INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Librarian positions are at a 9% growth rate, which is as fast as average. With that said, there are currently 143,500 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 13,000 to 156,500 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Librarian jobs was $60,820 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $34,810, and the highest 10% more than $97,460.
Our conclusion? The Librarian job market is wide open for candidates.
Top librarian sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
A librarian resume experience section to be proud of
Writing a strong experience section for your librarian resume:
- List your previous jobs in chronological or reverse-chronological format;
- Use no more than 4-6 bullets per position;
- Mention only relevant work experience;
- Describe the tasks you were responsible for and how you managed to exceed expectations;
- Show you’re able to take charge by choosing action verbs over buzzwords.
Looking for real-life examples of what a strong experience section looks like? Check out our suggestions below!
- Put efficient systems into place to make the library run more smoothly for both Library staff and Patrons
- Used technical skills in school committees and collaborated with others to learn and teach new technologies
- Created monthly designs for book displays about character traits, holidays, and other special themes
- Integrated board games into the library and popularized their use with students
- Ran a successful Scholastic Book Fair and led a hard working committee of Grade 5's who took ownership for the event
- Created engaging Library lessons following the Ontario Information Studies curriculum which kept students engaged and enthusiastic about coming to the library
- Used social media to promote current library happenings
- Organized various school events, including Literacy Week, author visits, and a book competition, “March Madness: A Tournament of Books”
- Supervises all technology and information systems, including public, staff, reference and circulation computer hardware and software. Responsible for staff and patron technology training.
- Manages and creates all online content for the library, including the official website, social media and LibGuide.
- Manages all collection development and patron satisfaction procedures for the Teen Services department, including reader's advisory, purchasing, weeding and maintaining print and digital resources for young adults. Initiates, plans, and conducts a variety of programs and activities for teens.
- Monitors ILS and catalog records for all Teen Services materials, including checking MARC and other records for accuracy.
- Took basic Librarian duties such as book selection, ordering, cataloguing, shelving, weeding, and library organization and put efficient systems in place
- Joined STEM committee, assisted with Hour of Code event, filmed and edited videos for special school events, and filmed and edited picture books to be used online
- Carefully selected books and created monthly displays for character traits, holidays, and special themes
- Purchased strategic board games and popularized them with students to check out at any recess time
- Preparing to run Scholastic Book Fair and collaborating with large group of grade five volunteers who will take responsibility and ownership of event
- Collaborated with the classroom teachers to create engaging lessons based on their classes’ needs and interests while following the Ontario Information Studies curriculum
- Modeled predicting, reflecting, questioning, connecting and evaluating and encouraged students to use these strategies in their own reading practice
- Helped students find interesting and engaging reading materials for both research and pleasure
- Organized various exciting literacy events, including Literacy Week, multiple author visits, and “March Madness: A Tournament of Books”
- Kept Library blog and Twitter account up-to-date, providing everyone with current library happenings
- Performed original descriptive and subject cataloging for various library materials;
- Handled inquiries and requests for information and provided training on research methods to students;
- Coordinated public relations in the female section and participated in designing and editing the first electronic and paper-based newsletter.
- Managed the archive and the library, as a solo librarian, and assisted in the development of the library management system;
- Developed an architectural material and a typical designs database;
- Maintained accurate architectural and engineering information, and developed and managed the library’s collections and electronic resources (memberships, subscriptions, acquisitions, etc.);
- Prepared bi-annual collection development, access, expenditure, usage and other statistical data required;
- Developed and implemented records’ management and archiving policies and procedures;
- Responded to internal information queries and referred users to appropriate resources;
- Performed cataloguing, analysis and indexation of various electronic and printed resources (metadata, types,thesaurus, and resumes).
- Develop and revise library curricular materials, tutorials, and other digital learning material.
- Lead library instruction classes information literacy for students.
- Manages library website to add information and keep it up-to-date.
