There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a research librarian. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.52 an hour? That's $51,011 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 8,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many research librarians have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, initiative and interpersonal skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a research librarian, we found that a lot of resumes listed 22.2% of research librarians included library services, while 15.8% of resumes included research projects, and 7.2% of resumes included collection development. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the research librarian job title. But what industry to start with? Most research librarians actually find jobs in the professional and education industries.
If you're interested in becoming a research librarian, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 26.9% of research librarians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 54.5% of research librarians have master's degrees. Even though most research librarians have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a research librarian. When we researched the most common majors for a research librarian, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on research librarian resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a research librarian. In fact, many research librarian jobs require experience in a role such as librarian. Meanwhile, many research librarians also have previous career experience in roles such as reference librarian or internship.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of librarian you might progress to a role such as instructor eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title owner.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 22.2% of research librarians listed library services on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and initiative are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a research librarian. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Connecticut, California, and New Jersey. Research librarians make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $73,745. Whereas in Connecticut and California, they would average $72,768 and $71,719, respectively. While research librarians would only make an average of $69,279 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Rhode Island
$64,405
Avg. Salary
2. North Dakota
$67,550
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$72,769
Avg. Salary