What Every MLIS Student Should Ask a Practicing Librarian

Which MLIS specialization will still fit after you see the salary spread, workload, and local job market? An MLIS student's post in r/librarians asking to interview a working librarian captures a familiar assignment: find a practicing professional and ask sharper questions than a career page can answer. A 30-minute conversation is a low-stakes way to test assumptions about public, academic, legal, and corporate library roles before you commit to a specialization, and it's a practical step in choosing the right MLIS program.

The question bank separates salary bands by role, daily realities, and non-traditional paths like knowledge management. Practicing librarians consistently point to employer type and metro area as bigger drivers of pay and satisfaction than the degree title.

Why Informational Interviews Are Essential for MLIS Students

Every MLIS student faces the same tension: the aggregate labor data says one thing about the profession, and the person actually doing the hiring at your target library says another. Both are true, and only one of them will decide whether you get the job. That gap is why informational interviews have quietly become one of the most useful tools for navigating mlis career pathways in an MLIS student's career kit.

What the National Numbers Actually Tell You

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 2% employment growth for librarians and library media specialists from 2024 to 2034, with roughly 13,500 annual openings, most driven by replacement rather than expansion.¹ A separate BLS analysis covering 2023 to 2033 pegs growth closer to 3%, but the interesting story is the variation underneath: roles inside information services, publishing, and museums are projected to grow at double-digit rates, while positions in local elementary and secondary schools are expected to contract slightly.² In other words, the headline number hides a market that is reshuffling rather than shrinking, which shapes the future of librarianship.

Aggregate data cannot tell you which branch of your county system is quietly planning to retire three reference librarians next spring, or that the nearest academic library has shifted its hiring toward data services. A 30-minute call with someone already inside that building can.

Why the Profession Talks to Its Students

MLIS coursework leans on informational interviews for a reason. Programs assign them because the field is unusually collaborative, and practitioners generally answer. The recurring pattern on r/librarians of students posting open requests, such as the recent "MLIS student needing to interview a librarian" thread, and getting takers within hours is not a fluke. It reflects a professional culture where mentorship is treated as part of the job.

For students, that culture is a hiring pipeline hiding in plain sight. With modest net growth and steady replacement demand, most new librarian jobs will not be advertised widely or filled through cold applications alone. Search committees notice candidates who already understand the local collection, the funding structure, and the director's priorities. A well-run informational interview is how you learn those things, and how the person on the other end of the call learns your name before a posting goes live.

How to Find and Prepare for a Librarian Informational Interview

A 20 to 30 minute conversation is the standard ask, short enough that most working librarians can say yes without rearranging their week.¹ Your job is to make that yes easy: pick the right channel, write a clean request, and show up prepared.

Four Reliable Channels

• State library associations: Most state chapters run career committees or member directories. Search the chapter site for a mentorship, new-professionals, or student liaison contact.
• Alumni directories: Your MLIS program's alumni office or LinkedIn alumni filter surfaces graduates working in the exact role you want to explore. A shared program is the strongest cold-outreach hook you have.
• Local public and academic libraries: Public reference desks and academic subject librarians are used to student inquiries, though academic vs public librarian roles differ by institution. Email the person whose job title matches your interest, not a generic info@ address.
• Reddit's r/librarians: The subreddit is an active community of practitioners. Note that the American Library Association does not run a formal national mentor-matching program for MLIS informational interviews, so peer channels like this one fill a real gap.⁵

Writing the Outreach

Use a work or school email when you can, since it signals you are a student and not a stranger. Open with how you found them or who referred you, then state clearly that you are not asking for a job.³² A workable template:

"I'm an MLIS student at [program] researching careers in [specialization]. I found your work through [source]. Would you be open to a 20 to 30 minute conversation about your career path? I'm flexible on time and happy to meet by phone, video, or email if that's easier. This is not a job inquiry, just a chance to learn from your experience."

Offering format options and acknowledging their time is limited materially raises your response rate.¹

Reddit Etiquette and Prep

Before posting to r/librarians, read the sidebar rules and search the sub; the same request has usually been answered before. When you do post, specify the assignment, the time commitment, and offer to share your questions in advance so respondents know what they are agreeing to.

