Name: Briana Galea 

Major: English

Year: Senior

Hometown: Eynon, Pa.

Briana Galea is a senior English major who will be attending Syracuse University in the Fall of 2015 to pursue a Master’s of Library and Information Science degree. 

Q: What school will you be attending for Library and Information Science and why?

A: I will be attending Syracuse University. It is only two hours away from where I live now so I think that will be really convenient. Also, I think Syracuse has a really good reputation so that was definitely a factor.

Q: What made you want to get a master’s degree in Library and Information Science?

A: When I first started trying to decide what I was going to do after I graduated from Marywood I thought that I was going to go and be a professor of English, but I was strongly advised not to because there just aren’t any jobs in the humanities in higher education right now. You would have to be a hired adjunct and you can’t live off of that salary. So, I was trying to figure out what I could do that was still similar to that but more realistic so I decided that a degree in library science would be great because the job market is better and I really like the academic setting so, getting a degree in library science, I can still be in that setting and I think that is something that is really important.

Q: What goes into being a master of Library and Information Science?

A: A lot of people don’t realize that you need a master’s degree to be a librarian but, what you have to do is actually very hard work. You have to help students learn how to deal with information and you conduct your own research and figure out ways to better the library system.

Q: What kind of jobs are available in the Library and Information Science field?

A: You can get a job in a public library, a medical library, and an academic library. I am thinking that where I want to be is in an academic library just because I love that setting. I think that is where I’d do best.

Q: What do you do in your free time?

A: What I do at school as an English major is I do a lot of reading and I think that that is definitely a hobby of mine. I don’t think loving to read is the only reason for being an English major, but I love being in school. I consider school a hobby. And also besides that, spend time with the friends I have here and my boyfriend.

Q: What are your goals after graduation?

A: Well after graduation I am taking the summer to work with commonlit.org.[That] is a website that puts text online for free for middle school teachers. So what I will be doing is I’ll be writing discussion questions that go along with text and the point of that is to teach what literature means and make reading exciting for kids. So, I’m going to be doing that over the summer, make some money, and next fall I’ll be going to Syracuse.

Q: What are your plans after you graduate from Syracuse?

A: What I hope to get out of a career after Syracuse is, like I said, I want to work in an academic library. There are many jobs within that so, I am not entirely sure exactly what I will be doing yet but I think I am going to take the two years at Syracuse to figure it out. Other than that, I am willing to start at the bottom and work my way up. But, it’s something I still have to figure out.

Contact the writer:
[email protected]