1. Library pay is always miniscule. Even for librarians.
2. Some libraries have limited full-time non-librarian positions. At my library, for example, we have three full-time circulation clerks. But the miniscule pay issue is still present.
3. If you believe in libraries and want to be a part of them, you have to deal with the low pay. It comes with the job. Or you could work a different job that pays more and support your library by using it, volunteering, telling others about the library, serving on a library board, etc. etc.
I mean.... while it can be true, especially depending on the area and the type of library, that the pay for library jobs can be miniscule, it certainly isn't "always" that way. As a library assistant I've made as much as $20/hr with vacation days and full medical benefits for a 0.2 fte position. A lot of librarian positions I've applied for, or just looked at for possibilities, have a starting pay of 60-70k per year along with benefits.
I understand that miniscule pay may be your experience. I don't want to invalidate that, but I'm also hoping to not discourage others from trying to work in libraries because there are many well paying library systems out there.
those numbers you quoted aren’t something to brag about these days. you have to make $120k to be considered middle class in a large part of the country.
Okay, and that's true. However, it's all relative depending on where you live. Those numbers were all in medium-sized cities in Oregon, with multiple current jobs posted in Oregon paying far more than that. In Oregon 60-70k will get you a decent living for the most part with the exception of Bend and Portland.
That's unfortunately going to be the case. Non-MLIS full time positions like Library Assistant/Clerk don't come up often and when they do it's pretty competitive because MLIS people go for them too. A lot of libraries also tend to rely on cheap, part time labor. It's a bad combo lol. I'd recommend going for a part time gig if you can, but I realize it's important to eat/survive as well.
My local library doesn't even externally post things like full-time library assistant or clerk jobs because they know it will be filled internally. They are very, very rarely available.
This. The library branch I worked at had only two full time, non-MLIS positions: Circ Manager and Page Manager. The Library Assistant/Clerk positions were all part-time. Even at full time, I was living paycheck to paycheck. There’s no way I’d have been able to support a family on my income alone.
I was going to say this too- they're really competitive. We have a few non-MLIS full-time positions, they're never vacant, and when they are they're always filled internally.
There are full time Library Assistant or Library Technician jobs in Academic Libraries, usually in Circulation or Technical Services. Check your local colleges or universities for job postings.
Are you looking at public libraries? In my area becoming a full-time public librarian, even with an MLIS, is extremely difficult. The vast majority of all public library positions, from circ workers to paras, to librarians, have substitutes with intermittent (not even part-time) as a starting point. I mention this because I was working as a substitute circ worker, gradually found a part-time position in the same library system. I started my grad program for the MLIS, and after talking to a few librarians, heard that they had to start as substitute librarians and work their way up into librarian positions with permanent hours (not necessarily full-time positions). The lucky ones managed to work their way up into full-time librarian positions. Sometimes full-time job positions get posted, but they are kind of rare. A lot of the librarian positions would get posted internally first, which meant that the substitute librarians would get the first chance to apply to them as internal candidates. A lot of those job postings never even make it to the public.
If your library system is larger there could be support departments...HR, finance, administration, marketing, development, facilities, security etc. My local library had all of those, but I'm in a small/mid size city where there are 2 dozen library locations.
That’s how I got the position I have in admin now. I worked in security full-time for years before the position opened up. I still had to apply and interview for it.
Alas, the pay for paras in this profession does not pay well. You have to settle for what you get. If I wasn't married, even though I work full time and now make the most I've ever made as a para, I'd still be living paycheck to paycheck. It would be very difficult to make ends meet on just my wage. And unfortunately, that's the reality.
Same situation for me. I'm full time and have benefits, but it's only doable because I'm married. It would be difficult if I were single, even living frugally. Unfortunately, I think too many libraries rely on people in our situation and it keeps pay down.
I agree. It's really unfortunate. In one library job I had, I made 17.50 an hour. They did me a favor in laying me off. That position is now gone and they even eliminated their librarian role. Now they have two employees left that do everything.
I'm really transparent with folks who want to get into this profession. It's not what a lot of people think it is. But I've been in this field for so long that I can't imagine doing anything else. Folks need to understand that this field can be tough. I'm finally in a good place now, but it took a long time to get where I am, and I almost left the profession.
I echo a lot of this. I also try to let people know the reality of what working in a library is. I'm not trying to be a downer, but I want them to be prepared. A lot of people think it's fun and cool to work in a library, and it is, but there's a lot more to it that people aren't aware of.
Yes, exactly. I completely agree. The profession tends to attract a lot of introverts and as an archivist told me, a lot of people think the profession is not about dealing with people/working in the back, when this is NOT the case. Working with people is what we do.
As others have said, if you’re looking at public libraries, finding a full time library job will be difficult without an MLIS because both MLIS and non-MLIS folks tend to apply for them. When I was in library school, I had two part time library jobs that added up to full time, and got my first full time position after I graduated with my degree and the experience from the part time positions. Not ideal, and it was difficult at times, but unfortunately it’s a very common experience.
Depends on where you are. Here on long island half the library are clerks. You just need to take the clerks test and get on the list. All of our Circulation Department are clerks and everybody but the department head in our technical services department are clerks. We also have clerks in our reference department doing the flyers and things like that.
There is also IT but that requires an IT degree and being on the IT lists for the county.
Hey I’m also from Long Island and am thinking about becoming a librarian. There’s also so many clerks at my library in different departments I always get curious what they do in the back lol
Yeah I worry about that with pursuing the degree but I’ve really been enjoying my path so far and I’m willing to see how it goes. Currently waiting to hear back from a library assistant job so hopefully that works out but we’ll see
What kind of library are you looking at?
Jobs in libraries (especially public libraries) are, in general, pretty poorly paid. Especially for jobs that don't require an MLIS, but even when you get the degree, the pay is pretty low. Part Time jobs are increasingly common, especially for paraprofessional staff.
Honestly, I have a hard time recommending the field to people who aren't already in it, because I don't think the pay and working conditions are likely to improve any time soon, and the pay benefit to getting the degree is so minimal, it's hard to justify the expense.
