Librarian Resume Example & Writing Guide

As a librarian, you are a curator of written work and a guide to humanity’s knowledge. However, before you get to do what you know and love, you need to come up with a captivating librarian resume.

A good resume will help you demonstrate your skills and experience to recruiters and potential employers. This article will teach you how to present yourself in the best light, whether you're a new librarian looking for your first job or a seasoned pro looking for a new position.

You’ll also learn all the general tips and rules of resume writing and find a bunch of expert tips and submission-ready examples. Let’s get started!

What is the Right Format to Use for a Librarian Resume?

Determining which librarian resume format you’re going to use should be the first step in the resume-building process. A format represents the order in which you convey information to recruiters, which makes it as important as the information itself.

The good thing is that you don’t have to come up with a format on your own since there are three commonly used ones that you can implement in your librarian resume.

Out of the three, a chronological resume format is used by the majority of candidates. It arranges your professional and academic achievements in reverse-chronological order, which makes it favored by recruiters and the ATS.

If you lack professional experience, you can take advantage of a functional resume format. It puts your skills into focus and conceals a lack of work history.

If you’re on the other end of the spectrum as someone with decades of professional history, you could try a combination resume format. It highlights your valuable skills while backing them up with relevant professional achievements.

Resume Layout

It’s not uncommon for recruiters to only skim through resumes, spending as little as 6–7 seconds per document. That’s why you should make your resume visually engaging, too. For starters, you want to make an effort to fit all the information onto one page.

To achieve that, you should use bulleted lists instead of blocks of text. Furthermore, you can make different sections visually distinct with white space between them. In combination with 1-inch margins on all sides, this will make your resume look clean and professional.

Lastly, choose a resume-friendly font like Times New Roman or Arial; use a 10–12 pt font size for the body of text and a 14–16 pt font size for section headings.

What Sections Should a Librarian Resume Contain?

Let’s outline the contents of your resume, which consists of mandatory and optional sections.

For the best chances with recruiters, you want to include all the mandatory details and then spice things up with highly valuable optional bits. You can do all of that on your own and write a librarian resume from scratch, or you can take advantage of our resume-building tool.

Our resume builder is an intuitive piece of software with a bunch of user-friendly features. Find a template that you like, fill in the blanks with your information, and customize everything with a click or two to have a professional resume done in minutes.

Here’s one of many librarian resume templates that you’ll be able to use if you opt for our resume builder:

Librarian Resume Contact Information

Let’s kick things off with a simple introductory section. Put your contact details in your resume header by including the following:

Here’s an example:

When writing this section, the most important thing is to make sure that it’s spotless and error-free. You don’t want to miss out on a potential interview invitation simply because you misspelled your email address.

You should also keep everything professional, which means no high school email addresses or funny job titles (you’re a “librarian,” not a “book wizard”). Lastly, while mentioning your physical location is an outdated practice nowadays, you should include your city and state if you’re applying for a position abroad.

Librarian Resume Objective or Summary

Think of your resume objective or summary as a synopsis of the document. Their goal is to hook the reader in 2–4 brief, information-packed sentences. 

Which of these you will use depends on whether you have any professional experience.

If you’re an entry-level candidate, you likely don’t. In such cases, you should write a librarian resume objective and focus on highlighting your key skills and career goals instead of presenting the work history you don’t have.

However, if you’re a seasoned candidate, your work history is your biggest strength. Therefore, your resume summary should entice recruiters with some of your most prominent professional achievements.

Entry-Level Librarian Resume Objective

If you lack professional experience, a resume objective will help you emphasize your potential, as it allows you to mention your prominent abilities and talk about your career objective.

Here’s a good example:

What you don’t want to do is keep it vague and directionless, like in this example:

Librarian Resume Summary

A solid librarian resume summary represents a rundown of your document and paints you as a strong candidate right off the bat. Show a couple of your strongest achievements, and recruiters will keep reading to find out more about you.

Let’s see that in an example:

However, if you don’t give recruiters any concrete data, you might end up with a trivial librarian resume summary, like the following one:

Librarian Resume Work Experience

One of the best ways to show recruiters how you perform in the workplace is by describing past job experiences. That’s what the work experience section of your resume serves for.

Entry-Level Librarian

As an entry-level candidate who lacks professional experience in the field, you can leverage other types of work, such as internships and volunteering, to enrich your resume.

Here’s a good example:

Experienced Librarian

As an experienced librarian, you likely have many achievements that you’d like to showcase. The goal here is to only focus on the most impactful ones that truly highlight your seniority. Don’t go overboard listing every minor accomplishment from jobs you did more than a decade ago.

Let’s check out an example:

Librarian Resume Education Section

Adding the education section to your resume is similar to listing your work experience but usually more straightforward. Simply list the following details:

Let’s see it in an example:

If you don’t have a lot of work experience, you can make this section stand out by listing your academic achievements, such as your GPA (but only if it’s 3.5 or higher), extracurricular activities, relevant coursework, and similar. You could even list an unfinished degree by either putting “current” instead of a graduation date or adding “expected” next to it.

Librarian Resume Skills

Instead of simply adding every soft and hard skill you possess to your librarian resume, you want to be precise and specific. By researching the job ad, you’ll discover which skills recruiters are looking for. That will allow you to demonstrate relevant abilities while remaining brief and concise.

Once you have a list of desirable abilities, you should add the ones you possess to the skills section of your resume. Furthermore, you want to demonstrate some of your vital abilities throughout the document.

While mentioning your professional achievements in your resume summary, objective, or work experience section, work in some of your skills to make them more prominent and substantial.

Librarian Resume Optional Sections

Optional sections can help customize your resume and tailor it to the specific job that you’re going for.

Certifications/Awards

Any relevant certifications obtained or awards earned will portray you as an accomplished individual. They show your dedication to the craft and paint you as someone who always strives to go the extra mile.

Languages

If the job ad asks for proficiency in certain languages, this section is pretty much a must-have. Even if it’s not required, knowledge of foreign languages is always a good skill to have, and you should try to include it in your resume as long as you have room left. The best way to go about it is to list languages in order of your skill level.

Hobbies & Interests

By listing some hobbies and interests on your resume, you can present yourself as an exciting and passionate individual. This part allows you to show who the person behind a resume really is.

Volunteer Work

The benefits of demonstrating volunteer work on your resume are multifaceted. On the one hand, they show that you’re a driven and passionate individual, all of which are qualities recruiters look for in candidates. On the other hand, volunteer work is another great way to offset any potential lack of professional experience.

Should You Submit a Cover Letter With Your Librarian Resume?

The mere act of submitting a cover letter with your resume already shows your hardworking side. Make sure to personally address the recruiter for maximum effect, and talk more about your skills and achievements that make you perfect for the job in 3–5 paragraphs.

Expert Tips for Creating a Librarian Resume

These final expert tips will help you get the most out of your librarian resume:

Job-Winning Librarian Resume Example

Use this example

Here's a job-winning librarian resume example that you can examine to put everything we’ve learned so far into practice.

Closing Thoughts

In conclusion, writing a librarian resume requires careful consideration of the specific skills, experiences, and achievements that are relevant to the position you’re applying for.

By following the guidelines outlined in this article and analyzing librarian resume samples, you’ll create an effective resume that best showcases your expertise and qualifications.

Remember to tailor your resume to the specific job description and to have a clear and concise layout. By putting all these tips into practice, you’ll increase your chances of landing your dream librarian job.