How to Become a Librarian

Short answer

• The usual route to becoming a librarian starts with a bachelor's degree in any field, followed by a master's degree in library science or library and information studies. The American Library Association describes the master's degree from an ALA accredited program as the appropriate professional degree for librarians.
• Most professional librarian positions require that master's degree. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that librarians typically need a master's degree in library science, and it lists a master's degree as the typical entry level education for librarians and library media specialists.
• Your undergraduate major does not usually need to be library science. ALA notes that there is usually no specific undergraduate program required for entry into master's level library and information studies programs, so majors such as English, history, science, education, business, art, law, or psychology can all lead into the field.
• School librarian roles often add a teaching certificate, and requirements vary by state. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that school librarians and library media specialists typically need a bachelor's or master's degree in a related field along with a teaching certificate, with requirements varying by state.
• Experience in a library matters alongside the degree. ALA advises that it is best to have some experience working in a library before graduating, whether as a volunteer, page, library assistant, intern, or through a graduate school project.
• Library assistant and library technician roles are different from professional librarian roles. They support daily library work and generally require less formal education, which makes them a useful entry point while you study, but they are not the same job as a professional librarian post.
• Public, school, academic, and special libraries hire librarians for different work. A children's librarian, a school library media specialist, an academic reference librarian, and a law or medical librarian share core skills, but their daily tasks, collections, and extra credentials differ.
• There is no single national license for all librarians in the United States. Some states and some school systems require certification, while other employers rely on the degree and on experience. Check the rules for the state and the library type you want before you apply.

Introduction

Many people picture a librarian quietly shelving books. Real library work is broader than that picture. Librarians help people find reliable information, teach research skills, build collections, run programs for children and adults, manage digital resources, and answer questions that range from homework help to local history, job searching, and health information. The work is public facing, detail heavy, and increasingly digital, and it still rests on a simple idea: connect the right person with the right information at the right time.

This guide explains the usual route into professional librarian work in the United States. It covers the degrees most employers expect, the difference between librarian roles and library assistant roles, the certification rules that change by state and by setting, the skills worth building early, and the practical steps to take at each stage. It does not promise a job, a salary, or admission to any program. Requirements vary by employer, by library type, and by state, so always check the job posting and the relevant state agency before you make a decision based on this guide.

What Librarians Actually Do

Librarians help people find information and conduct research for personal and professional use. That short description covers a wide range of daily work. A public librarian may answer reference questions at a desk, help a job seeker use a computer and a printer, plan a story time for young children, run a book club for adults, or help a local resident find local government forms. An academic librarian may teach students how to search scholarly databases, evaluate sources, cite correctly, and avoid plagiarism. A school librarian may teach information literacy lessons, help teachers choose classroom resources, and manage a collection for a whole school.

Behind the public facing work sits collection work. Librarians select books, journals, databases, films, music, and digital resources, decide what to keep and what to withdraw, and organize materials so people can actually find them. Cataloging and metadata work gives each item a consistent description and subject headings, so a search returns useful results rather than a random pile. Digital work has grown steadily: managing ebooks and online databases, maintaining library websites and guides, troubleshooting access problems, and teaching people to use new tools with confidence.

Librarians also plan and manage. Branch managers and library directors set budgets, supervise staff, write policies, report to boards or parent institutions, and build partnerships with schools, community groups, and local government. Outreach work takes the library beyond its building, through programs in schools, senior centers, and community events. In every setting, the work combines service, teaching, organization, and technology. If you enjoy helping people one to one, explaining things clearly, and keeping complex systems in order, the daily work is likely to suit you. If you want a job that is mostly quiet shelving with little contact with people, the reality of modern librarian work may surprise you.

The Steps in Order

The path below follows the sequence most future librarians take. You can start gaining library experience before you finish any degree, and you can explore specializations while you study, so the steps overlap in practice.

1. Explore the work firsthand through volunteering, part time work, or informational conversations with working librarians.
2. Earn a bachelor’s degree in a field that interests you and that supports the library setting you want.
3. Gain library experience as a page, assistant, volunteer, or intern, and build basic technology and customer service skills.
4. Apply to a master’s program in library science or library and information studies, giving preference to ALA accredited programs for professional roles.
5. Complete coursework, a practicum or internship where available, and any specialization that matches your target setting.
6. Meet any extra certification or teaching requirement for your state and setting, especially for school library work.
7. Apply for professional posts, tailoring each application to the library type, and keep building skills after you start.

Step 1: Explore Before You Commit

Before you apply to graduate school, spend time inside a library as a worker or volunteer rather than only as a visitor. Volunteer at your public library, ask about shelving, circulation desk work, program support, and summer reading help. If you are a student, look for a part time library job on campus. Academic libraries often hire students for circulation, shelving, interlibrary loan support, and help desk shifts, and those jobs teach you how a library runs behind the scenes.