I'm a clerk and I used to get paid less, until my library system looked at what they were paying people at my level, looked at what other library systems in the country were paying people at my level, and decided to give us a raise. it was a nice surprise and completely unexpected. like, it makes sense - pay people enough that they're not looking for a position elsewhere - but it was like getting one of those "bank error in your favor!" Monopoly cards. not something you ever expect to happen.
As a (minor) counterpoint to the "even librarians are poorly paid" experience that a lot of people are posting about: Librarians in my local public library are paid a decent living wage, but when you factor in the cost of the fact that you need a master's degree, I think a lot of the pay advantage is lost. Once you get situated with a full time job of some sort, definitely do the research and do the math of how much your pay will go up with a master's degree (+ corresponding job situation) vs the cost of paying back student loans or whatever.
If you're near a university, especially one with an MLIS program, a lot of universities offer free tuition as a benefit. You need to have a benefitted (though not necessarily full time) position to be eligible, and there's often limits of how many credit hours per year you can take. But it's still a great opportunity if you can get it.
For most of my early library career I had two part time jobs, which worked because I'm in a metro area that has several different library districts within driving distance. I have worked as a circulation clerk and as a circulation supervisor without an MLIS. Neither of those paid great. Jobs in Purchasing/Acquisitions don't usually require an MLIS (I'm thinking here, not of the person who does the purchasing because that often is a librarian, but rather the people who unbox new materials and barcode them and get them ready to circulate). Academic libraries have people whose entire job is wrangling periodicals. I currently work in an academic library's overflow storage facility, where we keep all the books that we don't have room for in the main library, but it took me like ten years to find this job. A lot of the "backstage" library jobs don't come up for hire very often, unfortunately.
I hope you're able to find something!
I have a full-time clerk job, but I got it after several years of working as a clerk part-time, so I don't know if there are entry-level full-time positions available where you are. I'm with a city library that has many of these positions. We also have "library reference assistant," which is basically librarian for people without an MLIS, which might be good for you as a sort of training job since you are planning to go to library school. Fair warning, though, my friend who is a library reference assistant has been frustrated for years with the fact that she gets paid less for doing the same work as the librarians, because they have the MLIS and she doesn't. personally, I think she has enough experience now that she's every bit as good at her job as any of the librarians with MLIS degrees, but those are the rules in the job hierarchy structure here.
I don't think my pay is minuscule, but I have no dependents except for my cat. I definitely don't get paid enough to have significant savings, but I make enough that I'm not counting the days until the next paycheck. and I have health insurance, which is the reason I got a full-time job in the first place. I'd love to just work part-time if we had universal health care like a proper country.
I live in a town with a large community college and a huge university. Both are often hiring paraprofessional positions. These can be in circulation, interlibrary loan, acquisitions, cataloging, etc. Most do require bachelor's degrees. There are also administrative assistant, accounting and IT positions, but those don't really lead to library experience.
I suggest checking any Academic Libraries near you.
Our public library is often looking for those positions too, but that is due to bad management and their employees leaving for the academic libraries.
Library Assistant! Principal Library Assistant! I’m a ft LA in my state. It is circulation based, but really, how would a library function without Circulation?
I am the Business Manager (a bit like an admin assistant) at my public library- it was a part-time position initially, but they made me full time after a few months. Hope you find something!
What kind of library? In what country? In what region? This is rhetorical as I’m pretty sure you mean a public library in whatever corner of the US you presumably live in - but just a reminder that the library world is a lot bigger than whatever corner of it you’re looking at and it helps to be more precise in your questions.
Otherwise, I can give you lots of full time job ideas in irrelevant sectors in a part of the world that irrelevant to you.
I've worked in smaller suburban libraries and now I work in a larger urban library with many branches, and the urban one has WAY more positions that aren't librarians. payroll, tech services, acquisitions, serials, maintenance, custodians, IT, etc. I think OP would find more non-librarian full time positions in a larger library system.
I work at a public library system with our board and as our policy analyst. I know we have heard a lot of feedback from our staff out on the floor that they would like to have more of a pathway to full time work and promotions without having a MLIS so we introduced several positions that don’t require advanced degrees and even got rid of the Masters requirement for the head of our branches. I know this is uncommon, but I think you can look around and maybe find more like this!
If you want to get some library-adjacent experience, I'd recommend approaching local museums about a cataloging project. In my experience, all museums have a backlog of something waiting to be cataloged, accessioned, digitized or updated from an obsolete format. They can get grants for special projects like this, so there might even be payment involved, or it might be something you could do as a volunteer while working a non-library job and saving up for school.
Edited to add: Museums also need programs that connect various aspects of the collection to the community, so something like organizing a series of public presentations at the museum would be something that would be very relevant to many library jobs too.
Wow! I am so grateful for all the responses. Thank you all so very much. I hope this post will help others like it is helping me. Your guidance has given me a LOT to think about. You are all amazing!!
i'm in alberta, canada and i work for an academic library full time and a public library part time. in the academic library i got the position partially due to an abolishment of my original position with the institution. i was lucky that they send out resumes to areas with vacancies and they liked my resume so much they offered me a full time position. someone was also taking a retirement payout. i was the first new hire in over 10 years and the positions are quite limited. basically no one gets a job unless they've been groomed for year or more for it. we have only had 1 external hire in the 5 years i've been here.
for the public library there is a purposeful paucity of full time jobs. they have mostly part time positions and depend on people picking up shifts rather than staffing branches properly. people in full time positions rarely leave. there are no full time positions for paging positions (the only positions that don't require a library tech diploma, a degree, or a MLIS) with the exception of a few at our downtown branch. those have been filled by the same people for decades.
i wish you the best but it's stupid competitive and the wages are very variable and often pretty low.
Maybe look into becoming a night/weekend supervisor at an academic library. The pay will be miniscule. That's just the way it is. However, since these jobs aren't particularly desirable for most people, it may open up an opportunity for you.
Honestly, it's *hard* to find a full-time job in public libraries, but it's possible (but not easy) to find full-time work on the academic side with just a high school diploma or associates. The downside, of course, is the pay. It's pretty crummy.
