Library and Information Work

Information work is not limited to those working in libraries – in fact the majority of professionals can be found in business and industry (particularly law and health), in schools, in central and local government as well as in professional bodies, trade associations and the voluntary sector.

The shared aim of all in the field is to make sure information is acquired, organised and continues to be accessible to those who need it. This encompasses information in all its forms – from texts to images, films to manuscripts, databases to web pages.

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Types of Job

Job titles in this field include:

Academic Librarian

Works with academic staff, students and researchers to ensure that they have the material they need to access. Includes teaching information literacy skills, answering enquiries and contributing to the management of the information service.

Archive Conservator

Responsible for the preservation, repair and conservation of archive items (manuscripts, books, photos, film, recordings and more) using manual dexterity, chemical treatments, technological tools and detailed analysis.

Archivist

Works with the owner(s) of the archive to preserve and exploit the heritage and information accumulated by their work. Includes working with users as well as curatorial skills in coordinating, arranging and cataloguing archives.

Cataloguer

Creates structured descriptions of resources (from books to images to electronic resources) to enable discovery by users and accurate collections management. Increasingly technological work, working with recognised metadata standards.

Information/Library Assistant

Assists Information/Library staff in their work, which often involves the ‘grass roots’ of the information service. This could include providing customer service to users and maintaining the basic functioning of the service, such as shelving, retrieving or replacing resources.

Information Officer/Manager

Researches and sources to meet the information needs of the setting, and can include ‘packaging’ or collating the information in ways which are accessible to the end user.

Knowledge Manager

Responsible for developing and managing complex information systems. In some settings ‘Information Manager’ can be used to refer to this role too, but ‘Knowledge Managers’ may also have responsibility for data protection, or policies for knowledge management within the organisation.

Learning Resources Manager/ School Librarian

In an educational setting, this role combines aspects of an academic librarian’s work, with information officer tasks and perhaps greater responsibility for IT facilities, or budget management.

Public Librarian

Works for a government or council-funded library, open to the general public. As well as managing the development of the collection, they also work to support readers and local organisations to make the most of the resources available, which can include organising events, surveys, or partnership working with other businesses or public bodies.

Records Manager

Designs systems, processes and schedules to help an organisation maintain operational efficiency and meet legal obligations for the retention of records, as well as identifying records to be archived (but they aren’t usually responsible for the work of archiving them).

Skills and Experience

Skills needed

Each role will have a unique combination of skills required, and a few will have some skills that are not required in other roles (for example, chemistry knowledge for Archival Conservation). However, in general, working in library and information work requires:

Good organisational skills
Analytical thinking; the ability to synthesise ‘big picture’ issues and remember small details
Interest and ability in working with IT systems and tools
Good interpersonal skills, with a desire to help users of the information service
Adaptability and flexibility, particularly in response to changing user needs
Good communication skills, both written and oral
High-level accuracy and attention to detail, as well as seeing the value of precise work
An investigative mind that seeks to solve problems laterally and imaginatively

You don’t, however, need Latin to become an archivist. According to the ARA “whilst knowledge of Latin is undoubtedly a useful skill to have as an archivist, most medieval records have already been catalogued and translated, so it is not as essential as it may have been in the past”.

Getting experience

Libraries

There are lots of ways to get good quality work experience in libraries, and if you’re studying at Oxford you’re in an ideal place to access it. Talk to your college or department/faculty librarian about their job, and find out what the opportunities might be to get involved.

If you’re outside of Oxford, there are often ways to get involved in your local public or school libraries, either through paid work as a library assistant, or by supporting library events, groups or promotional activities. Usually the first thing to do is to get in touch with the service to ask what might be possible.

Libraries and archives in other sectors of industry can be harder to research. Although there are strong societies for people who work in law libraries who you could contact – see the British and Irish Association of Law Libraries webpages, it’s less the case than in other industries. You could follow the advice in this website's guidance on networking pages and research people on LinkedIn to find out who’s working as a ‘librarian’ or ‘information manager’ within your region (and even who’s an Oxford graduate too). These could be good people to approach about work shadowing or work experience.

A hot topic in the world of libraries is ‘job substitution’. This is where work that would previously have been undertaken by a paid staff member is now undertaken by a volunteer. You will find very few ‘volunteering opportunities’ promoted by professional library bodies.

