meeemawww t1_jdzriwq wrote
This sucks. A big part of the problem though is that librarians, like teachers, are woefully underpaid. I have my masters in library science, a degree I had to take out copious student loans to get. When I realized during the program that even librarians at city libraries often make less than 40-50k a year, I was shocked. Yes, that’s more than a lot of people in this city make, and maybe you all will rag on me for this, but most people with masters degrees want to make more money than that. I would love to be a school librarian and help with literacy and information programs across this city, but I can’t afford to.
There are so many larger issues at play here just within the library science field regarding representation and gatekeeping and wage inequity…all of which is to say I am saddened but not surprised by this statistic. And I wish I could help somehow but I can’t because capitalism.
stormy2587 t1_jdztcz8 wrote
I really wonder what schools would look like if teachers and librarians were making say close to 6 figures starting salary.
Like how do we pay these people so comically little?
meeemawww t1_jdztru2 wrote
Well I can tell you that part of the problem is that these roles, teachers and librarians, have historically been filled by women, who as we all know do not deserve to be paid as much as men. /s
But in all seriousness, I wonder the same thing. How wonderful would it be if we invested money into schools and libraries and information literacy programs and not, say, PPD? :)
stormy2587 t1_jdzx7wc wrote
Agreed it seems like every extra dollar we spend on the PPD gets negative returns these days. Might as well spend it on something else.
apathetic_panda t1_je05jkp wrote
Do you still qualify for public sector forgiveness- or is continuous |persistent employment in said declining public sector jobs the impossible hurdle to clear?
meeemawww t1_je06ksp wrote
It’s a good question. If you work as a librarian at a public city library, you may qualify for public sector forgiveness, I don’t really know the answer. But continuous, persistent employment is one of the larger issues.
If it were up to me to fix, I would make library science a bachelors degree career and a track at more public 4-year universities. My hope is that more people would enter the field and want to serve the communities they came from in public and school libraries.
Libraries have the potential to hold a lot of power and help a lot of people, and are socialist institutions in their very nature. A library has so much more potential than just a repository for books you can borrow. This is what drew me to the field. I wish more people appreciated libraries and that collectively we invested more in them.
apathetic_panda t1_je080nm wrote
>library has so much more potential than just a repository for books you can borrow.
You kill imagination by preventing pizza 🍕 parties.
> at more public 4-year universities.
This would require the support of the other departments- as in encouraging their students to seek concurrent programs & curate.
Pizza could be a vegetable- if you wrapped a salad 🥗 in a pita 🪘🥁🛢🍗🥴
meeemawww t1_je08689 wrote
I’m…confused by this comment lol.
apathetic_panda t1_je08abm wrote
I do that alot, don't worry about it
Delfiasa t1_je2ks1p wrote
Public service loan forgiveness requires 120 payments on an approved income driven repayment plan. It doesn’t need to be continuous! Just the total number of payments while working for a qualifying employer
Trafficsigntruther t1_je0auo7 wrote
> I really wonder what schools would look like if teachers and librarians were making say close to 6 figures starting salary.
You just have to go to the suburbs to find out.
Lynn9330 t1_je0lzkl wrote
Jeez I just did and I know how they get paid that much now cuz I’m paying over 5k in school taxes
Sweaty-Inside t1_je1b0vx wrote
In addition to being typically female professions, they also benefit from it being a passion career. The kind of person who wants to go into the field would only do so if they really believed it was important, so the employer (or in this case, government) can bake that into it. "Sure, it's not financially rewarding, but it's your calling."
momentums t1_jdzzuqm wrote
Nah, you’re correct about MA equalling a higher salary – that’s an investment of time and money and education to specialize in your field!
[deleted] t1_jdzwk21 wrote
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