Once someone accepts, send a short agenda or list of questions 24 to 48 hours ahead.⁴ Bring a resume only if they ask.¹ End on time, and send a thank-you email within 24 hours of the conversation.⁴²

Career Questions to Ask a Practicing Librarian

Walking into an informational interview without a focused question list often leads to polite but vague answers. A well-chosen set of five to seven questions, organized around daily realities, skill demands, and career decisions, transforms a casual chat into actionable intelligence you can use to inform your MLIS career strategies and job search.

Questions About Daily Realities

Understanding what a librarian actually does, hour by hour, reveals whether a role matches your energy and interests. Consider asking:

• What does your typical week look like? This opens the door to specifics about reference shifts, programming, collection development, and administrative duties.
• Which tasks take up more time than outsiders expect? The answer often highlights invisible labor like committee meetings, vendor negotiations, or troubleshooting patron technology issues.
• How has your workload changed in the past three years? Trends in remote services, data literacy instruction, or community outreach emerge naturally here.

If the librarian offers a general answer, follow up with "Can you give me a concrete example?" Asking for a recent scenario, such as a challenging reference question or a program that flopped, turns polite summaries into usable detail.

Questions About Skill Demands

MLIS coursework, whether in online MLIS programs or on-campus cohorts, covers cataloging, information ethics, and research methods, but classroom theory does not always match workplace priorities. Try these prompts:

• Which skill do you use most that MLIS programs under-teach? Common responses include project management, grant writing, data visualization, and conflict resolution.
• What software or platform did you have to learn on the job? Integrated library systems, institutional repositories, and patron analytics dashboards vary widely across employers.

These questions help you identify electives, certificates, or independent learning you can pursue before graduation.

Questions About Career Decisions

Librarians who have navigated early-career missteps can save you months of trial and error. Ask:

• What would you do differently in your first year? Responses might range from salary negotiation for librarians to building cross-departmental relationships sooner.
• How did you decide between academic, public, and special librarian career paths? Hearing someone articulate their own decision-making process clarifies factors you may not have considered, like institutional culture, publishing expectations, or union membership.

Keeping the Conversation Focused

A 30-minute call goes quickly. Limit yourself to five to seven questions, grouping them by theme so the conversation flows naturally. Prepare a brief preamble explaining your program stage and interests, then let the librarian's answers guide follow-up prompts. Taking notes in real time, whether typed or handwritten, signals respect for their time and helps you recall specifics when you reflect later or write a thank-you message.

By structuring your questions around daily realities, skill demands, and career decisions, you leave the conversation with insights no syllabus can provide.

Salary, Role, and Sector Questions to Ask

When you sit down with a practicing librarian, salary questions can feel awkward. The key is to ask about typical salary bands for a role or sector rather than someone's personal paycheck. The table below shows the most recent national figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2025 OEWS release) alongside experience-based ranges drawn from PayScale and other compensation surveys. Treat every number as approximate: actual pay varies by geography, institution size, union status, and specialization. As a general pattern, librarians starting in entry-level or Librarian I positions typically earn in the mid-$40,000s to low $50,000s. With three to five years of experience and a move into a Librarian II or specialist role, salaries commonly climb into the $55,000 to $75,000 range. Senior librarians, department heads, and branch managers often land between $75,000 and $100,000, while library directors at large public or academic systems can earn well above $100,000. Academic research librarians tend to sit at the higher end of each band, and some metropolitan library systems post senior-level salaries that cross into six figures. When you reach the informational interview stage, consider weaving these benchmarks into your conversation with questions such as: "What salary range is typical for someone at this career stage in your type of library?" or "How does pay progression work from a Librarian I to a department head in your system?" Framing the question around bands, not personal numbers, keeps the exchange comfortable and productive.

Non-Traditional MLIS Roles and In-Demand Specializations

If your mental model of an MLIS career starts and ends with a public library reference desk, it is time for an update. Graduates with a master of library science work across corporate knowledge management, pharmaceutical research, legal services, software development, and cultural heritage preservation.¹ Understanding that range before you enroll, or while you are still early in your program, can reshape which electives you choose and which professionals you seek out for informational interviews.