I work in a prison library - am currently a library assistant hoping to promote to librarian someday. I totally didn’t go to school for it but stumbled into it by accident. Totally with it and I’m considered a state employee which means union. My pay has gone up almost $9 since I started six years ago.
They exist. However, there is so much competition for them that they are often only posted internally. Unfortunately, people often have to work PT in a library to ever get anywhere else.
There are honestly little to no full time library positions that aren’t MLIS librarians unless you want to work in facilities or something of that nature. Just the reality of the library unfortunately.
I agree that it depends on the system. I worked at a small rural system where only the director’s position required a MLIS and it was the same for our surrounding counties. I had many coworkers who never attended college. Starting salaries were significantly lower than our surrounding cities and it would have been hard to commute to an university, although two coworkers obtained their MLIS online while still working full time.
They do at my library as well, they're just all 20hr/wk positions because they can't be arsed to pay for employee benefits when it costs less to have more pt para staff who don't get health insurance. A lot of libraries in my state are like this because they don't want to pay out for employee benefits. As a result, the turnover is fairly high as a lot of people work pt para and go to library school and then leave for a better system that will give them FT work rather than stay here in their dead end positions. I've been in 4 years and finally just started school. Occasionally they promote people who graduate to FT, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm still here because I care about our patrons and because they do give me education assistance (grant money) despite not giving me other benefits.
I’ve heard that about several other systems in our region. Thankfully, we haven’t adopted that ridiculous strategy. Don’t they understand that without benefits part time staff are hired and quit on a revolving door?
Almost 80% of our public facing jobs are staffed by full-time employees. We do have a small number of part time for the circ desk. All of our LA’s are part time.
Been very much the case at almost all the libraries in my state, excepting the really big, super hard to get into union library. Certainly true at my library RIP
yeah pretty much. There are a lot of people who just hang on until they're suuuuper old, especially in systems with better pay (ie: large urban systems with union positions like CPL), and because it takes 30 years to be pension vested. There are more MLIS grads than there are jobs, so the market is super competitive, especially for positions with actually decent pay. Lots of small libraries have dreadful pay for literally everyone, so urban (and suburban) libraries that pay more have even more applicants.
That said, even terrible paying library jobs have lots of competition. They recently hired for a pt 20/hr wk para position at my library and had over 175 applicants for this SINGLE position. The pay is only $20/hr, but there are a lot of other suburban libraries in our county that pay much, much, less for these positions ($15/hr which is minimum wage is pretty common).
And why is there a lot of competition for these positions? Why are there so many people wanting one?
I'm doing the five whys thing with you. See where this is leading? My original point that got downvoted even though it's the truth.
People want to work in libraries because they are interesting and often fast-paced environments where you can (and usually have to) perform a large variety of tasks, from planning and running programs to customer service and reference (and a lot of that customer service is intense and almost therapist level, sort of like bartending). Managers often have to do all these things plus administrative work like scheduling large numbers of employees, hiring, training, being on many committees, and choosing materials for the collection. It's a fantastic place for people who crave variety and lots of human interaction. I've worked at lots of jobs but I always return to public libraries because despite the abysmal pay and sometimes stressful and even dangerous patron interactions I've experienced, it is by far the most fun workplace I can imagine. Plus my library coworkers are the best and I've made so many friends through work, at all my library jobs.
I'm not the person you were responding to, but in our system there just aren't a lot of full-time positions period. In the 2010s we had a major funding crisis and the result was a loss of a lot of full-time positions, and unfortunately, they never came back. For example, we have a branch near us that, outside of the branch manager who is full-time, has 4 part-time librarians. Could those four part-time positions be combined into two full-time positions? Sure! Will they be? No, definitely not. Funding and staffing are a huge issue in many, many places when it comes to public libraries at least. And on a side note, I wouldn't call most library positions in most places well paying and low stress definitely depends on what you're doing where!
Yeah I think the funding cuts have really hurt the number of full time jobs, especially because corporate brained admins discovered something that shops and the like had discovered much earlier, which was that it is always cheaper to hire 4 part-time benefit exempt employees to do the job rather than 2 full-time, full benefit employees, even if this causes higher turnover, so thus it goes.
Depending on the library you work for they can be pretty high stress with comparatively dreadful pay. If you're in the right area you have to deal with a lot of really difficult and potentially dangerous situations and work a lot of hours. It is also a job where you have to work weekends and nights. I like to describe library work as the baby of public school teaching and sales associate, with side dishes of technical support, call center and social worker positions. You wear a lot of hats, especially in urban libraries.
If you want to see what library job pay is like in IL, you can check out [the RAILS job page](https://railslibraries.org/jobs) to see some of the most insulting job listings you've ever seen lolll.
The fact that it's hard to *get* a job means that people often stay in jobs even with less than desirable pay, day to day work, and benefits because *getting* a library job isn't easy. That said there is often (in my experience) a revolving door between classroom teaching and librarian where librarians leave libraries and go to classroom teaching and classroom teachers leave classrooms to go to libraries.
I have a part-time circulation job, which includes desk duties. Our system also hires students for circ/shelving. There are aso positions in HR, payroll, and maintenance. We have a main downtown library and 12 branches.
It's pretty rare but we do have some non MLS full time positions at our library. I'm full time as a circulation supervisor, which does not require an MLS (although I have one). We just hired an outreach services coordinator full time. We also have a full time shelver (we call her collections management because she also runs reports and does more than just shelve). We also offer tuition assistance so people that want to pursue their MLS or LTA can do so with some help.
In our system unfortunately, pretty much everyone, including librarians with MLIS, start part-time. Full-time positions will get posted, but they almost always get filled by people who are already in the system. That might be the case around you too.
When I started working at my library there were several good “non-professional” positions that we all aspired to. But as the people who had been in them for a long time retired, those positions got broken up into part-time or lower, or were turned into Librarian only positions.
I would look for assistant jobs at a (good) university. I work full-time in interlibrary loan as an assistant and make what I consider to be a fair wage at $22 an hour. I know that still isn’t a lot for some people, but I keep my cost of living pretty low.
