How To Become An Interlibrary Loan Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an interlibrary loan specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an interlibrary loan specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.88 an hour? That's $49,669 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 12,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreInterlibrary Loan SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $49,669

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.48%

Asian 6.88%

Black or African American 10.13%

Hispanic or Latino 12.36%

Unknown 4.69%

White 65.45%

Gender

female 71.79%

male 28.21%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an interlibrary loan specialist

Explore interlibrary loan specialist education requirements

Most common interlibrary loan specialist degrees

Bachelor's

69.1 %

Master's

12.7 %

Associate

10.9 %

Start to develop specific interlibrary loan specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Interlibrary Loan	47.48%
Loan Request	16.47%
OCLC	11.85%
Circulation Desk	11.21%
Student Assistants	9.07%

Complete relevant interlibrary loan specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New interlibrary loan specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an interlibrary loan specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real interlibrary loan specialist resumes.

Research interlibrary loan specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage a multifacete commercial real estate investment firm.
Introduce on-line card cataloging, research and retrieval to library and library patrons.
Utilize Pubmed, Worldcat, Lexis Nexis, and other database resources to verify citation criteria.
Conduct on-line searches using resources such as OCLC, Carl-Uncover, the Internet, and other available electronic databases.

Prepare your interlibrary loan specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your interlibrary loan specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an interlibrary loan specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable interlibrary loan specialist resume templates

Build a professional interlibrary loan specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your interlibrary loan specialist resume.