Motivations for choosing librarianship as a second career among students at the University of British Columbia and the University of Hong Kong

Abstract

The pathway to a career in the Library and Information Science field is rarely straightforward and unidirectional, but is often multi-faceted, with many circuitous detours along the way. There has been an increasing number of second-career in LIS emerging from many other non-LIS-related professions over the years. Many of these newcomers have made significant contributions to the LIS profession as they transfer their years of professional experiences, expertise, knowledge and skills from their former careers into the field. The purpose of this paper is to understand the perceptions and perspectives of the LIS students, and the various factors that influenced these midlife graduate students to consider switching from their current occupations to LIS as a second career.

LIS pre-professionals’ perspectives towards library user education: A comparative study between three universities in Greater China

“…Similar to trends amongst LIS programs in many countries in general, a vast majority of the LIS student populations at all three participating universities were female (Ho et al, 2016; Lo et al, 2015, 2017). According to Lo et al (2015, 2017), even though an increasing number of men are participating in the LIS field, students choosing to enroll in MLIS programs are still predominately female. In addition, 63% of the survey respondents were postgraduates, while 37% were undergraduates (see Table 5).…”

“…Because of the distinctive colonial pasts, sociocultural, and information landscapes amongst the three regions, the professional qualification, requirements, and practices for LIS professionals in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China are distinctively different from one another (Dukic, 2017; Ho et al, 2018; Lo et al, 2015, 2017). These differences are further reflected in the LIS curricula at all three universities in this study.…”

“…As pointed out by Tracy and Searing (2014), employment-based familiarity might affect students’ knowledge of and use of library services. Findings of previous studies indicate that a majority of graduate students at both HKU and NTNU were current library paraprofessionals, and were undertaking the MLIS program in order to advance or change their careers (Ho et al, 2016; Lo et al, 2015, 2017). Furthermore, according to the findings of our previous studies, a significant percentage of LIS students at both HKU (41.7%) and NTNU (22.8%) already held graduate-level qualifications (in other non-LIS-related academic disciplines) prior to entering the MLIS program.…”

“…Furthermore, according to the findings of our previous studies, a significant percentage of LIS students at both HKU (41.7%) and NTNU (22.8%) already held graduate-level qualifications (in other non-LIS-related academic disciplines) prior to entering the MLIS program. For this reason, students at both HKU and NTNU tended to vary widely in terms of their educational and occupational backgrounds (Dukic, 2017; Ho et al, 2016; Lo et al, 2015, 2017). In comparison, only a small number (3%) of PKU students held postgraduate qualifications prior to entering the MLIS program (Ho et al, 2016).…”

Progressive Trends in Electronic Resources Management Among Academic Libraries in Hong Kong

“…The interviewees of this study have reported on these changes as well as its inherent workflows. As a result, librarians need to learn different skills for handling all the library operations and processes on a technical level, alongside with management and communication skills, in a way similar to that of a business manager (Lo et al, 2016). In other words, they also need to equip themselves with business negotiation skills that are necessary for bargaining effectively with different publishers or e-resources vendors.…”