The Complete Guide to Becoming A Library Science Teacher, Postsecondary

Chapter 1: What Does a Library Science Teacher, Postsecondary Actually Do?

The title says "Library Science Teacher, Postsecondary," but that phrase is doing a lot of work. On paper, you'd be a college professor who teaches future librarians, archivists, and information professionals. In practice, the job is a three-legged stool: teaching, scholarship, and service. If you've never watched a day of it up close, you're probably picturing a quiet office, a wall of books, and students hanging on your every word. The reality is messier, busier, and far more interesting than that.

If you're picturing a quiet office, a wall of books, and students hanging on your every word, the reality is messier, busier, and far more interesting than that.

Let's start with the teaching, because that's the part you'll feel in your bones. A Library Science Teacher, Postsecondary—sometimes called an LIS professor, short for library and information science—typically teaches between two and four courses per semester. That sounds light compared to a high school teacher's six or seven periods a day, but it's not just standing in front of a room for three hours a week. Each course you teach has a full hidden workload behind it. You'll design the syllabus from scratch or heavily revise one from a colleague. You'll create lectures, which means reading new scholarship to stay current, pulling together examples, and building slides or handouts. You'll write assignments, you'll grade them with feedback that actually helps a future librarian, and you'll meet with students during