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Many study options for becoming a librarian

Working with books

Forty years and the ubiquitous Internet separate the respective Library and Information Technician (LIT) programs at Seneca and Conestoga College.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2008-03-26 ]

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Deborah Kay, program co-ordinator at Seneca, says the Toronto school introduced its LIT course when the college opened for business in Canada's Centennial year back in 1967.

Asked why her program continues to thrive when others around the province -- even the country -- have declined or been abandoned, Kay suggests two reasons: "We've always had a strong job market (in Toronto) and we've always had the support of Seneca."

At Kitchener's Conestoga College, Joyce Irving, program administrator, worked closely with the still new LIT venture, and watched as it took to the web for the first time last September.

The entire program at Conestoga is delivered online, Irving says, and students have up to five years to complete it. "It is exactly the same program" as the one offered at Mohawk College in Hamilton, she continues. Ottawa's Algonquin College also has an LIT program.

The classroom-based courses at Seneca take two years full time to finish, Kay says, and the college's part-time counterpart, also delivered in class, requires about four years to complete. Part-time students have the opportunity to start their studies in September, January or May; a full timer's only option is to start in September. There's also an accelerated LIT program at Seneca for students with post-secondary education that takes a calendar year to complete.

Admission requirements to all the programs vary. Kay says she's had a nurse and a pharmacist as students, and right now there's an MBA in her class.

Library technicians and librarians aren't the same thing, Kay explains. A library technician's education is skills based and they carry on the day-to-day work at a library whereas librarians plan, create strategy and so on. "There is tremendous overlap," she says.

Nor are all library technicians to be found in typical public libraries, although many are. They can also be found in such locations as the specialized libraries of law and medical faculties; large corporations; colleges and schools; and many government ministries.

How much new grads make depends on where they work. Kay says they can expect to earn between $18 and $22 an hour, and notes that 80% of her students find work in their field within six months of graduation. Full-time tuition at Seneca costs about $5,400 for the regular program and about $4,700 for the accelerated. Courses at Conestoga are about $260 each.

Almost all new Seneca graduates will be women, and it can be expected that most of the students in the Conestoga and Mohawk programs will also be female. It's equally likely that that they are older than most college students. Kay puts her classes' average age at 28. "We have an older demographic," she says. "Students generally have work experience or post-secondary education. We also have career changers."

Kay says some of her students are new immigrants who were librarians in their home countries and attend Seneca to get up to speed on new technology.