Do you enjoy solving problems and exploring the unknown? Every day librarians sift through clues, uncover facts and help people weave knowledge from threads of information. In short, they solve mysteries. That's what research is all about: knowing where to find information and putting it into the hands of people who need it.

Is teaching your forte? School library media specialists do some of the most important teaching in schools today. They teach children how to learn, how to find and use information offered to them from many different print and audiovisual sources. And the best part is that often their teaching is done on a one-to-one basis, a very personalized and rewarding experience for both the librarian and the student.

Is the business world where you want to be? Libraries today are big business. They need good administrators to manage them. A dynamic decision-maker is in charge of the hiring, personnel managing, purchasing, planning, public relations and budgeting as well as collection building. You'll never run out of business challenges in a library. You often can move into a management position fairly quickly in libraries.

Do you want to make a significant contribution to your community? Librarians serve the needs of all the people in the community. They provide not only information but also many public service and educational programs through lectures, meetings, and outreach projects.

Does technology fascinate you? You could be in the forefront of designing and using information retrieval systems making knowledge more accessible and useful to everyone.

Have you ever considered running your own business? Free-lance librarians work as information brokers doing research for special projects. They are their own bosses and enjoy the freedom to choose to work on the projects that interest them most.

What are the other possibilities? In this rapidly changing field, the possibilities are almost limitless, especially to those with imagination and a spirit of adventure.

From an American Library Association brochure: "The future is information" (Office for Library Personnel Resources and Public information Office, American Library Association).

If you are interested in what kinds of things you can do with a degree in Library and Information Science, please visit the section of our Web Site where some of our alumni discuss their specializations and how their education here at SIS prepared them for a career in the field of Library and Information Science. You may especially wish to visit this Web page if you are uncertain about the career possibilities in this profession and how they would fit into your life and experiences.