All I ever wanted to be was a... Lumberjack!

I would be an editor. It's one of my unofficial hats as an academic librarian and I've discovered a talent for it.

Project manager - Librarians organize people, things, and information - gather and syntheize bits and turn them into knowledge, then put them back out in a format a variety of audiences can understand and use. Librarians manage facilities, with things in them, all needing to serve the mission and the public. Librarians also have to know how to go get money, either by political work or by directly asking. Librarians also manage staff and supervise others, even if only volunteers. And Librarians can learn about anything on the fly with just a little time.

Unless you needed specifically a lawyer, engineer, or doctor, I think Librarians have all the natural skills to manage big projects of any kind.

OR just drive more than 50 miles to get to work. I grew up and live in the Los Angeles area, and know many people with commutes worse than that. But that's part of the culture here. I'd put some books on CD in my car and go.

How about a writer. Think of all the stories we can tell, commentaries we can make, maybe even do a comic strip!

I am thinking of quite a few librarians turned writers. It seems to work for them!

Actually I can't think of anything else I would rather do. I love being a librarian.

if i wasnt a librarian i would be a Pirate!! yarrr!!!

the reason....

pirates get to swear, drink rum and sail the seven seas in search of booty!! (which is what every librarian secretly wants to do!)

Records Manager

Why? Because most of the skills you learn for librarianship can be used in that field. Examples : classification of records uses some of the same methods as book classification; some filing systems use barcodes; research is sometimes needed to find files or to flesh out the information they contain; databases do need to be kept up to date like cataloguing systems; sometimes you have to deal with clients that are less than ideal, wanting things yeaterday when they have just given you the list at closing time. There's more but that's all I can think of right now.

Another similar profession is Archivist / Archives Technician.

What a fun question! I hope this meets your expectations.

Video store manager - The cynic in me was just thinking this the other day while I spent most of my afternoon checking videos in and out. The local store was advertising a position that starts at more than I make here. There are times when I wonder about the worth of a master's degree. Many of us have experience with scheduling, training, overseeing workers. Any customer service kind of job would work, really, since that's what we do all day. Do you mean purely professional jobs?

Newspaper/editing/fact-checking - reference skills galore, used to working with databases, turning over stones.

I think your restrictions are pretty severe, but I assume that's so we'll think outside the box. Would working in a bookstore be "directly related"?

In reality, I'd probably be a smallholder and writer.

I would be a comedian. I don't have a fear of speaking in public and stories about working with the public are always funny. Having worked in libraries for a few years I would have loads of material.

I decided long ago that my backup career is flight attendent. I mean, it's pretty much the same - calming crazy people down and controlling a variety problems and situations. Plus free/discounted flights to support my travel habit.

Ideally, if I could no longer be an academic librarian, I would choose to go back to my pre-MLS career life as a database programmer. A librarian's ability to group and organize information comes in really handy in that line of work. Also, the people skills a librarian builds while working in public service would be very useful for dealing diplomatically with clients during requirements discussions, product reviews, and whilst fending off "feature creep."

However, that would simply be the ideal alternative if I had no more access to working in a library. But there aren't any companies in need of database programming within any reasonable commuting radius of my rural homestead. So, realistically, I would probably just let my part-time cattle-raising become a full-time career. If I couldn't be in a library, spending more time with my cows would be the next best thing!

I would run a baseball/sports card & collectibles shop. (Of course, I'd have to hit the lottery first and be independently wealthy to afford to.)

First of all, I love baseball. Secondly, I'm a bit of a gambler at heart and I love opening a pack of cards and seeing whether I get my money back or wasted it based on the value of the cards inside.

Then, of course, you have to organize them to be able to resell them - or to keep them as a collection. Well, who knows how to organize and categorize better than a librarian?!

Trust me...I'm cleaning out a basement full of cards right now and my cataloging skills are being well used!

I have two suggestions (from Queensland, Australia) Project manager is definitely an option. We organise and schedule small and large projects. the second suggestion is community development manager. I have already filled this role in local government for 18 months on secondment. Working with neighbourhood development, cultural development, youth, community safety all have great synergies with public library work.

How about a freelance book indexer? Maybe it's because I'm still an MLS student and I've been studying a lot of cataloging lately, but it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch - read a book and write down the main topics with the page number. (I haven't tried it, it might be more complex than that.) You get to read books and work from home in your pajamas. As a freelancer you might get paid less than you would in a more steady job, but you'd save a lot on gas.

Professional Organizer: That is a large part of what I do with digital collections and any committees I am on. I just get everything together and sorted so others may find it easily. I love labeling things, describing them (yeah metadata!).

Board member of a non-profit: Again, it's the organization and ability to find out information I need. I've had to handle the political climate in libraries, so I think I could handle craziness at other places, too.

Bookbinder/Repair: I would open my own shop to repair others' books, and create my own art books. First job I had in a library was in the conservation lab, oh how I loved being a book doctor!

