EXPOSED
The bulk of this job — building syllabi for cataloging and reference courses, recording lecture modules, grading discussion posts and research papers, drafting literature reviews for LIS journals — is text-and-screen work that current models handle at usable quality, and MLIS programs are already among the most online-delivered graduate degrees, which strips away the physical-classroom moat. What persists is thesis and practicum advising, accreditation-facing program design, and the mentorship that pushes students into actual library and archives careers. The bigger threat is demand-side: this is a 3,630-person occupation whose enrollment pipeline depends on library and information-work hiring, and AI pressure on search, cataloging, and reference roles feeds back into program size.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. Lecturing on MARC/RDA cataloging rules, building reference-interview exercises, and marking annotated bibliographies are all things a model drafts at passable quality, which is why this sits at 9 rather than mid-teens — the residue that genuinely resists is supervising a student's practicum placement in a live special-collections reading room and chairing capstone committees where you judge whether a project is defensible, not whether it is correct.
Some physical or field component. A 5 reflects the thin physical layer that still exists: hands-on instruction in archival processing, preservation handling, and physical-collection organization, plus site visits to partner libraries for practicum oversight — but the ALA-accredited MLIS is overwhelmingly delivered online, so most of your teaching week is a screen and a Zoom window.
No licence, no signature requirement. There is no license to teach library science — the MLIS itself is the credential your students seek, not one you must hold to be personally liable, and ALA program accreditation attaches to the institution's self-study and site visit rather than to you as an individual, so no statute names you when a course goes wrong.
The human relationship is the product. At 13 the relationship carries real weight because LIS hiring runs on faculty referral networks into academic, public, and archival institutions, and your recommendation letter and professional-association introductions are what actually place a graduate — but you are one of several faculty in a small program, not a sole practitioner students follow by name.
Meaningful discretion. A 10 rather than mid-teens: you exercise genuine discretion on curriculum mapping to ALA core competencies, admissions decisions, and whether a thesis is ready to defend, but the consequences land on a student's timeline and a program review cycle, not on anyone's safety, liberty, or money.
Law Teachers, Postsecondary EXPOSED
Has AI actually changed your work?