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MA in Digital Humanities or Librarianship?

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  • 14-05-2013 9:46pm
    #1
    VelourCupcake
    Registered Users Posts: 1 ✭


    Hi,

    Just looking for some advice, as I'm very confused! :D Please move if this is not the right section!

    So, I am an English graduate (MA), since 2010. I've been working for the last year or so in an admin job which is unrelated to my field of study or my ideal career, but I took the job as there was/is not much else out there.

    I've been trying to save to go back to do another MA, as I really want to get into librarianship. I've done some voluntary work in a public library, and it made me realize I that I prefer the cataloging/ archiving/ admin side of library work, as opposed to working with the public :P

    I've been hoping to do the library masters in UCD but the cost is putting me off, and lack of jobs thereafter. I've been researching the area of Digital Humanities and it seems to be more up my alley, but it does seem to be quite new, and it lacks the reputation that the masters from UCD would have (i.e. the MA from UCD is CILIP accredied, and is recognised in the UK, US, Canada, NZ, and Oz, I think.)

    Understandably, I'll be spending a lot of money on whatever course I pick, and I don't want to find myself in the same position I did when I first graduated i.e. stuck with an 'unemployable' degree and stuck doing whatever job comes my way.

    Which should I choose?

    If anybody could shed any light on this for me, I'd be very grateful. Particularly librarians! :D thank you!


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    #2
    ilovesmybrick
    Registered Users Posts: 1,142 ✭✭✭ilovesmybrick


    Hi Velour,

    I didn't do the MA in Librarianship in UCD, but I did do the MA in Archives and Records Management and am now in the middle of a PhD in Digital Humanities. My impression is at the moment is that to compete for the relatively scarce jobs available in the information management profession you would be well served to have a certain level of engagement with DH. That being said it is not really an either or choice. The library MA, like the archives MA, is a professional qualification and as such would be considered a pre-requisite for many library positions. If you are looking to work in libraries my advice would be to do the library MA and focus the thesis on some aspect of DH. You can gain a profficiency in many fields of DH yourself and that would probably be acceptable for many library positions, but you cannot gain the professional qualification on your own. I would also recommend you look at some of the library cources in UCL as the courses in London are beginning to be integrated with DH departments, giving you the best of both worlds and have a greater focus on the digital curatorship side.
    Hope that's of some help to you


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