alternative careers

Alternative Careers
The kind of training provided by library schools is such that the products can join alternative careers, if they find better career opportunities. The moot point is whether or not library educators should encourage such options. There are two categories of opinions. Some are of the view that if library professionals are encouraged to seek other options, then the resources spent on them for training go to waste and the seats offered to them to be admitted to library schools also get wasted. They also say that why library school should train professionals for other fields, it is not their responsibility. In case people want to join other careers for better prospects, then why should we stop them. It is their decision. As there are limited number jobs in the market and the number of professionals being turned out are far more, therefore, there should be no harm, if some graduates leave the profession and join alternative careers.
A recent survey of library professionals conducted in USA, indicates that alternative careers pursued include e-commerce, data mining, data asset management, community outreach, grant-writing, fund raising, international relations, etc. The interesting finding is that on average they get higher salaries than library professionals. krishan kumar