How To Become A Shelver: What It Is and Career Path

What is a shelver and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a shelver. For example, did you know that they make an average of $11.58 an hour? That's $24,091 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -4% and produce -6,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreShelverUS Average

Salary

1.9

Avg. Salary $24,091

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.9

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.77%

Asian 4.98%

Black or African American 9.18%

Hispanic or Latino 15.29%

Unknown 4.88%

White 64.89%

Gender

female 61.92%

male 38.08%

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 shelver

Explore shelver education requirements

Most common shelver degrees

Bachelor's

51.0 %

High School Diploma

20.7 %

Associate

19.3 %

Start to develop specific shelver skills

Skills	Percentages
Library Materials	28.56%
Dewey Decimal System	8.43%
DVDs	6.83%
Book Displays	5.33%
Customer Service	5.16%

Complete relevant shelver training and internships

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

Research shelver duties and responsibilities

Assist patrons in their searches and shelve books, DVDs, CDs, and audiobooks.
Shelve all library material (books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, audio-books, etc . )
Shelve fiction, large print and new books.
Improve the layout plan of the adult fiction section.

Prepare your shelver resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable shelver resume templates

Build a professional shelver 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 shelver resume.

Apply for shelver jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a shelver job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do shelvers rate their job?

5/5

Out of 1 Shelver reviews, 100% were positive.

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Based on 1 ratings

Pay / salary

4.0

Overall rating

5.0

Work/life balance

5.0

Career growth

5.0

Shelver reviews

5.0

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2023

Pros

Learning the collection and using organizational skills. Efficiently applying the Dewey Decimal System to properly shelve materials.

Cons

Very repetitive. This doesn't negate the fact that the work is a great learning experience of how the library works and comes together to serve patrons.

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019