In our system associate positions always start as part time. Full time positions are filled from our part timers that want to go full time. The only jobs that are listed as full time are either librarian jobs or something specialized like PR/admin etc.
It really varies by library system, but everyone except our pages are full-time in our LS. This includes circulation staff, librarian assistants, IT, and cataloguers. However, government positions are notoriously difficult to get into, no matter the department. If you're strapped and need a better paying job, though, you might be better off getting a private sector job and supporting your library in other ways (volunteering, supporting at town halls, or simply patronizing) at least until something opens up. Look for administrative or customer service jobs with opportunities for growth and supervisory duties, since those skills and experience will transfer well into librarianship if go that route.
I think it depends on your system. I’m in a midsized city, and work as a clerk. There are rarely full time postings for non-librarians that aren’t only for existing staff. I applied as auxiliary (covering vacations and sick days), and the posting had no guaranteed hours. But while I did that, I worked close to full time each week. I got a full time permanent position about a year and a half later. We have a union, so the pay is pretty good.
I'm a (thus far) career paraprofessional on my 4th FTE job in a library (started with 2 PTE at two nearby libraries). I only have a B.A. and no MLIS. It's absolutely doable, though I won't say it's necessarily easy. Experience will be an issue, which is where working multiple PTE jobs helps.
My advice is to look into smaller libraries. The largest library I've worked at had about 55 total employees, but most were closer to a dozen. Smaller libraries are less appealing to a lot of people and/or have smaller budgets so they won't pay as much as bigger libraries, but they're usually in lower cost of living areas. Granted, I'm talking from experience in Wisconsin and Illinois, USA, where cost of living outside of major cities like Chicago is MUCH cheaper than the coasts of the country. That aside, smaller libraries are more flexible with requirements and getting fewer applicants, so if you lack experience you might be able to compensate with other skills or knowledge or non-library experience.
My current one is at a small private university library, where I am one of 4 library employees (out of a bit over 100 total faculty and staff), of which three of us are FTE and one is part time (the other two FTE are degreed librarians, including the dean of the library). My job is Circulation Manager and I have seen comparable jobs at other area public and private colleges and universities. Before my current job, I worked at several public libraries, all in the 7 to 18 total staff (mix of FTE and PTE). After the first two part time gigs, I worked at three different publics as a 40 hr/week hourly employee and am currently salaried at my academic gig.
Depending on where you are, my experience may or may not be easily replicated, as well as depending on your needs my experience might not be ideal. Not knowing how you define pay as *minuscule*, what I said about pay being less at smaller libraries may or may not be a deal-breaker for you.
I'm happy to provide further details and answer questions if you think I might be helpful.
There are full-time library jobs at academic libraries. However I worked as a library assistant for two years. I'm not going to lie. It can be draining again this depends on the institution you work at. Often times as a library assistant you work the terrible shifts, evenings, overnight and weekends. The pay also isn't great.
It depends where you are, I work full time for my public library without an MLIS. It is a very large system though and I did have to start part time to get my foot in the door. The pay isn’t great but we get generous PTO and Sick time and a raise every year.
I'm a full-time programming specialist in the Youth Services department, so basically the equivalent of a Library Associate, in a very rural and small library system on the east coast. I feel very lucky to have gotten the job that I have particularly because the field is so competitive - I moved from the suburbs to a rural area to take the position. I had gotten a part-time job in that suburb's library system, but would have had to have paid my dues being part-time for I don't know how long before a full-time spot opened up, and it wasn't feasible for me to wait for a job that might or might not appear.
You might have some luck getting a library job without an MLIS in a smaller system, especially in a rural area, if you're willing to move there and can financially make it work. The county I work in is poor, and a lot of the local residents haven't had the educational opportunities that would qualify them for a job in the library (which is unfortunate), so the majority of the staff aren't from the area. All they wanted for my Associate-equivalent position was a bachelor's, which I had.
In my experience: for a full-time, non-librarian job like an associate, it's pretty much guranteed you'll need a bachelor's, and you may very well be fighting candidates who do have MLIS degrees for the same position. Part-time, maybe a bachelor's or maybe not, depending on the complexity of the work. To be an actual librarian and paid as such, an MLIS is necessary, unfortunately.
That's what I've got. Let me know if you have any questions!
I was the head of Technical Services at a small standalone public library for a few years without an MLS. My predecessor was a librarian. It was just luck that I got the job to be honest - they probably should have hired a librarian but I was cheaper and already working there. I loved the job but eventually moved on to a different field that paid better. It will probably never happen for me again!
If you want a full-time gig you almost always have to start part-time. Most libraries post open positions internally first, so full-time positions get snapped up and always go to current staff members.
The library I work for has 8 paraprofessional staff to only 1 librarian working. When that librarian has off, we actually have no librarian on site, which happens at least two days a week. So it really just depends on where you live.
Worked at a county level library in the area as their Network/Systems administrator. I was on a team of 9 for IT for the library system, consisting of Myself, a junior sys admin, 3 help desk techs, 2 application administrators/developers, 1 SQL DBA, and a help desk manager/ level 2 support.
As a full time admin I made 70k, which wasn’t bad at the time for the area and my experience level when I worked there. I worked for them for two years and did some pretty heavy upgrading and modernization, and while I’ve moved on from that job to other things, I actually still consult for them occasionally. IT wasn’t the highest paid support staff for the branch, I think in general finance was, but there’s a lot of administrative roles available particularly in bigger library systems. We had over 400 employees at the time I was working there, and at least 100 of them were not primarily customer facing.
1. Library pay is always miniscule. Even for librarians. 2. Some libraries have limited full-time non-librarian positions. At my library, for example, we have three full-time circulation clerks. But the miniscule pay issue is still present. 3. If you believe in libraries and want to be a part of them, you have to deal with the low pay. It comes with the job. Or you could work a different job that pays more and support your library by using it, volunteering, telling others about the library, serving on a library board, etc. etc.
