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Librarian resume example

Library search committees check for an MLIS from an ALA-accredited program, then ask which kind of library you know: public, academic, school or special. Prove it with reference and instruction counts, the systems and cataloging standards you use, and the programs or collections you built.

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Agatha Wrenfield

Research & Instruction Librarian | Health Sciences & First-Year Programs | Teaches 2,100 students a year

  • Providence, RI
  • agatha.wrenfield@example.com
  • +1 (401) 555-0183
  • linkedin.com/in/your-name

Summary

Academic librarian with eight years in reference, instruction and collections, holding an ALA-accredited MLIS. Teaches about 60 information literacy sessions a year, supports nursing and public health faculty with literature searches, and selects health sciences resources. Works daily in Alma, Primo and LibGuides, and catalogs in MARC 21 and RDA when technical services needs help.

Work Experience

Research & Instruction Librarian

Jul 2020 – Present

Blackstone Harbor University · Providence, RI

  • Teach 60 information literacy sessions a year to 2,100 students, using assignment-based activities designed with first-year writing faculty.
  • Serve as liaison to nursing and public health, holding 150 research consultations a year and supporting two faculty systematic reviews.
  • Built 14 LibGuides that drew 38,000 views last year, and replaced print reference titles with e-resources to save $22K.

Reference Librarian

Sep 2017 – Jun 2020

Greystone Mill Public Library · Pawtucket, RI

  • Answered about 80 reference questions a week in person, by phone and by chat, including job-search and e-government help.
  • Launched an ESL conversation circle and a tech help hour that together drew 1,100 visits a year.
  • Selected adult nonfiction on a $45K budget and weeded 4,000 dated titles with CREW guidelines.

Cataloging Graduate Assistant

Sep 2015 – May 2017

Kingsbridge College Library · Kingston, RI

  • Copy-cataloged 2,000 items in OCLC Connexion using RDA and LCSH, and resolved authority record conflicts.
  • Created a finding aid and Dublin Core metadata for 600 digitized campus photographs.

Education

Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), Library and Information Studies

2015 – 2017

University of Rhode Island

Skills

Core competencies

  • Information Literacy Instruction
  • Research Consultations
  • Collection Development

Systems & standards

  • Alma / Primo
  • LibGuides & LibAnswers
  • MARC 21 / RDA
  • PubMed & CINAHL
  • Zotero

Teaching & outreach

  • ACRL Framework
  • Faculty Liaison Work
  • Workshop Design
  • Instruction Assessment

Certifications

  • Consumer Health Information Specialization (CHIS) · Medical Library Association, 2021
  • ACRL Immersion Program, Teacher Track · Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022

Languages

  • English · Native
  • German · Reading proficiency

The full sample as text. Rendered in the Oxford template, a layout applicant tracking systems read in order.

Fictional person: the name and contact details are invented. Any resemblance to a real person is coincidental.

Librarian resume summary examples

Pick the one closest to your level and replace the specifics with your own.

  • Entry level

    MLIS graduate from an ALA-accredited program with a 150-hour practicum in an academic library's research and instruction department. Taught six one-shot information literacy sessions, answered chat reference in LibAnswers and built two LibGuides for first-year writing. Copy-cataloged 300 items in Alma using RDA. Seeking an entry-level reference or instruction librarian position.

  • Mid level

    Public services librarian with seven years in a three-branch public library system. Leads adult programming, from ESL conversation circles to job-search workshops, and selects nonfiction and digital collections. Answers about 60 reference questions a week, manages branch circulation workflows in Koha, and grew attendance at adult programs by 35% over two years.

  • Senior

    Head of technical services with fifteen years in academic libraries, managing a team of nine in acquisitions, cataloging and electronic resources. Led the move from a legacy ILS to Alma and Primo, oversees a $1.2M collections budget and negotiates database licenses. Directs authority control and a metadata cleanup of 400,000 records.

  • School librarian

    Certified school library media specialist serving 700 students in a grades 6 to 8 building. Co-teaches research units with social studies and science teachers, runs a makerspace and a student book club, and manages a Destiny catalog of 14,000 titles. Rebuilt the fiction collection around a wider range of authors and handles reconsideration requests under board policy.

  • Law library

    Law librarian at a mid-sized firm supporting 60 attorneys with legal research in Westlaw and Lexis, docket tracking and legislative histories. Manages database contracts and cost recovery, trains new associates on research tools and maintains the firm's knowledge base. Previously a reference librarian at a public law library serving self-represented litigants.

Librarian resume objective examples

An objective fits when you have no direct experience in the role yet. Name the role, the proof you already have and what you will bring to the team.

  • MLIS student

    Final-semester MLIS student in an ALA-accredited online program, working 20 hours a week as a library assistant at a public branch. Built a teen graphic novel display series and completed a course in RDA cataloging, and is applying for a youth services librarian role.

  • Teacher to librarian

    Fourth-grade teacher of ten years who added a school library media endorsement and is finishing an MLIS. Brings reading instruction and classroom management, and seeks an elementary school librarian position running research lessons and a reading promotion program.