Talk to librarians in more than one setting. A public librarian, a school librarian, and an academic librarian can describe very different days, schedules, and pressures. Ask what they like least as well as what they like most, what surprised them about the job, and what they wish they had known before graduate school. ALA itself suggests talking to a current librarian and visiting the public library in your community as a starting point for exploration, and that advice is worth following literally.

Step 2: Earn a Bachelor’s Degree

A bachelor’s degree is the foundation for graduate study in library science. ALA notes that there is usually no specific undergraduate program required for entry into master’s level library and information studies programs. That flexibility is good news: you can major in a subject you genuinely enjoy and can use later.

Choose with your target setting in mind, without treating any single major as a requirement. English, history, and communication support reading, writing, and research skills. Education supports school library work. Science, health, or technology majors support science, medical, or data focused roles. Business or public administration supports management roles later in a career. A second language can be a real asset in communities with large non English speaking populations, and ALA lists knowledge of a foreign language among the skills often sought for librarian posts.

Grades and writing ability matter for graduate admission, but so does evidence of commitment. Library work experience, volunteering, a campus job, and a clear statement of purpose that explains why librarianship, and which setting interests you, all strengthen an application. Keep records of your experience as you go, including the tasks you performed and the skills you learned, because you will need that detail for resumes and graduate applications.

Step 3: Understand the MLIS, MLS, and Related Degrees

The master’s degree is the central qualification for professional librarian work. You will see several degree names, and the differences can confuse new applicants. MLS stands for Master of Library Science. MLIS stands for Master of Library and Information Science. Some schools award a Master of Science in Information Studies, Library and Information Studies, or Information Science, with a library track. The names reflect how programs balance traditional library work with information science, data, and technology, but employers commonly treat an ALA accredited master’s in this field as the professional credential.

ALA policy states that the master’s degree from a program accredited by ALA, or from a master’s level program in library and information studies accredited or recognized by the appropriate national body of another country, is the appropriate professional degree for librarians. ALA also notes that although you are not required to attend an ALA accredited program, the majority of employers require an ALA accredited master’s for professional positions. That distinction matters: an unaccredited program may still teach useful skills, but it can limit your options for professional posts, so check accreditation before you enroll.

Program length, cost, format, and course requirements vary by school, so compare programs on their own terms rather than assuming they are identical. Many programs offer online study, part time study, or both, which can suit people who work while they study. Look at the curriculum for core courses in organization of information, cataloging and metadata, reference and information services, collection development, library management, and research methods, and look for electives in your area of interest, such as youth services, archives, digital libraries, data services, or health sciences librarianship.

Also look at practical experience built into the program. A practicum, internship, field experience, or capstone project lets you apply classroom learning in a real library, build references, and test a specialization. If a program does not require one, seek experience on your own through part time work, volunteering, or a summer internship, because ALA advises that experience before graduating is best.

Step 4: Gain Experience While You Study

Experience is the part of the path that students most often underestimate. A degree proves you studied librarianship. Experience proves you can do library work with real users, real collections, and real deadlines. Employers look for both.

Start with the roles open to people without a master’s degree. Library pages shelve and organize materials. Library assistants and technicians support circulation, help users at service desks, process new materials, and keep records in order. Volunteers support programs, shelving, and special projects. Internships, including graduate internships and practicums, give supervised professional experience and often lead to strong references.

Use each role deliberately. Learn the integrated library system, the cataloging basics, interlibrary loan, reference interview skills, and basic troubleshooting for printers, computers, and databases. Learn to help a frustrated user calmly, to explain a search step by step, and to say clearly when you do not know an answer and how you will find it. Those service and communication skills appear in ALA’s list of what librarian posts often require, alongside analytical thinking, initiative, independent judgment, and the ability to prepare clear reports and present ideas in writing and in speech.

Step 5: Certification and State Variation

This is the step where a single national answer does not exist, and that is important to understand. In the United States there is no one national license that covers every librarian in every setting. Instead, requirements depend on the type of library, the employer, and the state.

School librarian work is the clearest case where extra certification is common. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that school librarians and library media specialists typically need a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a related field along with a teaching certificate, and that requirements vary by state. In practice, that can mean a teaching credential, a school library media endorsement, or a state specific school librarian certificate, depending on the state and the school district. If school librarianship is your goal, check your state department of education and the requirements of the districts where you hope to work before you choose a graduate program, because some programs are designed to meet a particular state’s endorsement requirements and others are not.

Public library certification also varies. Some states run a certification system for public librarians, sometimes with levels tied to education and experience, while other states leave certification to the hiring library or library system. Some individual library systems require certification even where the state does not. Academic librarians in colleges and universities generally do not need a state teaching certificate, but they may need a second master’s degree in a subject field for certain specialist posts, and ALA notes that an ALA accredited MLS plus a second master’s degree, for example a law degree, is a combination some posts require.