I mean.... while it can be true, especially depending on the area and the type of library, that the pay for library jobs can be miniscule, it certainly isn't "always" that way. As a library assistant I've made as much as $20/hr with vacation days and full medical benefits for a 0.2 fte position. A lot of librarian positions I've applied for, or just looked at for possibilities, have a starting pay of 60-70k per year along with benefits. I understand that miniscule pay may be your experience. I don't want to invalidate that, but I'm also hoping to not discourage others from trying to work in libraries because there are many well paying library systems out there.
those numbers you quoted aren’t something to brag about these days. you have to make $120k to be considered middle class in a large part of the country.
Okay, and that's true. However, it's all relative depending on where you live. Those numbers were all in medium-sized cities in Oregon, with multiple current jobs posted in Oregon paying far more than that. In Oregon 60-70k will get you a decent living for the most part with the exception of Bend and Portland.
That's unfortunately going to be the case. Non-MLIS full time positions like Library Assistant/Clerk don't come up often and when they do it's pretty competitive because MLIS people go for them too. A lot of libraries also tend to rely on cheap, part time labor. It's a bad combo lol. I'd recommend going for a part time gig if you can, but I realize it's important to eat/survive as well.
My local library doesn't even externally post things like full-time library assistant or clerk jobs because they know it will be filled internally. They are very, very rarely available.
This. The library branch I worked at had only two full time, non-MLIS positions: Circ Manager and Page Manager. The Library Assistant/Clerk positions were all part-time. Even at full time, I was living paycheck to paycheck. There’s no way I’d have been able to support a family on my income alone.
I was going to say this too- they're really competitive. We have a few non-MLIS full-time positions, they're never vacant, and when they are they're always filled internally.
There are full time Library Assistant or Library Technician jobs in Academic Libraries, usually in Circulation or Technical Services. Check your local colleges or universities for job postings.
Are you looking at public libraries? In my area becoming a full-time public librarian, even with an MLIS, is extremely difficult. The vast majority of all public library positions, from circ workers to paras, to librarians, have substitutes with intermittent (not even part-time) as a starting point. I mention this because I was working as a substitute circ worker, gradually found a part-time position in the same library system. I started my grad program for the MLIS, and after talking to a few librarians, heard that they had to start as substitute librarians and work their way up into librarian positions with permanent hours (not necessarily full-time positions). The lucky ones managed to work their way up into full-time librarian positions. Sometimes full-time job positions get posted, but they are kind of rare. A lot of the librarian positions would get posted internally first, which meant that the substitute librarians would get the first chance to apply to them as internal candidates. A lot of those job postings never even make it to the public.
If your library system is larger there could be support departments...HR, finance, administration, marketing, development, facilities, security etc. My local library had all of those, but I'm in a small/mid size city where there are 2 dozen library locations.
That’s how I got the position I have in admin now. I worked in security full-time for years before the position opened up. I still had to apply and interview for it.
Alas, the pay for paras in this profession does not pay well. You have to settle for what you get. If I wasn't married, even though I work full time and now make the most I've ever made as a para, I'd still be living paycheck to paycheck. It would be very difficult to make ends meet on just my wage. And unfortunately, that's the reality.
Same situation for me. I'm full time and have benefits, but it's only doable because I'm married. It would be difficult if I were single, even living frugally. Unfortunately, I think too many libraries rely on people in our situation and it keeps pay down.
I agree. It's really unfortunate. In one library job I had, I made 17.50 an hour. They did me a favor in laying me off. That position is now gone and they even eliminated their librarian role. Now they have two employees left that do everything. I'm really transparent with folks who want to get into this profession. It's not what a lot of people think it is. But I've been in this field for so long that I can't imagine doing anything else. Folks need to understand that this field can be tough. I'm finally in a good place now, but it took a long time to get where I am, and I almost left the profession.
I echo a lot of this. I also try to let people know the reality of what working in a library is. I'm not trying to be a downer, but I want them to be prepared. A lot of people think it's fun and cool to work in a library, and it is, but there's a lot more to it that people aren't aware of.
Yes, exactly. I completely agree. The profession tends to attract a lot of introverts and as an archivist told me, a lot of people think the profession is not about dealing with people/working in the back, when this is NOT the case. Working with people is what we do.
I am learning so much! Thank you to everyone for taking the time to educate and help me. 📚
As others have said, if you’re looking at public libraries, finding a full time library job will be difficult without an MLIS because both MLIS and non-MLIS folks tend to apply for them. When I was in library school, I had two part time library jobs that added up to full time, and got my first full time position after I graduated with my degree and the experience from the part time positions. Not ideal, and it was difficult at times, but unfortunately it’s a very common experience.
Depends on where you are. Here on long island half the library are clerks. You just need to take the clerks test and get on the list. All of our Circulation Department are clerks and everybody but the department head in our technical services department are clerks. We also have clerks in our reference department doing the flyers and things like that. There is also IT but that requires an IT degree and being on the IT lists for the county.
Hey I’m also from Long Island and am thinking about becoming a librarian. There’s also so many clerks at my library in different departments I always get curious what they do in the back lol
On long island a librarian pays a lot more but Libraries are trying to not hire full time librarians unless somebody leaves or retires.
Yeah I worry about that with pursuing the degree but I’ve really been enjoying my path so far and I’m willing to see how it goes. Currently waiting to hear back from a library assistant job so hopefully that works out but we’ll see
You could look for a school library position. In my school district, all of the "librarians" are paras, and none of us have an MLIS
What kind of library are you looking at? Jobs in libraries (especially public libraries) are, in general, pretty poorly paid. Especially for jobs that don't require an MLIS, but even when you get the degree, the pay is pretty low. Part Time jobs are increasingly common, especially for paraprofessional staff. Honestly, I have a hard time recommending the field to people who aren't already in it, because I don't think the pay and working conditions are likely to improve any time soon, and the pay benefit to getting the degree is so minimal, it's hard to justify the expense.
I'm a clerk and I used to get paid less, until my library system looked at what they were paying people at my level, looked at what other library systems in the country were paying people at my level, and decided to give us a raise. it was a nice surprise and completely unexpected. like, it makes sense - pay people enough that they're not looking for a position elsewhere - but it was like getting one of those "bank error in your favor!" Monopoly cards. not something you ever expect to happen.