Common mistakes on a librarian resume

  • Calling every patron interaction customer service

    Fix: Library work is specific. Instead of "helped patrons," say what the help was: literature searches for nursing students, readers' advisory for teens, job applications and e-government forms for adults, or e-reader setup. Then give a count per week or semester.

  • Leaving your systems unnamed

    Fix: Committees want to know you can work in their stack from the first week. Name the ILS or library services platform (Koha, Alma, Sierra, Polaris, Destiny), the discovery layer, Springshare tools such as LibGuides and LibCal, and any migration you worked on.

  • Treating programming as a list of events

    Fix: A list of storytimes and book clubs says little. For each program series, give the audience, how often it ran, attendance and any partner, such as a literacy council or parks department. Add what changed afterward, such as new library card sign-ups or regulars who kept coming back.

  • Ignoring the collection budget

    Fix: Collection development is a core duty in many roles. State the subject areas or age ranges you selected for, the budget you managed, the vendors you ordered through and any weeding you did with a method such as CREW.

What should a librarian resume include?

A librarian resume should open with a two or three line summary of your focus, then show each role as results rather than duties. Name the skills the posting asks for, such as Reference Interview, Research Consultations and Chat Reference. Start bullets with verbs like Cataloged, Taught and Curated, and give each one a number where you honestly have one. If you hold a credential such as State Public Librarian Certification (in states that require it), list it in its own section.

Reference & instruction

  • Reference Interview
  • Research Consultations
  • Chat Reference
  • Information Literacy
  • ACRL Framework
  • One-Shot Instruction
  • LibGuides

Cataloging & metadata

  • MARC 21
  • RDA
  • LCSH
  • Library of Congress Classification
  • Dewey Decimal
  • OCLC WorldShare
  • Authority Control

Library systems

  • Alma
  • Primo
  • Koha
  • Sierra
  • Polaris
  • Destiny
  • LibCal

Collections

  • Collection Development
  • Weeding (CREW)
  • Approval Plans
  • Electronic Resources
  • License Negotiation
  • Usage Statistics
  • Open Educational Resources

Public & school services

  • Readers' Advisory
  • Storytime
  • Summer Reading Program
  • Teen Services
  • Digital Literacy
  • Community Outreach
  • Intellectual Freedom

Action verbs

  • Cataloged
  • Taught
  • Curated
  • Weeded
  • Digitized
  • Answered

Certifications

  • State Public Librarian Certification (in states that require it)
  • School Library Media Specialist Certification (state Department of Education)
  • Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP), Medical Library Association
  • Certified Archivist (CA), Academy of Certified Archivists

Match these against the job posting you are applying to: the free resume checker shows which keywords your resume is missing.

Skills to put on a librarian resume

List the hard skills the posting names in your skills section. Soft skills belong in your bullets, shown through something you did.

Hard skills

  • Original and copy cataloging (MARC 21, RDA, LCSH)
  • Library services platforms (Alma, Koha, Sierra, Polaris)
  • Discovery layer setup (Primo, EBSCO Discovery Service)
  • Instruction design mapped to the ACRL Framework
  • Springshare tools (LibGuides, LibCal, LibAnswers)
  • Electronic resource management and COUNTER usage reports
  • Digital collections metadata (Dublin Core, Omeka, CONTENTdm)
  • Database searching (PubMed, CINAHL, JSTOR, ERIC)

Soft skills

  • Running a reference interview that finds the real question behind the first one
  • Calming a patron who is upset about a fine or a policy at the desk
  • Holding the attention of a class an instructor sent to the library
  • Answering a book challenge calmly by pointing to the board-approved policy

Librarian keywords recruiters scan for

Use the wording of the posting itself, and back each term with a line that proves it.

MLIS / MLS
Put the degree with school and year under education, and note that the program is ALA-accredited.
Reference services
Give weekly question counts and channels, such as desk, chat and appointments, in your first bullet.
Information literacy
Count the sessions you taught and the courses or grade levels they supported.
Cataloging
Name the standards, the platform and your monthly volume, keeping original and copy work apart.
Alma or Koha
List the platform under skills and mention migration or configuration work in experience.
Collection development
State your subject areas, budget size and the weeding method you followed.
Library programming
Describe one series with its audience, frequency, attendance and community partner.
Liaison librarian
Name the departments you serve and one faculty project, such as an embedded course.
Electronic resources
Mention license renewals, access troubleshooting or usage reviews you handled.
Outreach
Show where you took the library outside the building and how many people you reached.

Librarian resume bullet examples

The numbers are illustrative. Keep the structure (verb, action, measurable result) and use figures you can back up.

