The Post-Grad Plan
Many months later, I am now realizing I should have listened to myself better in my last post. It should have been obvious that I’d likely abandon this blog till I was done with my MLIS. The good news is. . . I finally am! In December, I graduated and can now confidently call myself a librarian in both senses of the word (more on that concept in a future post). I gave myself some extra time afterwards to recover before coming back because 2025 proved to be an incredibly busy year. At certain points, it very nearly pushed me to the point of burnout, so rest was needed before diving into my next project.
What Was I Doing?
Before getting into those future plans, let me catch you up! I started out 2025 with one class (Information Literacy Instruction) and a remote internship focused on library instruction / reference work with an Ivy League School. I’m not naming the school for privacy reasons since I created some online content for them. Believe me when I tell you, though, it was an incredible opportunity that helped me get direct experience with academic library work and sharpen my skills with online reference and teaching.
As soon as the spring semester ended, I immediately began my second to last class: Information Ethics. The best way to describe the class was a crash course in ethical philosophy through a librarian lens. And I do mean crash course as we covered a semester’s worth of material in a single month. The professor themself admitted that this was a very rushed pace for content like this but the schedule was not something he could control. That said, this was my third course with this professor for good reason, and I think few people could have pulled off teaching it as well as they did.
July gave me a bit of a breather (besides my job, of course) before getting back into it again with my final class. Based off my advisor’s suggestion, I chose Metadata Fundamentals. I knew this class was going to be more challenging for me as it was more of a technical class as opposed to the theory-based classes I was more comfortable with. As one librarian I spoke with during my internship said, though, you have to take your “vegetable courses” in order to get a well-rounded education! During this time, I also had to work on my graduation portfolio (majority of people in my program do this instead of a dissertation) which proved I had learned the program standards through assignment reflections, an LIS philosophy of practice, and an updated resume/CV.
Two Roads Diverge (In Post-Grad Life)
There were definitely some assignments turned in at this last minute, but I got everything done and am now entering post-graduate life. During this season of rest, I’ve also been reflecting on what my next steps should be. At the moment, I have two main paths to consider career-wise. As some of you already know, this whole time I have only been working as a prison librarian part-time. Now that I have my degree, HR is working with me to submit a proposal for making this a full-time position, so I am playing the waiting game with that. If it does not get approved, however, I will then likely have to make the difficult decision of leaving this job I love for a different position.
If it does come to that, I have three main options: academic, public, and prison (in a different state). There are so many factors to consider, and it feels like stating the obvious when I say that this hiring market is even more difficult than usual. However, I have been keeping my eyes open for potential opportunities and am finding that we are not in the full-on hiring freeze that I feared might happen.
I am very privileged that I have time to consider all of these options, however. Even as a part-time worker, I bring in enough money that I am able to afford rent, utilities, food, etc. where I currently live. When I started looking to move out of my parents’ house last summer, I found a pretty good rental with two other roommates and a private landlord who doesn’t charge a ridiculous amount. That said, my savings only consists of what I put away from that paid internship last year and I am one of the nearly 1.5 million Americans who chose not to renew their Marketplace insurance due to rising prices. One way or another, it is definitely time to go full-time.
Online Plans
That leads to the final part of my post-grad plans which includes this blog! Even before starting library school, I wanted to create content centered on libraries and the workers who make them possible. Now that I have more time on my hands, I want to be more consistent in my efforts. One place where I have already started that is TikTok. Say what you will about short form content, but there is something about the combination of accessibility and excitement with platforms like that which helped me stay motivated to keep talking about my experiences and libraries in general.
That said, some weird things have been going on with that platform (to put it lightly), so I want to also bring that energy and creativity to other platforms and really make something of this opportunity to connect with others, share stories, and (hopefully) help others along the way. I have some ideas I’ve been developing while doing everything else, so some exciting news should be coming soon! If you’ve made it this far and are a librarian / library worker who would like to share their story, please send me a message on the contact page here or on any social media platform linked in the corner!
If you want to stay in the know with everything going on here in the upcoming months, I’d recommend signing up for my email list and/or connecting this blog with your RSS feed of choice. I can’t wait to dive back into this project!
Till Next Time,
Sam
