MLIS Career Pathways
MLIS Career Pathways
The SJSU School of Information offers numerous career pathways for your consideration, and this is only a partial list of the diverse career directions you can follow with an MLIS degree.
The career pathways are presented as an introduction to various careers and topics and are intended to be used by MLIS students for career planning and course selection. Many students choose courses from more than one career pathway, building comprehensive skillsets that are transferable to a wide range of organizations and career opportunities.
No special designations appear on your transcript or diploma. All students earn an MLIS degree.
iSchool partner Skilltype has aggregated some of the main competencies and skills across all library positions: Skilltype Report Report is refreshed every six weeks.
The iSchool offers all students free LIS-specific career counseling through Kim Dority, which includes individual meetings, resume/CV reviews, and interview preparation. SJSU offers additional free general career counseling for all graduate students through the graduate school.
The iSchool also commissions an annual MLIS Skills Report. You can download the 2023 report here.
Academic Librarianship — MLIS Career Pathway
Academic libraries are found in institutions of higher education — in community colleges, private colleges, major universities, or specialized research institutes.
Management, Digitization and Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Records (Archival Studies and Records Management) — MLIS Career Pathway
Archivists and Record Managers are information professionals who manage, preserve and provide access to physical materials and digital media that is created in the present and inherited from the past.
Data Science — MLIS Career Pathway
Data science is the art and science of collecting, organizing, processing, analyzing, archiving, preserving, and providing access to massive amounts of data in order to extract meaningful information.
Digital Curation — MLIS Career Pathway
Digital curation is defined as the selection, collection, maintenance, preservation, and archiving of digital assets.
Digital Services — MLIS Career Pathway
Library services are increasingly migrating to the digital environment in both the building of collections and in patron interactions. The significant differences existing between objects, printed material, and even buildings or landscapes in the material world blur in the digital environment.
Emerging Technologies Pathway — MLIS Career Pathway
This career pathway focuses on emerging technologies and the issues and trends that accompany them along the curve of adoption into public life, information centers, and business.
Information Intermediation and Instruction — MLIS Career Pathway
This career pathway focuses on information services and instruction. Work in this area requires an understanding of how to help users define and articulate their information needs; excellent communication skills; mastery of a wide range of information tools and retrieval techniques for answering users’ questions; and proficiency in evaluating and selecting information sources and services. It is also important to be highly adaptable.
Information Organization, Description, Analysis, and Retrieval — MLIS Career Pathway
Discovery depends on the organization and description of information resources. Work in this area requires understanding of existing and emerging shared standards, frameworks and principles for organization and description as well as systems such as library services platforms, discovery platforms, institutional repositories and digital library management systems.
Leadership and Management — MLIS Career Pathway
The Leadership and Management pathway benefits graduates regardless of the position they have in any organization or that they wish to pursue in the environment in which they work. The skills taught in the pathway enable graduates to be flexible in response to the challenges facing today’s libraries and information organizations, including the coordination of effective collaborations, partnerships with both globalized and virtual work teams, and leading with an EDI lens (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion.)
Public Librarianship — MLIS Career Pathway
Public libraries are a partnership between librarians, clients, customers and stakeholders. Public librarians have evolved from gatekeeper to catalyst, designer, and partner. Librarians are fostering innovation and creativity for the community conversation to flourish in order to maintain the competitive advantage in what is being called the “knowledge economy.”
School Librarianship — MLIS Career Pathway
This pathway prepares students to manage libraries in all levels of K–12 schools. School librarians impact K–12 student outcomes by collaborating with teachers, working directly with students, championing reading, providing information-rich learning environments, and advocating for information literacy. They may also supervise technicians, assistants, and volunteers in the operation of K–12 libraries.
Students will specialize in the functions and skills necessary for employment in K-12 schools, including information literacy pedagogy, collaboration, technology leadership, and program administration.
School librarians typically have both an MLIS degree and a teaching license, so it is recommended that students earn both credentials.
“For someone interested in teacher librarianship no other program matches the quality and value of the SJSU program.”
– MLIS graduate
SJSU is ranked the fourth best public university in the country. This pathway’s courses are taught by professors who work in the field of school librarianship. The iSchool is proud to engage the services of Dr. Keith Curry Lance, the renowned School Librarian researcher. For more information about his research, please visit our School Librarian research page.
The Application Process
IMPORTANT: Current students interested in the School Librarianship career pathway within the MLIS program and/or the CA Teacher Librarian Services Credential program must self-enroll in the Teacher Librarian Credential Advising site in Canvas as early as possible in their course work. This Advising site is open to all current iSchool students.
The requirements to be a school librarian differ considerably by state.
For California
School Library students
Earn/hold a valid single or multiple subject clear teaching credential issued by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC).
Earn the Teacher Librarian Services Credential from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
The application process for the California Teacher Librarian Services Credential cannot be initiated until the CTC issues the first credential.