  • Taught 45 information literacy sessions a year for first-year composition, built around the ACRL Framework and checked with short exit tickets.
  • Answered about 70 reference and chat questions a week at a public library, from genealogy to small business research.
  • Cataloged 250 items a month in MARC 21 and RDA, clearing a backlog of local history pamphlets, maps and oral histories.
  • Weeded 6,000 outdated nonfiction titles using CREW guidelines and circulation reports, making room for a new graphic novel collection.
  • Planned a summer reading program for 900 children and teens with the parks department and nearby schools.
  • Co-led the migration of 380,000 bibliographic records from Sierra to Alma, testing load profiles and merging duplicates before go-live.
  • Built 12 LibGuides for nursing and public health courses that became the most viewed guides on the library website.
  • Ran weekly tech help hours for older adults that logged 400 visits a year, covering e-readers, email and online benefits forms.

How to stand out as a librarian applicant

Tailor every application to the posting: the resume, the cover letter and the answers you prepare for the interview.

  • Read the library's strategic plan before you edit

    Libraries publish strategic plans, annual reports and board minutes. Read them to find the priorities behind the posting, such as digital equity, a new makerspace or a platform migration. Put your closest matching work first and reuse the library's own terms for services and patrons. Tailor your resume to this library's plan

  • Address the qualifications in posted order

    Search committees often score applications against the posted required and preferred qualifications. Open with the role and the kind of library you serve now, then answer the qualifications in order with one example each. For faculty-status roles, add a paragraph on scholarship and service. Close with why this campus or community, naming a program they run. Write a librarian cover letter

  • Prepare a teaching demo and patron scenarios

    Academic interviews often run a full day that includes a presentation or a sample instruction session on an assigned topic. Public library panels ask about difficult patrons, programming ideas and intellectual freedom. Rehearse a short lesson with an active learning step, and prepare a story about a reference question that took real detective work. Practice librarian interview questions

  • Link to your guides and digital work

    A short online portfolio helps library candidates: a LibGuide you built, a lesson plan, a digital exhibit or a program flyer. Add one link in your header, and make sure each sample is public and credits any co-authors. Put the same link on your LinkedIn profile too. Update your LinkedIn for library roles

Salary (official data)

Official pay statistics for the occupation that matches this role, copied exactly as each statistics office publishes them.

  • United States

    Median gross annual pay: $68,270 a year · Median gross hourly pay: $32.82 an hour

    Middle half of earners: $56,310 to $84,480 · 10th to 90th percentile: $43,660 to $103,990

    Official occupation: Librarians and Media Collections Specialists (SOC 25-4022)

    Gross wages of employees in all industries, before deductions; excludes the self-employed.

    Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Public domain.

  • United Kingdom

    Median gross annual pay: £38,857 a year

    Official occupation: Librarians (SOC 2020 2471)

    Gross annual pay of full-time employee jobs (employees on adult rates in the same job for more than a year).

    The publisher marks this estimate as less precise.

    Provisional figures: the publisher revises them a year later.

    Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, tax year to 5 April 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

  • Canada

    Median gross hourly pay: CA$40.91 an hour · Median gross weekly pay: CA$1,563 a week

    Official occupation group: Professional occupations in art and culture (NOC 2021 51)

    Usual gross wages of full-time employees (30 hours or more a week) at their main job, including tips, commissions and bonuses.

    Source: Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0417-01 Employee wages by occupation, annual, 2025. Reproduced and distributed on an "as is" basis with the permission of Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence). This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

  • Ireland

    Mean gross annual pay of the whole major group: €70,522 a year

    Major occupation group: Professionals (ISCO-08 2)

    Mean gross annual earnings, including bonuses, for the whole major occupation group in enterprises with 10 or more employees. Eurostat publishes no median by occupation.

    Source: Eurostat, Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_28), 2022, CC BY 4.0. Ruubu matched the role to an ISCO-08 major group; Eurostat is not responsible for this use of its data.

Figures cover everyone in the official occupation, at every experience level. They are not a job offer, a forecast or a Ruubu estimate. Ruubu matches each role to the closest official occupation. An official occupation can include related jobs.

How we choose and show official salary data

Librarian resume questions

Do I need an MLIS for every librarian job?

Professional librarian titles in public and academic libraries usually ask for a master's from an ALA-accredited program, called an MLIS or MLS. Library assistant and circulation roles do not. School librarians generally need a state school library credential, which may come through a teaching license plus an endorsement.

How do I show cataloging skills on a resume?

Name the standards and tools: MARC 21, RDA, Library of Congress Subject Headings, Dewey or LC Classification, and the platform, such as OCLC Connexion or WorldShare Record Manager. Then give scale, such as records created per month, formats handled and any cleanup or migration project. Describe original and copy cataloging separately.

Should I list library school projects and practicums?

Yes, especially early in your career. A practicum, a digitization project, a research guide you built or a class you taught is real evidence. List each under experience or a projects heading with the library type, your role and the finished product, such as a finding aid or a published guide.

How do I move from a public library to an academic one?

Academic searches look for instruction, research support and service to faculty. Recast public work in those terms: classes for adult learners, in-depth research help and grant writing. If the job has faculty status or tenure, expect to address scholarship and service, and add conference presentations or publications.

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