The practical rule is simple: identify your target state and setting early, then verify the requirement from the official source, such as the state library agency, the state department of education, or the employer’s job posting. Do not assume that a certification earned in one state transfers automatically to another, and do not assume that a degree alone satisfies a school district requirement. If you plan to move states, ask both states about reciprocity or endorsement transfer before you commit to a program.

Step 6: Types of Librarian Roles

Librarian is a broad title. The setting shapes the daily work, the users, the collection, and the extra qualifications. The main settings are public, school, academic, and special libraries, with further specializations inside each.

Public librarians serve the general public through city, county, or regional library systems. Roles include children’s librarian, young adult librarian, adult services and reference librarian, branch manager, outreach librarian, and digital services librarian. Children’s and young adult librarians plan story times, reading programs, homework help, and teen programs, and they build collections for young readers. Adult services librarians answer reference questions, teach digital literacy classes, run programs, and help with job searching, government services, and lifelong learning. Branch managers combine service work with staff supervision, budgeting, and community partnerships.

School librarians, often called library media specialists, work in elementary, middle, and high schools. They teach information literacy and research skills, collaborate with teachers on lessons and resources, manage the school collection, and support reading programs. Because they work with children in a school, they commonly need a teaching certificate or school library endorsement, as discussed above, and they must be comfortable with classroom management, curriculum planning, and school schedules.

Academic librarians work in colleges and universities. Roles include reference and instruction librarian, subject liaison librarian, cataloging and metadata librarian, collections librarian, digital scholarship librarian, and archives or special collections librarian. Subject liaisons build relationships with academic departments, teach research skills in classes, and select resources for their subjects. Instruction work is central in many academic posts, so teaching ability and comfort presenting to groups matter a great deal.

Special librarians work in settings built around a particular subject or organization, such as law firms, hospitals, corporations, government agencies, museums, and research institutes. A law librarian helps lawyers and researchers find cases, statutes, and legal commentary quickly and accurately. A medical librarian, sometimes called a health sciences librarian, supports clinicians, researchers, and patients with evidence based information searching. A corporate librarian may manage competitive intelligence, internal knowledge resources, and research support for business decisions. Special librarian posts often reward deep subject knowledge alongside library skills, and some require a second degree in the subject.

Step 7: Skills Employers Look For

ALA’s list of what librarian posts often require is a useful checklist. It includes a desire to meet and serve the library’s user community, analytical thinking, initiative and independent judgment, knowledge of computers, the internet, and library software, the ability to prepare clear reports and present ideas in writing and speech, administrative decision making, supervision, working relationships with colleagues and community agencies, knowledge of library service philosophy and techniques, organization and independent work, knowledge of library materials and resources, creativity in programs and services, communication, a positive attitude toward users with special needs, and accuracy and skill in typing.

In practice, that list breaks into four groups. First, service and communication: listening carefully, asking clarifying questions, explaining a search or a tool in plain language, and handling difficult interactions with patience. The reference interview, where you help a user turn a vague request into a searchable question, is a core skill in every setting. Second, organization and detail: cataloging, classification, metadata, collection management, and record keeping all reward accuracy and consistency. Third, technology: library catalogs and discovery systems, databases, ebook platforms, basic troubleshooting, website content, and data tools. You do not need to be a programmer for most librarian posts, but comfort with technology and willingness to learn new systems are expected. Fourth, teaching and program skills: designing a lesson, a workshop, or a program, presenting to a group, and evaluating whether it worked.

Step 8: Applying for Librarian Jobs

When you are near the end of your master’s degree, or have completed it, start applying for professional posts that match your experience and specialization. Read each posting carefully. Note whether it requires an ALA accredited master’s degree, whether it says the degree must be completed by a certain date, whether it requires a teaching certificate or state certification, and whether it lists a subject degree or language skill as required or preferred. Required and preferred are different, and tailoring your application to that distinction matters.

Tailor your resume and cover letter to the library type. A public library hiring manager wants evidence of public service, program work, and community engagement. An academic library wants evidence of instruction, subject expertise, and scholarly communication. A school district wants evidence of teaching, collaboration with teachers, and work with young people. Use the same language as the posting where it honestly describes your experience, and give concrete examples with outcomes rather than general claims.