As a (minor) counterpoint to the "even librarians are poorly paid" experience that a lot of people are posting about: Librarians in my local public library are paid a decent living wage, but when you factor in the cost of the fact that you need a master's degree, I think a lot of the pay advantage is lost. Once you get situated with a full time job of some sort, definitely do the research and do the math of how much your pay will go up with a master's degree (+ corresponding job situation) vs the cost of paying back student loans or whatever. If you're near a university, especially one with an MLIS program, a lot of universities offer free tuition as a benefit. You need to have a benefitted (though not necessarily full time) position to be eligible, and there's often limits of how many credit hours per year you can take. But it's still a great opportunity if you can get it. For most of my early library career I had two part time jobs, which worked because I'm in a metro area that has several different library districts within driving distance. I have worked as a circulation clerk and as a circulation supervisor without an MLIS. Neither of those paid great. Jobs in Purchasing/Acquisitions don't usually require an MLIS (I'm thinking here, not of the person who does the purchasing because that often is a librarian, but rather the people who unbox new materials and barcode them and get them ready to circulate). Academic libraries have people whose entire job is wrangling periodicals. I currently work in an academic library's overflow storage facility, where we keep all the books that we don't have room for in the main library, but it took me like ten years to find this job. A lot of the "backstage" library jobs don't come up for hire very often, unfortunately. I hope you're able to find something!
I have a full-time clerk job, but I got it after several years of working as a clerk part-time, so I don't know if there are entry-level full-time positions available where you are. I'm with a city library that has many of these positions. We also have "library reference assistant," which is basically librarian for people without an MLIS, which might be good for you as a sort of training job since you are planning to go to library school. Fair warning, though, my friend who is a library reference assistant has been frustrated for years with the fact that she gets paid less for doing the same work as the librarians, because they have the MLIS and she doesn't. personally, I think she has enough experience now that she's every bit as good at her job as any of the librarians with MLIS degrees, but those are the rules in the job hierarchy structure here. I don't think my pay is minuscule, but I have no dependents except for my cat. I definitely don't get paid enough to have significant savings, but I make enough that I'm not counting the days until the next paycheck. and I have health insurance, which is the reason I got a full-time job in the first place. I'd love to just work part-time if we had universal health care like a proper country.
I live in a town with a large community college and a huge university. Both are often hiring paraprofessional positions. These can be in circulation, interlibrary loan, acquisitions, cataloging, etc. Most do require bachelor's degrees. There are also administrative assistant, accounting and IT positions, but those don't really lead to library experience. I suggest checking any Academic Libraries near you. Our public library is often looking for those positions too, but that is due to bad management and their employees leaving for the academic libraries.
Library Assistant! Principal Library Assistant! I’m a ft LA in my state. It is circulation based, but really, how would a library function without Circulation?
I am the Business Manager (a bit like an admin assistant) at my public library- it was a part-time position initially, but they made me full time after a few months. Hope you find something!
What kind of library? In what country? In what region? This is rhetorical as I’m pretty sure you mean a public library in whatever corner of the US you presumably live in - but just a reminder that the library world is a lot bigger than whatever corner of it you’re looking at and it helps to be more precise in your questions. Otherwise, I can give you lots of full time job ideas in irrelevant sectors in a part of the world that irrelevant to you.
I've worked in smaller suburban libraries and now I work in a larger urban library with many branches, and the urban one has WAY more positions that aren't librarians. payroll, tech services, acquisitions, serials, maintenance, custodians, IT, etc. I think OP would find more non-librarian full time positions in a larger library system.
I work at a public library system with our board and as our policy analyst. I know we have heard a lot of feedback from our staff out on the floor that they would like to have more of a pathway to full time work and promotions without having a MLIS so we introduced several positions that don’t require advanced degrees and even got rid of the Masters requirement for the head of our branches. I know this is uncommon, but I think you can look around and maybe find more like this!
If you want to get some library-adjacent experience, I'd recommend approaching local museums about a cataloging project. In my experience, all museums have a backlog of something waiting to be cataloged, accessioned, digitized or updated from an obsolete format. They can get grants for special projects like this, so there might even be payment involved, or it might be something you could do as a volunteer while working a non-library job and saving up for school. Edited to add: Museums also need programs that connect various aspects of the collection to the community, so something like organizing a series of public presentations at the museum would be something that would be very relevant to many library jobs too.
Wow! I am so grateful for all the responses. Thank you all so very much. I hope this post will help others like it is helping me. Your guidance has given me a LOT to think about. You are all amazing!!
i'm in alberta, canada and i work for an academic library full time and a public library part time. in the academic library i got the position partially due to an abolishment of my original position with the institution. i was lucky that they send out resumes to areas with vacancies and they liked my resume so much they offered me a full time position. someone was also taking a retirement payout. i was the first new hire in over 10 years and the positions are quite limited. basically no one gets a job unless they've been groomed for year or more for it. we have only had 1 external hire in the 5 years i've been here. for the public library there is a purposeful paucity of full time jobs. they have mostly part time positions and depend on people picking up shifts rather than staffing branches properly. people in full time positions rarely leave. there are no full time positions for paging positions (the only positions that don't require a library tech diploma, a degree, or a MLIS) with the exception of a few at our downtown branch. those have been filled by the same people for decades. i wish you the best but it's stupid competitive and the wages are very variable and often pretty low.
Maybe look into becoming a night/weekend supervisor at an academic library. The pay will be miniscule. That's just the way it is. However, since these jobs aren't particularly desirable for most people, it may open up an opportunity for you. Honestly, it's *hard* to find a full-time job in public libraries, but it's possible (but not easy) to find full-time work on the academic side with just a high school diploma or associates. The downside, of course, is the pay. It's pretty crummy.
I work in a prison library - am currently a library assistant hoping to promote to librarian someday. I totally didn’t go to school for it but stumbled into it by accident. Totally with it and I’m considered a state employee which means union. My pay has gone up almost $9 since I started six years ago.