Someone just came into the library the other day and asked if anyone could suggest a local book bindery, to restore an antique book. There doesn't appear to be one in the state! With my MLIS in conjunction with my fine art degree, I could easily repair damaged old books, or branching out, operate as a conservator in any of our local museums.

Public Office? By working in the library you have the skill set to organize, make reasoned decisions quicky and have experienced what people want in life. You also have experienced what people truly need in helping those patrons with job searches, taxes, and other adult learing situations.

Part of me wanted this to be tongue in cheek but I do think working for the library prepares one for government.

If I had it all to do over again, I would have rehabbed my knee and gone into the Army Reserves or National Guard. Since that boat sailed a long time ago, I would go into teaching.

Teacher at a Junior College. I can't say that the requirements are the same at all Junior colleges, but I know that at least some of them only require a Masters degree in any field in order to teach the basic courses. We already teach some classes(granted, not nearly so in depth). I also think that the organization required of librarians would certainly help a teacher stay on top of the various grading, lesson planning, and the like, since we do that on a daily basis for programming. I might be cheating since I taught ESL prior to working in a library.

I also think that it would be fun.

I just saw an ad today, that I was thinking would be perfect...A Bank in the area is hiring a corporate account loan approval officer.

The responsibilities would be to research market trends, prior loans of similar types, etc... to determine the suitability of this loan for approval. It was all data shuffling and research that an MLS might be doing in a library, but on behalf of a bank!

I'm living this reality. I voluntarily left the profession 1.5 years ago after 6 years in it to pursue something more secure because I didn't want to hit 40 in our fairly beleaguered(economically, at least) profession. So I've considered - a lot - the competencies in librarianship and how they could compare to other fields. For myself, I believe medicine is a great alternative choice. There are many connections - desire to help, using resources to help, ability to teach (Doctor as teacher), and the similarities between being a health counseler and the process of the reference interview. I've recently composed some essays (personal statements) on this topic for school entrance applications. If anyone wants to see them, please email me at travelingman@airpost.net, and I'd be happy to share. This is a great question.

Um . . , retired?

Actually, an ideal job would be reading for audio books. There's something I definitely think I'd be good at.

A police/fire dispatcher. We answer all sorts of questions everyday and elicit responses from library users based upon our questioning skills. I would be a natural and I could wear a uniform and not have to worry about what to wear to work. Except for working the evening shift.--that I would not like, but I would for once be affiliated with a department that has clout and support in my city!

Interior designer or Clutter Clobberer. Even before cataloging I had a knack for organizing, visualizing, and following the idea of a place for everything and everything in its place. I go into some spaces and think... just give me an hour and I could make this so much more pleasant and functional. In fact, a reference librarian asked me to straighten her office. I did. Then she couldn't find anything because all the 3 foot high piles were gone. Too funny!

1) bookseller, 2) duh 1) museum information desk attendent 2) i was a museum librarian for 14 years 1) archivist 2) organizational and classification experience 1) information management/consulting via blog that develops advertising base then expands to IT website and, shortly thereafter, is bought by one of the big internet conglomerates for millions 2) i can dream...

Close to records management is Information Mangement. I know I know... seems like a sexy name for records management and you know... you'd be right. Almost all governments and pretty much everyone associated with that legislation for accountability and acces to information have to clean up thjeir electronic recrods. And frankly, because as Stephen Abram puts it - the electronic iceburg is just floating along waiting to cause a titanical incident, IM managers are scarce and needed everywhere. Learn about "file management" as opposed to RDA and AACR, understand taxonomies and controlled vocabulary, put your teaching skills to work in order to train a bazillion people to USE what ever electronic IM system is in place, create the policies, ... it is ENDLESS.

IM is the hot topic but frankly it's not as exciting as reference and readers advisor. you persuading people to file doucments electronically for accountability and access. It is the immature version of organized information - where libraries are the mature side.

But it is growing as a business and there is a definite need for knowledgable people to run the show.
ANd best part... many organizations want MLIS professionals to run their IM businesses because they get that we get it. Now salaries... doubt they are any better than libraries but it's a job

1. A teacher. That is what I am right now. Having a library background really helps my find books that might tempt the students who don't want to read. Plus, in my classes I read a lot of the same books that are in our school library now. There is also a lot of paperwork involved in teaching nowadays. Not to mention organizing materials for 20 different students on a daily basis.

2. Book reader. I don't actually know what the job title is; but I have always wanted to be the person who reads a book and says "hey, this would make a great movie!" I wouldn't think that job would require moving anywhere. You would just need a mailbox and an internet connection. That is my dream job.

Publisher's Rep anyone?

Why aren't we looking at ourselves as "knowledge management" executives rather than simply "information (retrieval) specialists?"

I would be an urban farmer or a community bicycle mechanic. How would my library background help me? Well, I have no previous formal training in either of these fields, but have learned that the power of information available for free in libraries can help me learn to do anything I want to. Also, bringing community members together for a common cause, building connections between them, and organizing available skill and information sharing are all skills I employ in my current position that would come in handy when maximizing the potential efforts of a hardworking community. But I would continue to draw comics on the side... after all, it was my major.