Pay, Outlook, and Working Conditions

Pay and outlook vary by setting, location, experience, and employer, so treat national figures as background, not as a promise for any individual post. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual wage for librarians and library media specialists was 68,270 dollars in May 2025. It also reports that employment in the occupation is projected to grow 3 percent from 2025 to 2035, about as fast as the average for all occupations, with about 12,600 openings projected each year on average over the decade, many resulting from workers transferring to other occupations or leaving the labor force, for example to retire. Those figures describe the occupation as a whole. A school librarian, a public librarian, and an academic librarian in different states can earn quite different amounts, and local salary schedules, union agreements, and cost of living all affect real pay.

Most librarians work full time, although part time work is common, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Public libraries often require evening and weekend shifts, because those are peak times for users. School librarians generally follow the school calendar. Academic librarians may work evenings during term time and follow a different rhythm in breaks. Special librarians often follow the hours of their parent organization. Physical demands are modest compared with many jobs, but the work involves long periods at a computer, lifting boxes of books at times, and being on your feet during programs and shelving.

Planning Time, Cost, and Alternatives

Planning the full route honestly helps avoid surprises. A bachelor’s degree comes first, then a master’s degree, and total time depends on whether you study full time or part time, whether you work during study, and whether your program requires a practicum. Costs vary widely by institution, residency, format, and financial aid, so compare total program cost, not only a single semester figure, and ask each program about scholarships, assistantships, and graduate employment that can reduce cost and add experience.

If the full master’s route is not right for you now, library work still offers entry points. Library assistant, library technician, page, and circulation roles let you work in libraries, build skills, and test whether the field fits, without committing to graduate school immediately. Some people work in those roles for years and are happy there. Others use them as a stepping stone to a master’s degree later. Both are legitimate choices, and the difference is in the responsibilities, pay, and advancement each role offers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a master’s degree to become a librarian? For most professional librarian posts, yes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that librarians typically need a master’s degree in library science, and ALA describes the master’s degree from an ALA accredited program as the appropriate professional degree. Library assistant and technician roles are different posts and generally require less formal education.

How long does it take to become a librarian? It depends on your starting point and study pace. The usual route is a bachelor’s degree followed by a master’s degree in library science or library and information studies, plus library experience gained along the way. Studying part time, working during study, or adding a teaching certificate for school work can extend the timeline, while full time study can shorten it. Compare program lengths directly, because they vary by school.

What undergraduate degree do you need to become a librarian? There is usually no specific undergraduate major required for entry into master’s level library and information studies programs, according to ALA. Choose a major you enjoy and that supports your target setting, and build library experience and strong writing skills alongside it.

What is the difference between an MLIS and an MLS? MLIS stands for Master of Library and Information Science, and MLS stands for Master of Library Science. Both are master’s degrees in the library field, and programs differ in how much they emphasize information science, data, and technology alongside traditional library work. For professional posts, ALA accreditation of the program matters more than the exact letters in the degree name, so check accreditation before enrolling.

Do librarians need to be certified? It depends on the setting and the state. There is no single national license for all librarians in the United States. School librarians commonly need a teaching certificate or school library endorsement, with requirements varying by state. Some states certify public librarians, while others leave the decision to the hiring library. Always check the state agency and the job posting for your target role.

Can you become a librarian without a library science degree? You can work in a library without a library science degree, for example as a page, assistant, or technician, and those roles are valuable. For a professional librarian post, most employers require the master’s degree, so a short course or certificate alone is unlikely to qualify you for that title. Check individual postings, because requirements do vary.

What does a school librarian need that a public librarian does not? A school librarian typically needs a teaching certificate or school library endorsement in addition to library education, with requirements varying by state, and must be comfortable teaching classes, collaborating with teachers, and working to a school calendar. A public librarian serves the general public across ages, runs community programs, and often works evenings and weekends. The core library skills overlap, but the credential and the daily setting differ.

Do librarians only work with books? No. Modern librarians work with books, ebooks, journals, databases, films, music, digital archives, local history collections, and community programs. They teach research skills, manage digital resources, troubleshoot technology, and help users find reliable information in many formats. Books remain central, but they are one part of a much larger collection.

Keep reading: How Do You Become a Teacher

Sources & references

• American Library Association, Becoming a Librarian, stating the ALA policy that the master's degree from an ALA accredited program is the appropriate professional degree for librarians, that the majority of employers require an ALA accredited master's for professional positions, and that there is usually no specific undergraduate program required for entry into master's level programs. This page was opened and read in this writer pass on 29 October 2026.
• American Library Association, What Librarians Need to Know, for the range of education requirements, the skills often required, and the advice that it is best to have some library experience before graduating. This page was opened and read in this writer pass on 29 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Librarians and Library Media Specialists, for typical entry level education, the statement that librarians typically need a master's degree in library science, school librarian teaching certificate requirements varying by state, the May 2025 median annual wage of 68,270 dollars, projected growth of 3 percent from 2025 to 2035, and about 12,600 openings projected each year on average over the decade. This page was opened and read in this writer pass on 29 October 2026.