How To Become A Public Services Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a public services assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The public services assistant will assist in exploring, testing, and troubleshooting circulation system settings to meet user needs. He/She is responsible for the collection and reporting of public services statistics. He/She performs tasks associated with collection maintenance.

Furthermore, he/she performs functions related to circulation services following established procedures. Also, he/she reports security incidents and building maintenance problems. Likewise, he/she assists with carrying out special projects. Additionally, he/she provides public desk services like checking materials, renewing materials, and assisting with library card applications.

Although some employers prefer a college degree, a high school diploma or its equivalent is required. Applicants must have a minimum of two years of relevant work experience. You must possess communication, interpersonal, organization, and problem-solving skills. You must be proficient in Microsoft Office. Also, you must be able to perform some minor physical labor. Public services assistants make an average annual salary of $38,252. It falls between $22,000 and $68,000.

ScorePublic Services AssistantUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $35,105

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.9

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.77%

Asian 6.67%

Black or African American 8.98%

Hispanic or Latino 14.99%

Unknown 4.78%

White 63.82%

Gender

female 69.18%

male 30.82%

Age - 49

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 - 49

Stress level

4.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

3.7

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a public services assistant

Explore public services assistant education requirements

Most common public services assistant degrees

Bachelor's

65.7 %

Associate

15.4 %

Master's

9.9 %

Start to develop specific public services assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	17.67%
Community Outreach	12.02%
Word Processing	10.95%
Medicaid	7.53%
Circulation Desk	6.06%

Complete relevant public services assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New public services assistants 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 a public services assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real public services assistant resumes.

Research public services assistant duties and responsibilities

Help contribute to PowerPoint presentation for budget purposes.
Resurface blu rays, DVDs, and audiobooks.
Produce reserve labels and barcodes for re-serve books, CDs, and DVDs.
Assess and discard non-fiction collections as assigned.

Prepare your public services assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your public services assistant 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 a public services assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable public services assistant resume templates

Build a professional public services assistant 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 public services assistant resume.