Professional Careers in LIS

A wide variety of professional careers have opened up in the past decade in information-related fields. Graduates of the MLIS program continue to find professional opportunities in the traditional areas of librarianship, such as:

  • reference services
  • reader's advisory services
  • cataloguing
  • collections management
  • computing and library systems
  • information literacy
  • public outreach and programs
  • library management

In addition to those established areas of librarianship, new career paths have opened up in areas as diverse as:

  • web design and management
  • information technology sales and customer support
  • corporate information management
  • publishing and database licensing
  • fundraising research
  • marketing for non-profit agencies
  • corporate intelligence

Graduates pursuing these avenues have taken their place alongside librarians, archivists, and other professionals who work in institutions that have traditionally been associated with storing, retrieving, and making available the records of our society.

There is a high demand in today’s workplace for professionals who are able to analyze and identify information needs across an increasingly diverse range of information environments, and to respond expertly to those needs. Graduates of the MLIS program have the skills to do so.

Our graduates work in environments ranging from public, corporate, academic, government, and legal libraries, to commercial vendors, the health sector, and a wide variety of agencies in the arts, sciences, and social sciences. They hold such positions as librarians, database managers, archivists, internet and/or intranet managers, consultants, and information officers, among others.

Students interested in pursuing a particular career path may wish to pursue an Area of Concentration.


Reviewed 2012/03/15