by Claire Schmieder, Senior Editor
previously published 5/23/13

3 Off-the-Beaten-Paths to Librarianship

Librarians have so many amazing skills, all of which are transferrable into any number of careers. If you’re having trouble finding a traditional library job, maybe it’s time to start searching for less conventional, but equally as rewarding, positions. Here is a tree-tops view of three positions in which any librarian could flourish.

You could be an Information Scientist.

Information scientists organize data (typically in electronic format) and make it accessible to the users in a variety of environments, like universities, corporations, and hospitals. Though a solid understanding of technology is certainly important, this job isn’t just about databases, programming, or computer networks. Information scientists show the path between statistics/data and their use in everyday life.

For more information, see the Association for Information Science and Technology’s (ASIS&T) website.

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Or, you could easily use your skills as a Knowledge Manager.

Knowledge Managers are usually found in corporate settings. Their main responsibilities center on acquiring, organizing, storing, sharing, and using knowledge. It’s also about transforming plain old data (i.e. facts and figures) into knowledge that helps companies make better products, provide better services, and, yes, make more money. Media, public health, and public policy are just a few fields that employ knowledge managers.

Visit the Knowledge Management Professional Society (KMPro) website to gain further insight.

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Perhaps you’d make an outstanding Records Manager.

Records Managers are typically found in corporate settings, but these positions also show up in archives and the federal government. Records Managers efficiently control creating, receiving, maintaining, providing access to, and disposing of an organization’s records. They often write disaster recovery plans, too.

ARMA International is the professional organization for information governance. Browse their website for more details on records management.

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These are just three examples of alternative careers for librarians. To find more, try using the INALJ keyword list (look to your left) in larger job databases or aggregators like Indeed or Simply Hired.

For more discussion of this topic, please see:

How to Become a 21st-Century Librarian

61 Non-Librarian Jobs for LIS Grads

And see the Keywords for Job Searching on the left sidebar on INALJ.com