shushing pictures. Although the one used here could have convinced more young men to consider the career.

Front cover
Librarians, We're all old and almost dead!
So, why would you want to be one?

Inside
because when we all die there'll be lots of vacancies!
OK,
Perhaps not all librarians are old.
And those who are probably hope to retire before they die.
And not all Baby Boomers are retiring...
But librarians have an average age of about 50, so if you like this type of work then there may well be a lot of opportunities for the next generation of Information Professionals.
Plus, the profession is not all dusty books (although it can be if that's what you like). There are librarians writing open source software,
There are more public libraries in Australia than there are McDonalds.
Librarians aren't in The oldest profession (although I guess some might be), but we’ve been around since 2700 BC and that's quite impressive. Isn't it?
NASA has a 'Dust Librarian' whose job includes preventing the dust from getting dusty.

You could be a:

Public librarian
Medical librarian
Reference librarian
Children's librarian
Library Webmaster
School librarian
Law librarian
Corporate librarian
Academic librarian

Not quite convinced?
Parallel careers include; Archivist, Knowledge Manager, Records Manager and Curator.
Librarians study; Information Technology, Web Design, Public Relations and Promotions as well as traditional library subjects such as Cataloguing and Reference Searching.
A career in Libraries can be as a Library Assistant, Library Technician or Librarian depending on how much you feel like studying.
Library Assistants require...
nothing, although preference is sometimes given to those studying in the field.
Library Technicians require an associate diploma.
Librarians require a Bachelors Degree in Library and information science or a Bachelors degree in another discipline and a Graduate Diploma in Library and information science.

Back Cover
Shhhh
If you tell everyone, they'll all want to be librarians. Keep this information secret and it'll be sweet for all of us.

For more information on study requirements for Librarians and Library Technicians visit, The Australian Library and Information Association.