You may choose to complete the MLIS and the California Teacher Librarian Services Credential coursework before earning your first credential.
For Non-California
School Library Students
Check with your state’s school librarianship licensing requirements.
Contact School Librarian Program Coordinator Jonathan Hunt to discuss pursuing the School Librarianship career pathway and meeting school library licensure requirements in your state.
Ensure our ALA-accredited MLIS degree is accepted by your state’s licensing agency.
Earn your MLIS degree.
Employment Opportunities
Careers in school librarianship vary from small organizations with a single teacher librarian to complex organizations embedded within larger institutions providing services to thousands of students.
Typical positions are:
- Titled librarian
- Media specialist
- District librarian
- Library media specialist
- Teacher librarian
- Library media teacher
- And more!
School librarians holding the MLIS degree have additional career options outside of K-12, especially in Youth Services at public libraries.
What Does It Take to be a School Librarian?
The school librarian has to:
- Be interested in and comfortable with the company of children and teenagers in schools.
- Have a passion for teaching and the ability to create information–rich learning environments for students.
- Be an advocate for students and libraries and be willing to accept responsibility for the information needs of students.
- Be a lifelong learner and model the practice of life–long learning by embracing technology and information resources.
- Hold a valid teaching credential from the CTC before being awarded the CA Teacher Librarian Services Credential.
Core Theory and Knowledge
- The vocabulary of education, libraries and information technology.
- Key concepts relating to student outcomes, including service, marketing, budgeting, measurement and evaluation.
- The ability to analyze and apply information policy.
- The effective use of educational technology.
- The ability to communicate with all levels of the organization as well as external stakeholders.
- The political process and the impact of federal, state, and local policies on libraries and information organizations.
- The ability to plan strategically, balance resources, and implement practical tactics to achieve educational goals.
Required Coursework for CA Teacher Librarian Services Credential Candidates
These courses are approved for the California Teacher Librarian Services Credential. If you are interested in a credential from a state other than California, check with that state’s Department of Education for their requirements before undertaking this program.
Core Courses:
- INFO 203 Online Learning: Tools and Strategies for Success
- INFO 200 Information Communities
- INFO 202 Information Retrieval System Design
- INFO 204 Information Professions
Program Curriculum and Technology:
- INFO 233 School Library Media Centers
- INFO 250 Design and Implementation of Instructional Strategies for Informational Professionals
- INFO 285 Research Methods in Library and Information Science
Information Services and Materials:
- INFO 237 School Library Media Materials
- INFO 266 Collection Management
- INFO 248 Beginning Cataloging and Classification
Capstone Course:
- INFO 295 School Library Fieldwork (required for ALL Teacher Librarian program students)
Required Coursework for the MLIS
Students have the option to complete 12 additional units of coursework to earn an ALA-accredited MLIS degree, expanding their career opportunities in the information professions. Those 12 additional units include nine elective units and the three-unit INFO 289 Advanced Topics in Library and Information Science or INFO 299 Thesis course.
Recommended Elective Courses for the MLIS in support of School Librarianship:
- INFO 210 Reference and Information Services
- INFO 240 Information Technology Tools and Applications
- INFO 241 Automated Library Systems
- INFO 246 Information Technology Tools and Applications – Advanced (Topic: Web 2.0)
- INFO 267 Seminar in Services to Youth – (Topic: Children and Information Technology, Intellectual Freedom)
- INFO 275 Library Services for Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities
- INFO 281 Seminar in Contemporary Issues – (Topic: New Perspectives on Literacies, Transformative Learning and Technology, Story Telling)
- INFO 282 Seminar in Library Management – (Topic: Grant Writing)
- INFO 283 Marketing of Information Products and Services
- INFO 286 Interpersonal Communication Skills for Librarians
- INFO 298 Special Studies
Learn More
- Contact Jonathan Hunt to discuss pursuing the School Librarianship career pathway and/or the California Teacher Librarian Services Credential.
- Read Community Profiles of students and alumni pursuing this career pathway.
- Browse presentations by professionals working in teacher librarianship.
- Search the Alumni Career Spotlights for alumni working in this field. Consider contacting an alum for an informational interview.
Special Librarianship — MLIS Career Pathway
Special libraries, also called information centers, knowledge resource centers, or a variety of similar names, are information-focused units that support the strategic goals of the organization within which they’re based. A special library may itself be its own department with from one (a “solo librarian”) to dozens of librarians and other information professionals.
In addition, a special library may be:
Web Programming and Information Architecture — MLIS Career Pathway
This career pathway concentrates on the theories, basic concepts and tools, and supporting techniques related to the design, building, and management of information systems and Web applications.
Youth Services — MLIS Career Pathway
The Youth Services career pathway is designed to prepare students for positions as children’s and/or young adult (YA) librarians or coordinators in public libraries, youth specialists on a regional or state level, or as information professionals in organizations principally serving youth, as well as to offer library generalists appropriate coursework to prepare for serving a public that includes youth.