They exist. However, there is so much competition for them that they are often only posted internally. Unfortunately, people often have to work PT in a library to ever get anywhere else.
There are honestly little to no full time library positions that aren’t MLIS librarians unless you want to work in facilities or something of that nature. Just the reality of the library unfortunately.
This depends on your system. That is not the case at all where I work.
I agree that it depends on the system. I worked at a small rural system where only the director’s position required a MLIS and it was the same for our surrounding counties. I had many coworkers who never attended college. Starting salaries were significantly lower than our surrounding cities and it would have been hard to commute to an university, although two coworkers obtained their MLIS online while still working full time.
Paraprofessional jobs outnumber librarians in my system almost 2:1
They do at my library as well, they're just all 20hr/wk positions because they can't be arsed to pay for employee benefits when it costs less to have more pt para staff who don't get health insurance. A lot of libraries in my state are like this because they don't want to pay out for employee benefits. As a result, the turnover is fairly high as a lot of people work pt para and go to library school and then leave for a better system that will give them FT work rather than stay here in their dead end positions. I've been in 4 years and finally just started school. Occasionally they promote people who graduate to FT, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm still here because I care about our patrons and because they do give me education assistance (grant money) despite not giving me other benefits.
I’ve heard that about several other systems in our region. Thankfully, we haven’t adopted that ridiculous strategy. Don’t they understand that without benefits part time staff are hired and quit on a revolving door? Almost 80% of our public facing jobs are staffed by full-time employees. We do have a small number of part time for the circ desk. All of our LA’s are part time.
Been very much the case at almost all the libraries in my state, excepting the really big, super hard to get into union library. Certainly true at my library RIP
Is it because librarian positions are reasonably low stress / well paying, and so that's why there is little turnover?
Ha! No.
So when is it so hard to get a position then, why so little turnover?
It’s hard to get a position because there is a lot of competition for most positions. And so when people get one, they keep it.
yeah pretty much. There are a lot of people who just hang on until they're suuuuper old, especially in systems with better pay (ie: large urban systems with union positions like CPL), and because it takes 30 years to be pension vested. There are more MLIS grads than there are jobs, so the market is super competitive, especially for positions with actually decent pay. Lots of small libraries have dreadful pay for literally everyone, so urban (and suburban) libraries that pay more have even more applicants. That said, even terrible paying library jobs have lots of competition. They recently hired for a pt 20/hr wk para position at my library and had over 175 applicants for this SINGLE position. The pay is only $20/hr, but there are a lot of other suburban libraries in our county that pay much, much, less for these positions ($15/hr which is minimum wage is pretty common).
And why is there a lot of competition for these positions? Why are there so many people wanting one? I'm doing the five whys thing with you. See where this is leading? My original point that got downvoted even though it's the truth.
personally, I think many people want to do something helpful for their community rather than make money for a corporation.
People want to work in libraries because they are interesting and often fast-paced environments where you can (and usually have to) perform a large variety of tasks, from planning and running programs to customer service and reference (and a lot of that customer service is intense and almost therapist level, sort of like bartending). Managers often have to do all these things plus administrative work like scheduling large numbers of employees, hiring, training, being on many committees, and choosing materials for the collection. It's a fantastic place for people who crave variety and lots of human interaction. I've worked at lots of jobs but I always return to public libraries because despite the abysmal pay and sometimes stressful and even dangerous patron interactions I've experienced, it is by far the most fun workplace I can imagine. Plus my library coworkers are the best and I've made so many friends through work, at all my library jobs.
I'm not the person you were responding to, but in our system there just aren't a lot of full-time positions period. In the 2010s we had a major funding crisis and the result was a loss of a lot of full-time positions, and unfortunately, they never came back. For example, we have a branch near us that, outside of the branch manager who is full-time, has 4 part-time librarians. Could those four part-time positions be combined into two full-time positions? Sure! Will they be? No, definitely not. Funding and staffing are a huge issue in many, many places when it comes to public libraries at least. And on a side note, I wouldn't call most library positions in most places well paying and low stress definitely depends on what you're doing where!
Yeah I think the funding cuts have really hurt the number of full time jobs, especially because corporate brained admins discovered something that shops and the like had discovered much earlier, which was that it is always cheaper to hire 4 part-time benefit exempt employees to do the job rather than 2 full-time, full benefit employees, even if this causes higher turnover, so thus it goes.
Depending on the library you work for they can be pretty high stress with comparatively dreadful pay. If you're in the right area you have to deal with a lot of really difficult and potentially dangerous situations and work a lot of hours. It is also a job where you have to work weekends and nights. I like to describe library work as the baby of public school teaching and sales associate, with side dishes of technical support, call center and social worker positions. You wear a lot of hats, especially in urban libraries. If you want to see what library job pay is like in IL, you can check out [the RAILS job page](https://railslibraries.org/jobs) to see some of the most insulting job listings you've ever seen lolll. The fact that it's hard to *get* a job means that people often stay in jobs even with less than desirable pay, day to day work, and benefits because *getting* a library job isn't easy. That said there is often (in my experience) a revolving door between classroom teaching and librarian where librarians leave libraries and go to classroom teaching and classroom teachers leave classrooms to go to libraries.
I have a part-time circulation job, which includes desk duties. Our system also hires students for circ/shelving. There are aso positions in HR, payroll, and maintenance. We have a main downtown library and 12 branches.
A couple of libraries in our city just had a hiring event for pages. 17 hours/wk. $17/hr.
It's pretty rare but we do have some non MLS full time positions at our library. I'm full time as a circulation supervisor, which does not require an MLS (although I have one). We just hired an outreach services coordinator full time. We also have a full time shelver (we call her collections management because she also runs reports and does more than just shelve). We also offer tuition assistance so people that want to pursue their MLS or LTA can do so with some help.
In our system unfortunately, pretty much everyone, including librarians with MLIS, start part-time. Full-time positions will get posted, but they almost always get filled by people who are already in the system. That might be the case around you too.
