A vocation for the ‘intellectually vivacious’
Richard Rubin, the director of the School of Library and Information Science, wrote the book on librarianship — literally. He’s the author of Foundations of Library and Information Science, a textbook often used in the first courses in library science programs.

Rubin heads up what is the only accredited library school in Ohio. There are 50 to 60 accredited library schools in the United States and Canada. The number of schools declined in the last 20 years, Rubin says, but has remained stable now for a few years. Some have changed their programs to focus primarily on information technology, he says, but Kent State’s program remains focused on the library.

Kent State’s LIS program is the third largest in the United States, with about 670 students total from the Kent campus, Columbus campus and through distance learning. When Rubin was earning his master’s degree here in the 1970s, most students attended classes full time, but now about 80 percent of MLIS students are part time.

Rubin says the image of the field has changed significantly with the changes in technology. “The library itself has changed,” he says, and seeing young people working in libraries encourages other young people to consider it as a career option. “It’s a profession for people who are intellectually vivacious,” he says.

“Have you ever considered it?” he asks me, his eyes showing some mischief. Rubin wears a black suit but is approachable and friendly, with a full beard and rosy cheeks.

I realize there are many similarities between journalists and librarians. Members of both professions hold deep respect for the First Amendment, the free flow of ideas and a person’s right to know. Librarianship is more than just a job — it has a whole set of ethics to it. The word “vocation” is now often associated with blue-collar work, but it used to signify a calling, Rubin says, and that’s what librarianship is to many people.

The turnover rates in library jobs are some of the lowest — and that’s because librarians get satisfaction from their work, Rubin says. Librarians interact with people and help them, but there’s no pressure to sell a product. “There’s trust between librarians and patrons,” he says.

Rubin describes librarianship as a noble profession. “Ignorance is one of our enemies,” he says. Librarians are professionals with a set of ethics they bring to the workplace. They must respect a person’s right to information, regardless of what they think, and they help patrons without direct benefit to themselves. People who want to become librarians “tend to be on the thoughtful side,” he says.

Future librarians
Cari Baker came to the MLIS program with a degree in English from Hiram College.

She knew she wanted to work in a library since she was a child. She began to read at the age of 2 and can remember visiting libraries since then. She read everything, exhausting children’s literature and then moving on to adult books. “I basically went through the Dewey Decimal System, starting at 000,” she says.

Baker worked at the Geauga County Public Library since she was 15, starting out as a shelver, moving up to tech services and then working in reference for two years.