Road to being a librarian
Hello! I am 24 years old and graduated with my bachelors in education in 2024. I have since decided that I am not interested in being a classroom teacher, but instead a librarian. Not necessarily a school librarian because I know that requires 2 years of classroom teaching to be eligible for, but a public librarian, and specially a children’s and youth librarian. As I am beginning my journey to that, I’m trying to critically think about what may work best in my favor in terms of experience and resume building. I would like to start my masters in library science but obviously, money, so I will be working while doing so. I’m trying to decide what the best course of action would be for me, and for future job prospects down the road. I should add that I am not in any critical financial crunch nor set timeline, but here are the two potential options I’m looking at- please give your advice as to which one you think would be better and look better to future employers!
Part time job at some sort of bookstore, good amount of time to volunteer for the public library near me. This course would obviously take longer due to it being a part time job, but I would gain experience dealing with people and the public library sector through volunteering(Living situation is not a concern)
Full time job as a library aide at an elementary school, little to no time for public library volunteering. I can see the benefit to this being it is actual working experience in a library, and with children which is my degree and the age bracket I aim to work with as a librarian, however it lacks the public library aspect.
Which one do you think is a better course of action?
TLDR:
Which track to public librarianship (specifically for children and youth) seems better professionally: part time bookstore job with ample public library volunteering time, or full time elementary school library aide with little to no public library volunteer time.
TIA!