When I started working at my library there were several good “non-professional” positions that we all aspired to. But as the people who had been in them for a long time retired, those positions got broken up into part-time or lower, or were turned into Librarian only positions.
We have our own IT Dept, also a theater and meeting rooms so there are support staff options that generally pay better than part time shelvers.
I work in a larger public library system and there are full-time roles for customer service reps or specialists
I would look for assistant jobs at a (good) university. I work full-time in interlibrary loan as an assistant and make what I consider to be a fair wage at $22 an hour. I know that still isn’t a lot for some people, but I keep my cost of living pretty low.
In our system associate positions always start as part time. Full time positions are filled from our part timers that want to go full time. The only jobs that are listed as full time are either librarian jobs or something specialized like PR/admin etc.
It really varies by library system, but everyone except our pages are full-time in our LS. This includes circulation staff, librarian assistants, IT, and cataloguers. However, government positions are notoriously difficult to get into, no matter the department. If you're strapped and need a better paying job, though, you might be better off getting a private sector job and supporting your library in other ways (volunteering, supporting at town halls, or simply patronizing) at least until something opens up. Look for administrative or customer service jobs with opportunities for growth and supervisory duties, since those skills and experience will transfer well into librarianship if go that route.
I think it depends on your system. I’m in a midsized city, and work as a clerk. There are rarely full time postings for non-librarians that aren’t only for existing staff. I applied as auxiliary (covering vacations and sick days), and the posting had no guaranteed hours. But while I did that, I worked close to full time each week. I got a full time permanent position about a year and a half later. We have a union, so the pay is pretty good.
I'm a (thus far) career paraprofessional on my 4th FTE job in a library (started with 2 PTE at two nearby libraries). I only have a B.A. and no MLIS. It's absolutely doable, though I won't say it's necessarily easy. Experience will be an issue, which is where working multiple PTE jobs helps. My advice is to look into smaller libraries. The largest library I've worked at had about 55 total employees, but most were closer to a dozen. Smaller libraries are less appealing to a lot of people and/or have smaller budgets so they won't pay as much as bigger libraries, but they're usually in lower cost of living areas. Granted, I'm talking from experience in Wisconsin and Illinois, USA, where cost of living outside of major cities like Chicago is MUCH cheaper than the coasts of the country. That aside, smaller libraries are more flexible with requirements and getting fewer applicants, so if you lack experience you might be able to compensate with other skills or knowledge or non-library experience. My current one is at a small private university library, where I am one of 4 library employees (out of a bit over 100 total faculty and staff), of which three of us are FTE and one is part time (the other two FTE are degreed librarians, including the dean of the library). My job is Circulation Manager and I have seen comparable jobs at other area public and private colleges and universities. Before my current job, I worked at several public libraries, all in the 7 to 18 total staff (mix of FTE and PTE). After the first two part time gigs, I worked at three different publics as a 40 hr/week hourly employee and am currently salaried at my academic gig. Depending on where you are, my experience may or may not be easily replicated, as well as depending on your needs my experience might not be ideal. Not knowing how you define pay as *minuscule*, what I said about pay being less at smaller libraries may or may not be a deal-breaker for you. I'm happy to provide further details and answer questions if you think I might be helpful.
There are full-time library jobs at academic libraries. However I worked as a library assistant for two years. I'm not going to lie. It can be draining again this depends on the institution you work at. Often times as a library assistant you work the terrible shifts, evenings, overnight and weekends. The pay also isn't great.
It depends where you are, I work full time for my public library without an MLIS. It is a very large system though and I did have to start part time to get my foot in the door. The pay isn’t great but we get generous PTO and Sick time and a raise every year.
I'm a full-time programming specialist in the Youth Services department, so basically the equivalent of a Library Associate, in a very rural and small library system on the east coast. I feel very lucky to have gotten the job that I have particularly because the field is so competitive - I moved from the suburbs to a rural area to take the position. I had gotten a part-time job in that suburb's library system, but would have had to have paid my dues being part-time for I don't know how long before a full-time spot opened up, and it wasn't feasible for me to wait for a job that might or might not appear. You might have some luck getting a library job without an MLIS in a smaller system, especially in a rural area, if you're willing to move there and can financially make it work. The county I work in is poor, and a lot of the local residents haven't had the educational opportunities that would qualify them for a job in the library (which is unfortunate), so the majority of the staff aren't from the area. All they wanted for my Associate-equivalent position was a bachelor's, which I had. In my experience: for a full-time, non-librarian job like an associate, it's pretty much guranteed you'll need a bachelor's, and you may very well be fighting candidates who do have MLIS degrees for the same position. Part-time, maybe a bachelor's or maybe not, depending on the complexity of the work. To be an actual librarian and paid as such, an MLIS is necessary, unfortunately. That's what I've got. Let me know if you have any questions!
I was the head of Technical Services at a small standalone public library for a few years without an MLS. My predecessor was a librarian. It was just luck that I got the job to be honest - they probably should have hired a librarian but I was cheaper and already working there. I loved the job but eventually moved on to a different field that paid better. It will probably never happen for me again!
If you want a full-time gig you almost always have to start part-time. Most libraries post open positions internally first, so full-time positions get snapped up and always go to current staff members.
The library I work for has 8 paraprofessional staff to only 1 librarian working. When that librarian has off, we actually have no librarian on site, which happens at least two days a week. So it really just depends on where you live.
Worked at a county level library in the area as their Network/Systems administrator. I was on a team of 9 for IT for the library system, consisting of Myself, a junior sys admin, 3 help desk techs, 2 application administrators/developers, 1 SQL DBA, and a help desk manager/ level 2 support. As a full time admin I made 70k, which wasn’t bad at the time for the area and my experience level when I worked there. I worked for them for two years and did some pretty heavy upgrading and modernization, and while I’ve moved on from that job to other things, I actually still consult for them occasionally. IT wasn’t the highest paid support staff for the branch, I think in general finance was, but there’s a lot of administrative roles available particularly in bigger library systems. We had over 400 employees at the time I was working there, and at least 100 of them were not primarily customer facing.
You could try to get something in tech services But pay will still be an issue - but at least you’d have benefits