Librarian Resume Example

The tips and insights on this page were provided by professional librarian Susan Frohnsdorff, who was kind enough to be interviewed for her take on what makes a strong librarian resume. She is the Assistant Branch manager for the public library in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. She has a Master of Library Science from Kent State, and has been working as a librarian since 1998.

Where to begin?

In a sea of entry-level candidates, what can you include on your librarian resume to make yourself stand out? Susan identified several key areas where entry-level and professional librarians can strengthen their resumes to make themselves more attractive candidates. We’ve written an ideal resume based on her suggestions.

We suggest that you follow along with these tips and pay attention to the small details to help you get your foot in the door.

(Keep in mind that the resume sample on this page is for an entry-level candidate looking to land a job as a Librarian I. If you’re unfamiliar with the hierarchy of librarian jobs, take a look at this website for an in-depth explanation of librarian job roles.)

Begin with a sterling Resume Objective

Starting off with an eye-catching resume objective (or career objective) is a key aspect of writing a resume that will get you more interviews. In this section, you should boil down the most essential aspects of your professional experiences, academic record, and skills, and present them in a tight and concise three-sentence paragraph. (Read more about how to write a resume objective in our in-depth article.)

Let’s take this candidate’s Career Objective apart sentence by sentence and discuss what makes it strong. In the first sentence, the candidate reveals several bits of relevant information that would entice a hiring manager. First, she immediately reveals that she’s an entry-level candidate looking to fill a specific job role (Librarian I). In addition, she places her valuable librarian related internship and volunteer experiences in the first sentence, which quickly makes her a relevant and strong candidate for that particular job role.

Pay particular attention to the bolded sections:

Recent graduate looking to leverage three years of internship, and volunteer experience into your Librarian I job opening.

Susan emphasized that volunteer and internship experience are the most valuable items to include on an entry-level librarian resume, as they can give you the type of real-world experience that hiring managers are looking for in a potential candidate. Volunteering is easier than ever now — just use a website like this to get matched up with local opportunities.

Having volunteer and internship experience indicates that you won’t need to go through as much training, and that you have the drive and initiative to discover opportunities and take advantage of them, which are excellent qualities for a potential candidate to have. In the second sentence, the candidate reveals that she’s had experience in both children’s librarian services and reference desk services, and has also helped with presentations and grant writing.

Take a look at that sentence here:

Experience working as both a children’s and a reference librarian, and assisted with various library projects such as presentations and grant writing.

Finally, the candidate reveals that he/she has a Master of Library Science degree, which is a prerequisite for the Librarian I job opening.

With this information at the top of the resume, the candidate will have both made the resume extremely relevant to the job opening, and captured the hiring manager’s attention.

Target your professional experience section, and quantify it

Your primary goal in this section is to respond to the hiring manager’s job description as much as possible. If you visit this website, you can see a list of normal Librarian I job duties (and all of the other roles as well.) Ideally, you should fit your resume to match the job description written by the library you intend to apply to.

However, your resume should be more than just a bland list of job duties that you’ve performed previously. You should make your resume oriented around your accomplishments, meaning that it reflects your professional achievements, not just robotic daily duties.

Susan identified a few items that she likes to see on a resume, because they indicate competence, self-discipline and a desire to learn, improve, and grow as a librarian over time. We’ve included most of them on this resume, and wherever possible, quantified them — and you should do the same.

“Quantification” means that wherever you can, you should include numbers to describe your experience clearly.

1. How many years of experience the candidate has

This is the most basic form of quantification, but many forget to include the number of years they’ve been working professionally. This information can have a big impact.

• …recent graduate looking to leverage three years of internship and volunteer experience…

2. Library patronage size

Giving the hiring manager a sense of the size of the library you worked in will give them a clearer picture of the scope of the responsibilities you had to undertake. It also shows that you pay attention to the details.

• Assisted with the checking in and out of books in a library serving ~25,000 patrons

3. Money earned via grant writing

Earning grant money is a great feather to put in your cap, and you should display it proudly on your resume.

• Researched, assisted writing, and won a $500 grant offered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science…

4. Donations earned through fundraising activities

Both book and monetary donations are an important part of many libraries’ operating budgets, so by putting a dollar value on any type of fundraising activities that you were a part of, or that you initiated.

• Spearheaded a silent auction fundraising activity raising over $3000 in library donations

Quantifying your experience will make your resume stand out.

Librarian Resume Skills Section

Susan said that the minimum she expects to see on a librarian resume is the ability to use the Microsoft Office Suite, and basic computer skills into order to be able to use the library operating system. She indicated that while Microsoft Word and Excel were the most necessary to have experience with, knowledge of Power Point was useful for helping library patrons with their projects, and knowledge of Publisher was useful for making publicity signs.

Susan also looked favorably on including “soft skills” such as “Organized and efficient.” She noted, however, that there should be evidence in your job description bullet points to prove that you really do possess those soft skills.

Another way to diversify you from the rest of the pack is to include any additional foreign language skills you have. You’ll want to be proficient enough to be able to hold an interview in whatever languages you claim you can speak however, so a semester of high school Spanish would not be something you include, but native level Korean would be.

Beyond the Resume

All of the above are great ways to make your resume stand out. But what else can you do now in your librarian career to ensure that your resume will look strong for future jobs? Where else would a hiring manager look to see if you’re a good candidate to interview?

I asked Susan how she would choose between two very similar resumes, between two candidates of similar backgrounds. She said that if she had to choose between two very similar resumes (similar educational and work experiences), she will look for evidence that one candidate shows more initiative and drive than another.

She determines this by looking for the following attributes:

1. Project Experience

Engaging in project experience means developing public programs, doing presentations, and training and teaching patron classes. This could mean anything from rearranging reference books more in a more logical manner, to having authors come into speak to your patrons, or giving a lecture on a topic that you have expertise in.

Here’s an example from this resume where the candidate emphasizes their project experience: The more professionally engaged you appear to be on your resume (as evidenced by the projects you’ve managed), the more you’ll stand out from your competition.

2. Awards and Grants

Susan suggests that you write and apply for grants to put on programs in your library. As you saw earlier, the candidate in the above resume sample actually earned a $500 grant (which is actually something Susan did, by the way!) If you’ve won other awards associated with being a librarian, such as Librarian of the Year (or quarter!) don’t forget to include that information as well.

3. What about Professional Organizations and Associations?

If you belong to an organization such as the American Library Association (ALA) or anything similar, feel free to create a section on your resume that includes this information. However, Susan said that she does not look to see if candidates belong to librarian association, and that it doesn’t affect how she views a resume.

Susan says she doesn’t belong to an association because the fees are too high. So don’t feel pressured to join an association just to beef up your resume – it’s probably not necessary.

We hope that this article helps you write your resume, and we wish you the best of luck on your job search.

SEE ALSO > Librarian Cover Letter