---
title: "Librarian"
description: "Administer and maintain libraries or collections of information, for public or private access through reference or borrowing. Work in a variety of…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/librarian"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Librarian

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-4022 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-4022.00

Administer and maintain libraries or collections of information, for public or private access through reference or borrowing. Work in a variety of settings, such as educational institutions, museums, and corporations, and with various types of informational materials, such as books, periodicals, recordings, films, and databases. Tasks may include acquiring, cataloging, and circulating library materials, and user services such as locating and organizing information, providing instruction on how to access information, and setting up and operating a library's media equipment.

Also advertised as: Catalog Librarian; Instructional Technology Specialist; Librarian; Library Media Specialist; Media Specialist; Media Technician; Multimedia Services Coordinator; Reference and Instruction Librarian.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $68,270 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $32.82/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $43,660 to $103,990, with the middle half between $56,310 and $84,480
- **Total US employment:** 133,790
- **Typical entry education:** Master's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.7% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 13,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 35/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 133,790 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $43,660 |
| 25th | $56,310 |
| 50th (median) | $68,270 |
| 75th | $84,480 |
| 90th | $103,990 |
| Mean (average) | $72,840 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $100,030 | $93,475 | 2,750 |
| DC | $96,550 | $87,852 | 960 |
| CA | $89,790 | $81,096 | 10,180 |
| MD | $88,570 | $84,385 | 3,220 |
| NV | $84,540 | $84,558 | 610 |
| CT | $79,210 | $76,450 | 2,550 |
| AK | $78,810 | $76,994 | 350 |
| NY | $78,590 | $72,822 | 11,870 |
| MA | $78,540 | $74,265 | 4,980 |
| NJ | $78,380 | $72,037 | 4,100 |
| OR | $78,070 | $75,531 | 1,690 |
| DE | $77,700 | $77,849 | 370 |
| MN | $77,650 | $78,736 | 2,220 |
| VA | $77,430 | $76,585 | 4,590 |
| GA | $76,750 | $79,705 | 3,330 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/librarian/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/librarian.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 142,100 in the 2024–2034 base year to 144,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 2,400 jobs, or +1.7%. Slower than average: 1.7% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 13,500 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Master's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Master's Degree | 64.7% |
| Some College Courses | 10.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 8.2% |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 4.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 4.5% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 3.7% |

## What the work involves

- Explain use of library facilities, resources, equipment, and services, and provide information about library policies.
- Analyze patrons' requests to determine needed information and assist in furnishing or locating that information.
- Locate unusual or unique information in response to specific requests.
- Evaluate materials to determine outdated or unused items to be discarded.
- Review and evaluate materials, using book reviews, catalogs, faculty recommendations, and current holdings to select and order print, audio-visual, and electronic resources.
- Engage in professional development activities, such as taking continuing education classes and attending or participating in conferences, workshops, professional meetings, and associations.
- Respond to customer complaints, taking action as necessary.
- Assemble and arrange display materials.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Material Resources — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Social (S), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.83 |
| S — Social | 4.04 |
| I — Investigative | 3.63 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.75 |
| A — Artistic | 2.65 |
| R — Realistic | 2.32 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 75.9 |
| ESFJ | 68.2 |
| ISTJ | 65.1 |
| ESTJ | 64.6 |
| INFJ | 55.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Library Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/library-technician) — median $44,580
- [Library Assistant, Clerical](https://nuecareer.com/careers/library-assistant-clerical) — median $36,910
- [Archivist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/archivist) — median $64,550
- [Library Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/library-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $80,340
- [Instructional Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/instructional-coordinator) — median $77,440
- [Social Science Research Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-science-research-assistant) — median $61,990
- [Document Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/document-management-specialist) — median $116,580
- [Web Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/web-administrator) — median $116,580
- [Computer User Support Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-user-support-specialist) — median $61,860
- [Database Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-administrator) — median $104,620

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/librarian