Would I like being a law librarian?

Making an informed decision concerning a law library career requires an understanding of law librarian qualifications, responsibilities, compensation, and employment prospects. The resources below and elsewhere on this web site discuss these issues and more.

• Update to Choosing Law Librarianship: Thoughts for People Contemplating a Career Move, by Mary Whisner. This article highlights the important issues confronting those who are considering becoming law librarians.
  
• Thinking about Pursuing an MLS?, by Louis Abramovitz. The author recounts his decision to become a law librarian and his pursuit of a graduate library degree.
  
• Law Librarianship by the Numbers 2008. This report summarizes recent statistics concerning law librarian salaries and references published statistics concerning employment prospects.
  
• AALL Job Placement Hotline. This web site lists law librarian positions that are currently posted with the American Association of Law Libraries and also provides an archive of past positions.

It also may be helpful for you to consider the following law librarians’ published descriptions of how they entered the profession, typical days at their jobs, and their views of their career.

	Jennifer Loope Selby, International Law Librarian, University of Michigan Law Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan. (source: How I Became a Law Librarian, AALL Spectrum, Feb. 2003, at 19.
	Cindy Chick, Manager of Information Resources Knowledge Systems, Latham & Watkins, Los Angeles, California (source: Cindy L. Chick, Finding Energy in Change, 93 Law Libr. J. 549 (2001).
	Judith Meadows, Director, State Law Library of Montana, Helena, Montana (source: Judith Meadows, Believe in What You Do, 93 Law Libr. J. 569 (2001).
	Brian Striman, Professor of Law Library, Head of Technical Services, and Catalog Librarian, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Marvin & Virginia Schmid Law Library, Lincoln, Nebraska (source: Brian Striman, Of Rubber Bands and LTMs, 93 Law Libr. J. 581 (2001).
A Day in the Life of a Law Librarian is the focus of the Winter 2007 issue of Law Library Lights, the magazine of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC). This issue contains nine law librarians’ descriptions of somewhat typical work days.