I had wanted to talk about working in a public library as a possible career.

For those of us without a college degree we can apply to be a clerk or a computer tech person.

You can often apply for a job on the library’s website or via their LinkedIn account.

The case I make is for a person with a 4-year degree to consider getting a Masters’ in Library and Information Science.

Often these jobs are union jobs and might offer a pension unlike traditional office work.

I’m not a fan of getting an office job after how I bombed out of the insurance field in the 1990s. Followed by a repeat of the same dynamic in the job I had at a law firm for two years while in graduate school.

Starting out fresh out of library school with an M.S. in New York City the salary is $56K for a professional librarian job at a public library.

Not all library systems are equal. The supervisors at some public libraries can be tricky to deal with.

Yet in the end if you ask me getting a job in a public library is far better than working in an office. Especially if you don’t want to wear a suit or put up with the corporate life.

The best thing is a public library might have a scholarship fund staff with 4-year degrees can apply for to go to library school.

I’ll end here with this:

For those of you who live in New York City and have a Brooklyn Public Library library card you can check out of any Brooklyn branch a copy of my book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers.

It’s shelved at their Business & Career Center. You can place a copy on hold and have it sent to the branch you want to pick it up at.