Entry Points

‘Assistant’ work

It’s possible to work in the field without further study, particularly in ‘entry-level’ roles as a library assistant, information assistant, or archival assistant. To access these roles, you will often need some evidence of your communication and organisational skills – volunteering, customer service roles or work experience in an information setting can help demonstrate this. Salaries will often be relatively low – c.£16,000 to £22,000 a year, depending on the employer.

Graduate traineeships

These are not mandatory to progress in the field, but where they are offered they can provide a more structured piece of paid experience, often a one-year job during which more training and support is offered than would be available to someone in an ‘assistant’ role. You can find these roles for libraries at Information Professional Jobs, the job board for CILIP. A summary list for archival roles is held by the Archives and Records Association. Oxford runs a Bodleian graduate trainee programme (closing date is usually in early February for a September start).

Graduate traineeships are offered sporadically between October and March – so it’s worth checking regularly for new opportunities.

Further study

To move on and up as a professional working in libraries, information management or archives, most staff will at some point take a professional qualification, usually accredited by either CILIP (for library or information professionals) or the ARA (for archives and records work).

More information about both is available at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, and the Archives and Records Association at both their Careers in Archives webpage and their Careers in Archive Conservation webpage.

The subject of your first degree is usually not relevant, but experience in the sector (usually a minimum of 4-8 weeks) is commonly cited as essential. Funding in the form of bursaries can sometimes be found to support members' professional development. Despite relatively low levels of bursaries available, many courses have part time or distance learning options, which can enable students to work to support themselves while on the course.

Getting a Job

When job hunting, either for entry level work, or post-qualification roles, combine searching for advertised vacancies with methods that increase your access to unadvertised roles:

Explore the ‘sector vacancy’ websites listed under ‘external resources’ below.
Join LinkedIn groups that relate to your area (often jobs are posted as discussions).
Make sure that those you know in the field are aware that you’re job hunting. Ask them for further advice, or even other people it would be good to contact.
Explore whether a specialist recruitment agency (listed under ‘external resources’) might suit your needs.

External Resources

Associations, societies and news

Sector vacancies

LIS Job Net – Key jobs site for library and information work
Information and Records Management Society
I Need A Library Job – Great board for USA, Canada, and a fair amount of UK roles too
Archival Jobs in Museums – hosted by the University of Leicester
JISCMail – Archive-related email list from education and research – check recent month for job opportunity posts
Jobs.ac.uk – Higher education jobs
Local Government Jobs – Local roles in archives and libraries
LinkedIn Jobs

Occupational information

Bodleian Trainee Blog – Blog from the Bodleian’s graduate library trainees, with lots of case studies and information on roles in academic, legal, local studies, public and voluntary sector libraries
Archives and Records Association: Careers Guide – Really good information, with specific guides for careers in record management, archives and archive conservation, plus useful FAQs
‘What is a Legal Information Professional?’ – Great introduction to work in law libraries by BIALL, training required and plenty of useful links
Prospects careers pages – Types of jobs in information services – ranging widely from archaeology to trade mark attorney. Good for broadening out ideas!

Recruitment agencies

Glen Recruitment – Information sector specialist
Sue Hill – Information and market, insight and analysis sector specialist
TFPL – Information, knowledge and data specialist

Diversity and Inclusion

Recruiters are keen to have a diverse workforce and many will have policies and processes that are proactive in recruiting students and graduates from diverse backgrounds. An increasing number of recruiters are offering traineeships, internships and Insight events and many are being recognized for their approach to being inclusive employers. To find out the policies and attitudes of the recruiters that you are interested in, explore their equality, diversity and inclusion policy. Search their website to see if they have any specific staff networks, look out for external accreditation such as whether they are a Disability Confident employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion or part of the Mindful Employer charter promoting mental health at work. Check to see if they are partnering with organisations such as Rare Recruitment, SEO London, MyPlus Students' Club (disability), EmployAbility (disability and neurodifference) and there are many more that are working for specific communities. A key place to look is to see what they do to celebrate diversity on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

The UK Equality Act 2010 has a number of protected characteristics to prevent discrimination due to your age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation. For further information on the Equality Act 2010 and to find out where and how you are protected, and what to do if you feel you have been discriminated against, visit the Government’s webpages on discrimination.

In library and information work, CILIP has a BAME support network and an LGBTQ+ support network for members.