Librarian
What the work is
Delivers quality information services for the benefit of users by using unique technical skills to develop, acquire, organise, manage and preserve information resources, and to research, design and deliver customised services in a networked environment.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Examines publications and materials, interviews publishers' representatives, and consults with others to select library materials
- Provides assistance to clients in accessing library resources and undertakes information research activities on behalf of clients
- Manages library systems for recording and organising library holdings, acquisitions and purchases, and reader registrations and loan transactions
- Supervises indexing, filing and retrieval activities
- Manages interlibrary loan systems and information networks
- Selects, orders, classifies and catalogues library and information resources
- Monitors collection development and culling programs
- Sources, manages and preserves information resources and collections throughout their lifecycle, including digital preservation
- Designs, directs and delivers customised library services, programs and products that are responsive to community needs
- Develops and delivers information literacy education for users
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a busy branch of a fictional council public library, with a children's corner and a computer room. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- You find exactly the right book for a reader who said they hated reading
- A person who has never used a computer sends their first email with your help
- Story time ends and a child asks for the same book again
Hard days
- Someone is upset about a book on the shelf and wants it gone
- A busy day where every question needs a different kind of answer
- A budget cut that means choosing which things the library can no longer offer
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 232131, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.