- Performing administrative duties including answering phone calls, invoicing, faxing, scanning
- Issuing, returning, reserving, re-shelving books, journals, CDs, DVDs and cassettes
- Processing new academic resources
- Helping students and lecturers with searching academic resources and IT issues
- Put efficient systems into place to make the library run more smoothly for both library staff and patrons
- Used technical skills in school committees and collaborated with others to learn and teach new technologies
- Created monthly designs for book displays about character traits, holidays, and other special themes
- Integrated board games into the library and popularized their use with students
- Ran a successful Scholastic Book Fair and led a hard working committee of Grade 5's who took ownership for the event
- Provide training and on-boarding for Box Cloud Storage
- Develop training materials website and software Documentation
- Approve scholarly journal articles for publishing
- Strategically designed and implemented SharePoint intranet.
- Led the complete redesign of Library web presence
- Led adoption strategy for over 6 software deployments in two years.
- Back office and front desk assistant
- Multimedia archive assistant
- Dealing with library enquiries in person, by phone and email
- Giving information about books
- Shelving and tidying stock on open access, maintaining the library environment conducive to learning
- Supporting students in using PCs, MFDs and other applicable technologies
- Participation in the library programs of orientation and information skills training for users
- Ensure that the IT equipment and study areas are maintained in a clean, safe and tidy condition
- Return stock to the shelves on a daily basis, to undertake regular shelf-tidying and to undertake stock taking as required
- Help with displays and other promotional activities
- Manage library collection and borrower access on the OPen-source Automated Library System (OPALS)
- Evaluate donated books to add to the collection and purchase apporoximately 150 books per year
- Increased library collection by 13% over the course of two years
- Train faculty and students on accessing the online resources
- Coordinate and host a variety of extracurricular students and family activities/workshops
- Assisted with coordinating artist hospitality including company ticket requests, housing and travel arrangements
- Managed the festival’s music library inventory and managed relationship with the Denver Public Library
- Prepared all company welcome packets, generated contact sheets and other paperwork as needed
- Conceptualized and developed book displays and designs about character traits, holidays, and other special themes on a monthly basis
- Re-organized multiple sections of the library by topic making it easier for patrons to understand, thus increasing use of those sections
- Analyzed library requirements and conducted research to source cost-effective materials
- Surveyed students and researched product in order to integrate board games into the library
- Raised just under $12,000 in a Scholastic Book Fair and managed four committees of Grade 5 student volunteers
- Self taught video editing tools (iMovie and WeVideo) and created content for special school events and programs
- Increased student enthusiasm and engagement with library by creating fun and relatable lessons in alignment with Ontario Information Studies curriculum
- Used Twitter and a Google blog to share library information and events with students, parents, teachers and administration
- Organized a variety of school events, including Literacy Week, author visits and a book competition, “March Madness: A Tournament of Books”
PRO TIP
Include quantitative data throughout your Librarian resume to impress the hiring manager. Real facts and figures that show off your competency as an audit manager go a long way. Did you reduce the costs of audits? Manage a large team? Boosted efficiency? Show off the real numbers!
Action verbs for your librarian resume
Recommended Reads:
Taking Control of Your Librarian Resume’s Skills Section
A skills section that shows what you’re capable of includes:
- Keywords from the job advert to help you pass ATS;
- Both hard and soft skills, incl. technical skills and people skills;
- Skills that are relevant to the position you’re applying for;
- No more than 15 skills – to keep your resume readable.
Top skills for your librarian resume
ISBD
UNIMARC
Microsoft Office
Prezi
Moovly
Acrobat Pro
SurveyMonkey
Social Media Platforms
LibGuides
Communication
Leardership
Empathy
Problem solving
Team work
Listening
Influencing
Mentoring and coaching
Motivating
Emotional intelligence
PRO TIP
When picking skills to feature in your resume, make sure they'll be relevant to the position you’re applying to. The point of listing skills is for you to stand out from the competition. Stay away from repetitive, meaningless skills that everyone uses in their resumes. Or else, they’ll backfire and make you look like an average candidate.
