Librarian Resume Sample

This page includes information from O*NET Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Standing out as an applicant is essential when looking for work as a librarian. We’ve identified several key areas where you can strengthen your librarian resume and librarian cover letter so you can make yourself a top candidate — whether you’re an experienced professional or an entry-level librarian.

1. Begin with a compelling resume objective

Starting your resume with an eye-catching resume objective is a key aspect of writing a library resume that gets you more interviews. A resume objective is a two- to four-sentence introduction of your professional experiences, educational background, and relevant skills.

Let’s take this candidate’s resume objective apart and identify what makes it effective. In three short sentences, the candidate reveals several relevant details that hiring managers are looking for.

Here’s our applicant’s resume objective:

Recent graduate looking to leverage 5+ years of internship and volunteer experience into your Librarian job opening. Experienced with working as both a children’s and a reference librarian, and worked on various library projects such as presentations and grant writing. Possess a Master of Library Science degree.

First, the applicant immediately reveals that they’re an entry-level candidate looking to fill a specific role.

In addition, they place their valuable librarian-related internship and volunteer experiences in this sentence, which quickly makes them a strong candidate for the particular role.

In the second sentence, the candidate reveals they have experience in both children’s librarian services and reference desk services, and have also helped with presentations and grant writing.

Employers want librarian applicants who are constantly improving themselves and have experience working in all roles at a library, so if you’ve worked in diverse librarian roles, mention them on your library resume.

Finally, the candidate reveals that they have a Master of Library Science degree, which is a prerequisite for most employers.

By placing these qualifications at the top of your resume like this candidate did, you’ll successfully tailor your resume objective to the job opening and capture the hiring manager’s attention.

2. Include relevant work and volunteer experiences

Employers value seeing volunteering experience and internships on an entry-level librarian resume because they demonstrate real-world experience that hiring managers are looking for.

So if you have volunteer experience or internships relevant to working as a librarian, include them on your librarian resume.

Volunteering is easier than ever now — use a volunteer website like Volunteer Match to find local opportunities.

Having volunteer and internship experience also indicates that you won’t need to go through as much training. Finally, sharing your volunteer experiences shows you have the drive to discover opportunities and take advantage of them.

3. Target your professional experience section with hard numbers

Your goal in your professional experience section is to respond to the hiring manager’s job description. Ideally, you should fit your resume to match the library’s job description.

Your resume should be more than just a generic list of previous job duties. Orient your resume around resume accomplishments that reflect your professional achievements, not just daily duties.

Additionally, use hard numbers to put in context that you’re competent, self-disciplined, and have a desire to improve as a librarian over time. Using hard numbers quantifies your work and volunteer experiences.

Let’s look at some examples of how you can use hard numbers in a librarian resume sample:

• Include your years of experience

Mention the years you’ve been working professionally because it provides employers with information about your work background and whether you’re a qualified candidate.

• Describe the size of previous libraries you’ve worked at

Tell the hiring manager about the size of the library you worked at to indicate the scope of the librarian responsibilities you undertook. Using hard numbers to describe the number of customers also shows that you pay attention to details.

• Mention the money you earned from grant writing

Earning grant money is a great accomplishment, and you should display it on your resume by including the amount of money you earned and providing details about who sponsored your grant.

• Talk about your donation earnings from fundraising activities

Book and monetary donations help alleviate many libraries’ operating budgets, so show employers how you contributed to library fundraising events by putting a dollar value on fundraising activities you participated in.

4. Add a librarian resume skills section

Hiring managers seek librarians with a wide range of skills, so include hard and soft skills on your resume.

Hard skills are learned from practical experience, education, or training. For example, experience with Microsoft Office Suite such as Publisher, PowerPoint, and Excel, and having basic computer skills are minimum requirements for librarians.

Cataloging, researching, and using library management software such as Koha, Folio, and Lucidea are also important technical skills for librarians, so add them to your library resume.

Here are more librarian resume hard skills:

• Collection management
• Knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System
• OPALS
• Accessit
• Administrative skills
• Acquisitions
• Fundraising
• Grant and proposal writing
• Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
• Language skills

You also need to prove you have the right soft skills to succeed as a librarian. Soft skills relate to how you interact with others at the workplace.

For example, librarians need to have excellent communication skills and customer service skills when interacting with patrons who are looking for library materials or dealing with large groups at fundraising events.

Additionally, developing public programs, doing presentations, and training and teaching patron classes are important librarian soft skills. Even rearranging reference books, inviting authors to come to speak to your patrons, or giving a lecture on a topic you have expertise in are skills you can write about in your resume.

Librarians also sort through materials, files, and databases on a daily basis, so including organizational skills on your librarian resume is a must.

These are other soft skills for your library resume:

• Interpersonal skills
• People skills
• Time management skills
• Leadership skills
• Management skills
• Adaptability
• Teamwork
• Efficiency
• Attention to detail
• Multitasking skills