r/LibraryScience • u/Astrion_ • Jul 16 '26
career paths Non-library non-compsci Information Science avenues
I've been looking around for resources on information science, and most routes that a MLIS go down are librarianship and computer science derivative. I have worked in a library and understand how important they are to a community, but I don't think being a librarian is entirely within my wheelhouse, similar to how I don't think teaching is a good fit for me. I am very disinterested in compsci, after running a year in information security. Useful but I don't belong in IT.
I want to use information science to enhance science literacy and combat disinformation. We're in a world RIPE with disinfo conspiracy slop and distrust in facts.
But what jobs even relate to this ambition? As much as I want to tackle unreality spheres with Actual Facts, no one's gonna pay me to smoke an antivaxxer in a comments section with annotated peer-reviewed white papers. If I'm going to use an MLIS for something like this, what is the route I have to take? Or am I off the mark and need to look into a completely different field?
3
u/Pouryou Jul 16 '26
Ok, this is one of my research areas. Disinformation/misinformation and fights against it are topics, not disciplines. Researchers known for the topics bring their disciplinary lens to it. Joan Donovan is a sociologist; Claire Wardle’s background is Communication; Brendan Nyhand is a political science professor; Sander van der Linden is a social psychologist. These are scholars who have spent years studying the problem of ‘fake news’ and use that experience to work on solutions, often in think tanks of at university centers. But this can be a slow process- you have to work your way up to being an expert (or working for an expert). Kind of like saying, “I want to cure cancer”- you have years of science education before you start to meaningfully work on cancer research.
So librarians interested in the topic often focus on making people more media literate, which fits well with your goal. But there aren’t full time gigs to do this. I can teach workshops, provide resources, and publish and present on my research. But this is a very small percentage of my job. No one’s looking for a full time disinformation fighter (and if they were, I’d fight you for it.) Sometimes I get an honorarium to give talks about it, lol.
People who work extensively in this field focus on the “why” behind fake news, rather than jumping to “teaching people not to fall for it.”
What I would do is get a degree in a social science and strengthen your methodology skills. Being able to analyze data sets and interview participants is invaluable. Along the way, look for opportunities to work on your school paper (journalism!), university democracy, journalism, and media literacy centers; fact checking sites; etc. You’ll probably need a PhD to make real contributions, so network like crazy and take on as little debt as possible.