Recommended reads:
Librarian resume header: Tips, red flags, and best practices
Checklist for your librarian resume header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:":
PRO TIP
Some companies, states, and countries have policies about identifying information like photos on your Librarian resume. Be sure to check all the relevant rules before submitting yours. If you’re in doubt, you can always try contacting the company’s HR department to ask for their policy.
A librarian resume summary that spotlights your achievements
Checklist: A strong librarian resume summary.
- Use adjectives that highlight the character traits you’re most proud of;
- Mention 1-2 of your biggest achievements;
- Add keywords from the job advert to increase your chances of passing ATS;
- Keep the recruiter’s attention by going for short sentences.
Resume summary formula:
PRO TIP
Your summary section should act as a brief but informative introduction to your experience section. In this section you should go into more depth about what you have done, and how you did it.
Recommended reads:
Creating an impressive education section for your librarian resume
the education section: checklist
- List your degrees in reverse-chronological order;
- Include your degree subject, place of study, name of institution, and year of graduation;
- Add a line or two about your relevant certifications;
- Mention some classes and projects that have helped you gain additional skills.
Top certifications for your librarian resume
Apps for Librarians & Educators
Become an expert in the best mobile apps for education and content creation.
The Crash-Course in Advanced Library Science
Sharpen Your At-Home and Career-Supporting Library Skills
Articles and Letters/Applications
Articles and Letters/Applications
Teach Smarter Not Harder Online or Face to Face
Improve your online or face to face teaching style for better learning outcomes.
Organize Your Life with Mobile Apps
Use the best apps to organize & access your information from anywhere. Lower stress: never lose track of anything again.
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Librarian. But, some are more effective than others. That’s why you mustn’t include every certificate other applicants might have. Try instead to earn and list a few of the difficult ones.
A professional format for your librarian resume
There are some aspects worth taking into consideration when choosing the format of your Librarian resume. These include the position and company you’re applying for, your total years of experience, whether you’ve been through some employment gaps, and so on.
Generally speaking, there are three basic resume formats for you to choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional skills-based resume format;
- Combination (or Hybrid) resume format.
The reverse-chronological resume format is just that: all your jobs listed in a reverse-chronological way, starting from the most recent and moving backward. It’s great for highly experienced professionals with over 10 years in the industry behind their backs. The reason for this: it’s almost entirely focused on experience and achievements.
The functional skills-based resume format, on the other hand, is just the opposite. It’s based on your skills, personality, and expertise. It highlights what you’re capable of even when you don’t have sufficient work experience. This makes it great for students, recent graduates, or people with larger career gaps.
If neither of these sounds like you, go for the combination resume format. It’s a combination of the best characteristics of other formats, which makes it great for showcasing different aspects of your career and education. It also gives you plenty of options to choose from – in terms of colors, structure, and sections.
Check out our additional tips on perfecting your Librarian resume’s style and layout:
- Choose traditional 1-inch resume margins;
- Go for a serif or sans serif resume font that’s easy to read yet looks professional (e.g. Arial, Verdana, or Calibri);
- Keep your Librarian resume short: one-page template are preferable, but if you have over 10 years of experience, you can also go for a two-page format;
- Save your resume as PDF and choose a suitable name, e.g. NameSurnameResume;
Tired of looking for ways to make your resume stand out? Read this article!
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Test your draft Librarian resume by sending it out to peers and mentors in your circles. Ask them to review it as if they are hiring you for a project and implement the feedback afterwards.
Additional sections for your librarian resume
After drafting the required sections of your Librarian resume, it’s now time to move to something a bit more fun. There are a number of sections you can add to your resume depending on the company, the position, and how you’re feeling in general:
Adding the right kind of creativity to your librarian resume
It is through creativity that we express ourselves. And trust us, it’s important to show at least a bit of your personality if you want to leave a strong first impression.
But what are the ways to add creativity to your Librarian resume? Well, you can either go for a colorful and engaging template, or you could add some out-of-the-box sections, such as ‘life philosophy’ or ‘what my typical day looks like’.
It’s up to you! Just make sure that the level of creativity matches the position, the company, and the industry you’re applying for.
What makes a great librarian resume: key takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
