Research Salary Ranges and Benefits for a Librarian
Librarian salary ranges and benefits vary widely. Factors influencing librarian salaries include location, education and area of specialization. Specializations include law librarian, legal librarian, archivist and school media specialist. Salaries in public libraries in rural areas are generally lower than librarian salaries in higher education and in government. Specializations growing in demand, such as corporate librarian, may offer opportunities with higher salaries for librarians.
Contents
Steps
- Begin with an Internet search of overall current librarian salary ranges and benefits. Many career development and government websites offer broad librarian salary ranges, average salaries and median salaries for all career titles in the field.
- Search library association websites in the country and in the specific region in which you live or wish to work. State capitals and college towns, for example, may offer higher librarian salaries and have more job openings than small towns.
- Browse national and regional employment sites at regular intervals for positions currently open and look at the compensation offered. This will give a sense of the salaries for librarians and of the frequency with which job openings occur in your area of interest.
- Investigate whether you will need to take civil service tests for the type of librarian position that interests you. Many government positions require tests.
- The test notice will typically give starting librarian salary ranges and benefits. You may find this information by searching for the civil service department or agency of your city, state, county, district or national government.
- Consider whether you might enjoy employment with a college or university. If so, find the human resources section of the school's website and see whether it lists salary grades for employees. You may find librarian salaries under "professional positions."
- Join a regional association for librarians. You will make contacts in the field and receive notice of job openings. These notifications will often contain information on librarian salary ranges and benefits. Student memberships in these associations are often available at a reduced rate.
- Don't forget that many corporations and businesses have a need for a librarian too. Search and post a resume to more traditional job sites like Monster, Career Builder or Craigslist for librarian positions. A librarian can use skills like database searching for providing business intelligence, organizational and cataloging skills are translatable to files and other data, knowledge and/or content management is also a field in which librarian's skill sets are suited as well.
Tips
- Librarians may need to have strong information technology and database skills. The proficiency level for these may affect salaries for librarians.
- Assess the balance between librarian salaries and benefits. While many librarian positions have lower pay, they may offer above-average health, retirement and other benefits. The same websites offering information on librarian salary ranges will offer information on benefits, as well.
- A high percentage of librarians are over the age of 45. As these individuals retire, their absence may create an increase in new job openings.
Warnings
- A career as a librarian requires a Master's Degree in Library Science (M.L.S.). Consider the cost of obtaining this education when evaluating librarian salary and benefits.
- Librarians may delegate certain tasks to support staff. This trend may lead to lower salaries for librarians in some cases.
