Circulation worker vs library assistant

The differences between circulation workers and library assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a library assistant has an average salary of $30,146, which is higher than the $24,116 average annual salary of a circulation worker.

The top three skills for a circulation worker include library materials, library services and customer service. The most important skills for a library assistant are customer service, library materials, and circulation desk.

Circulation worker vs library assistant overview

	Circulation Worker	Library Assistant
Yearly salary	$24,116	$30,146
Hourly rate	$11.59	$14.49
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	19,380	1,122
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 82%	Bachelor's Degree, 59%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	-	-

Circulation worker vs library assistant salary

Circulation workers and library assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Circulation Worker	Library Assistant
Average salary	$24,116	$30,146
Salary range	Between $18,000 And $31,000	Between $22,000 And $39,000
Highest paying City	-	Brookline, MA
Highest paying state	-	Massachusetts
Best paying company	-	Columbia University in the City of New York
Best paying industry	-	Professional

Differences between circulation worker and library assistant education

There are a few differences between a circulation worker and a library assistant in terms of educational background:

	Circulation Worker	Library Assistant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 82%	Bachelor's Degree, 59%
Most common major	History	Business
Most common college	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	Northwestern University

Circulation worker vs library assistant demographics

Here are the differences between circulation workers' and library assistants' demographics:

	Circulation Worker	Library Assistant
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 37.6% Female, 62.4%	Male, 29.0% Female, 71.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.0% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 15.2% Asian, 4.1% White, 65.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 10.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.4% Asian, 6.4% White, 63.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between circulation worker and library assistant duties and responsibilities

Circulation worker example responsibilities.

Process internal and external inter-library loan requests for fiction and non-fiction titles and digital media.
Develop library collection materials for young adults including award-winning non-fiction and fiction titles.

Library assistant example responsibilities.

Organize and check in newly arrive reference materials, magazines, newspapers, and journals.
Assist with processing acquisitions, collection maintenance and development, retro- cataloging, copy cataloging.
Process and track inter-library loans and donations.
Set up user accounts and user rights in windows.
Process magazines and annual reports for the circulation department.
Re-Serve, circulate, check-in / check-out and renew books.

Circulation worker vs library assistant skills

Common circulation worker skills

Library Materials, 25%
Library Services, 20%
Customer Service, 14%
Library System, 13%
Newspapers, 13%
Front Desk, 9%

Common library assistant skills

Customer Service, 16%
Library Materials, 15%
Circulation Desk, 7%
Library Patrons, 4%
Library Services, 4%
Library Resources, 3%