Where to move???

I am from Bermuda (which gives me UK citizenship), but currently in my last year of law school in the US.  My fiance and I are planning to move to England next year.  He's currently applying to masters programs in health policy and public policy, while I plan on working in a university library for a year, then applying for masters programs in library sciences for 2011.  My eventual goal is to become a law librarian. 

We'd like advice on where to move, since neither of us have lived in England before.  London is our first choice, but of course it's really expensive.  We're open to living outside of London and commuting in.  We're also open to other cities that have universities.  We'd prefer to live in the South or East and within several hours train ride of London.  It needs to be somewhere that has good public transportation, since we won't have a car.  We'd prefer somewhere that is fairly diverse, and has good cultural activities (museums, performing arts, etc), good food and local character.  We're currently in Michigan, so the weather isn't a problem.  Any suggestions of places to live in/near London or completely different cities are appreciated.  Thanks for your help!

One option is Cambridge.  Not far from London, with relatively frequent trains.  Housing is not cheap but is in general lower than London.  Cambridge University is in the successful late stages of raising one billion pounds from alums and friends (prominent among whom are Bill & Melinda Gates.)  Among continual development & expansion at Cambridge are the libraries; the University Library itself just got an enormous new extension, and several colleges have built new and expanded libraries over the last few years.  Additionally, Cambridge has dozens of major libraries belonging to academic departments and specialised institutes.  I don't know how many folks have library jobs in Cambridge, but it must run into thousands.

CILIP (The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) has pretty good education and employment resources.  They maintain the Lisjobnet job listings.  CILIP also run a student traineeship scheme; these are one year library placements (with competitive salaries) for graduates who are intending to go on to library school.  The typical candidates for these traineeships would have a masters degree or bachelors, but no experience working in a library.

But, as in many other fields, it is not easy getting a library job in the UK just now, because of the general employment situation.  Someone I know is presently seeking a library assistant's position, he's currently getting his librarianship degree at Aberystwyth via distance learning.. he's applied for maybe 40 jobs, had about 15 interviews so far, no offers as yet.  He reports that other job seekers he's met have been exceptionally well-qualified (many with PhDs and other specialised & advanced degrees.) I think in the current climate you just have to assume it will take longer.

Good luck with your future plans!

I would say, as someone who is living in Cambridge with a Masters in Library Science and no library job but plenty of interviews, that you should apply for the library traineeship and see if you get one and move to wherever you get a position.  Limit your choices to schools that have your fiancé's programme, but apply where you can.

For all the libraries at Cambridge four are currently offering trainee positions for 2010; 8 have them this year. 

Of those eight: three went to a Cambridge college, one volunteered at a Cambridge college, one worked at the Cambridge University library as a book mover, one had extensive volunteering at other libraries and one seems to have no connection to Cambridge but that doesn't rule out some sort of family/friend connection.   None of them has an advanced degree.

I'm not saying it is impossible, just that is very difficult with limited spaces available.   

Bookgrl, your advice is sound; apply for positions, then move to where you are successful in getting a job.

Just to be clear, I was talking about two different employment routes:
(a) Student Traineeship route; these are like internships, usually one-year positions, but with competitive salaries.  Aimed at those who plan to get a library degree.
(b) Just regular, permanent, library assistant jobs.  These can be found via Lisjobnet, or looking at the job listings posted by each individual college or university, or other job searching strategies.

Thanks everyone.  I've looked at the CILIP website and will be applying to all of the available graduate traineeships.  I've worked as a research assistant at the law library part time for the past two years, so hopefully that will help.  Do you think it would be useful to cold call law firms/libraries who don't offer formal traineeships?

Thanks everyone.  I've looked at the CILIP website and will be applying to all of the available graduate traineeships.  I've worked as a research assistant at the law library part time for the past two years, so hopefully that will help.  Do you think it would be useful to cold call law firms/libraries who don't offer formal traineeships?

Yes, definitely.  The traineeships are just one route - a regular library assistant job is probably just as useful to you.  In a tough employment climate like the present, sometimes it is easier to get a library job if it is non-standard hours (evening, weekend) since there are always many job-seekers who cannot or do not want to work those hours.  It worked for me when I was looking for a library job in Boston in 1991.

Thanks everyone.  I've looked at the CILIP website and will be applying to all of the available graduate traineeships.  I've worked as a research assistant at the law library part time for the past two years, so hopefully that will help.  Do you think it would be useful to cold call law firms/libraries who don't offer formal traineeships?

You can, but I doubt those would be paid.  Libraries in some counties are firing formally trained librarians and replacing them with basic staff.

In the UK most librarians working at public libraries don't have masters, they start at a low level and work towards their chartership.  That is fine, but in Cambridge in the past three years there has been about 6 or 7 full time, or even reasonable part time, jobs offered.  Most jobs are for about 8 hours a week.  

At the University they either advertise for library assistants, which they only ask for A levels, or for people with many years experience, or people who have multiple languages.  

Your best bet, I think, is to get in touch with some law firms (or look at online ads) and see what they expect from entry level law librarians.   If they don't want one with a MLS then getting it will only hinder your job search.