The question for this module is: "What type of people would you like to teach?" The images display the variety of teaching venues librarians might work in.
Teaching, training, and instruction are a large part of many library jobs! Most commonly found in public, school, and academic libraries, teaching allows for a wide variety of topics, approaches, and audiences.
Of the images below, which kind of teaching would find most interesting to you?
If you like the idea of teaching college students, academic librarianship might be for you! Academic libraries regularly teach classes on using information responsibly and effectively, as well as offering 1:1 consults.
Special librarians work in a wide variety of venues, from government and nonprofit organizations to start-ups, corporations, hospitals, law firms, film companies, newspapers: basically anywhere that isn't a school, public, or academic library falls into this category. Teaching in these venues is likely to be related to 1:1 or small group consultations where you might be training people to use research databases. If you like the idea of training more than teaching, then a special library might be fore you!
A School librarian works in K-12 schools, usually with a separate library space. If you like the idea of working with children of this age, consider School librarianship as a possibility!
Public librarians certainly offer storytimes and other youth programs, but they also work with adults, running workshops, events, or trainings on a wide variety of topics: navigating immigration, crafts, learning or practicing English, book clubs, holiday events, job hunting, whatever is of interest to a library's local patrons.
Not at all interested in teaching? Not to worry! There are plenty of librarian and informational science position that do not require any teaching at all! Systems librarians, taxonomists, catalogers, archivists, data scientists, and all types of people with library degrees may not provide any teaching on the job!
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for this module, please contact Jane Dodge at jane.dodge@sjsu.edu. Thank you!