Titles You Might Not Expect

The MLIS qualifies holders for a growing roster of roles that never appear on a library's org chart. Here are five worth exploring:

• Taxonomy analyst: Designs and maintains classification systems for tech companies, media organizations, and government agencies. Employers typically look for metadata coursework, and national salaries range from roughly $70,000 to $95,000.¹
• UX researcher: Studies how people interact with digital products in tech, e-commerce, and finance. Mid-level candidates usually need a portfolio, but the MLIS to UX research path qualifies you for entry roles. Salaries nationally fall between about $106,000 and $119,000.¹
• Digital asset manager: Oversees media files, rights management, and DAM platforms at museums, publishers, and studios. National pay ranges from around $60,000 to $90,000, with rights-management knowledge a common requirement.¹
• Knowledge manager: Builds and maintains enterprise information systems in corporate and legal settings, often with a change-management component.
• Competitive intelligence analyst: Synthesizes market research and internal data for strategic decision-making, drawing on the same search, evaluation, and synthesis skills the MLIS develops.

Vendor-side positions at library technology companies and AI providers also value the degree, especially when paired with technical aptitude such as working with APIs.¹

Specializations Growing Fastest in 2026

Data services is the clearest growth area, especially for data science for librarians. Job postings for research data management librarians grew approximately 20 percent between 2023 and 2025, and roughly 30 percent of new hires at major research universities now fill data-focused positions.² Digital preservation, UX and web services, and knowledge management roles are also expanding.²

The most striking shift involves artificial intelligence. As of 2026, about 47 percent of librarian job postings reference AI skills, an increase of 25 percentage points since 2023.² Employers ask for foundational AI literacy, data literacy, prompt engineering (increasingly described as fundamental as Boolean search), and the ability to evaluate algorithmic bias and ethical implications.² In taxonomy work specifically, reviewing AI-generated metadata for accuracy and bias is becoming a core task rather than an occasional one.²

Questions to Raise in Your Interview

When you sit down with a practicing librarian, steer at least part of the conversation toward these non-traditional paths:

• "Which non-traditional roles have you seen colleagues move into after earning their MLIS?"
• "What single skill or experience made that transition easiest?"
• "How much of your current work involves AI tools, and how has that changed in the last two years?"
• "If you were starting your MLIS today, which elective or certificate would you add to your plan?"

These questions do more than satisfy curiosity. They surface real hiring patterns and skill gaps that program catalogs rarely spell out, giving you concrete data points for choosing specializations and building a portfolio that aligns with where the field is heading.

The Informational Interview Workflow

Connecting with a practicing librarian does not need to feel daunting. Follow this five-step sequence to turn a brief conversation into a lasting professional relationship. Many MLIS students find interview subjects through online communities such as Reddit's r/librarians, LinkedIn groups, or local professional chapters.

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Networking and Follow-Up Questions to Ask

Networking in librarianship turns a single informational interview into a lasting connection rather than a one-time assignment checkbox.

Ask for One Specific Introduction

At the end of the conversation, replace a broad networking request with one targeted introduction. Instead of asking "who else should I talk to?" ask "who is one person you would recommend I contact to learn about community college librarianship?" The narrower request is easier for a busy librarian to answer and produces a warmer introduction. After receiving a name, ask "would you be comfortable if I mention that you suggested I reach out?" This respects privacy and gives the next contact context. A specific ask also signals that you were listening closely enough to know what you still need.

Follow Up Within 48 Hours

This is the moment most MLIS graduate students lose momentum. Send a thank-you email within two days. Make it specific: reference one piece of advice, one project, or one challenge they described. Then connect on LinkedIn with a personalized note such as "I appreciated your advice about collection development for small branches." If you keep a portfolio or master resume, add one line crediting the conversation: "Career direction informed by an informational interview with a public services librarian." That quiet documentation reminds you where the guidance came from and shows future reviewers that you treat feedback as a professional asset.

Offer a Resume or Portfolio Review Loop

Before ending the meeting, ask whether you can send a revised resume or portfolio after applying their advice. You might say, "Would you be comfortable if I follow up in a few weeks with a revised version after I incorporate your feedback?" This frames the next contact as useful labor, not a favor. It also gives the librarian a low-stakes reason to stay involved. If they agree, send exactly one version and one follow-up question. Do not turn it into a drawn-out editing process.

Keep a Lightweight Six-Month Cadence

Long-term professional relationships grow through brief, relevant updates. Every six months, send a two or three sentence email: what you changed, what you learned, and one specific thanks for their earlier input. Example: "I moved into a reference role this fall. Your advice about asking better patron questions still guides my desk work." No favors, no attachments, no open-ended asks. That cadence keeps you visible without becoming a burden and makes a future introduction or reference request feel natural rather than transactional.