Libraries and Archives

See the job descriptions on Prospects for thorough information on the range of jobs available in this field.

Job titles in this area 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 in the community.

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 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
• Customer service and 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
• Research skills

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.

If you have little or no relevant library and information experience and your degree is unrelated to information and library work, you can find paid experience via CILIP's Graduate Training Opportunities scheme. 

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 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.

Archives

Two main areas to explore when looking for archival work experience are:

• The Archives and Records Association – which offers a professional development programme and has a list of placements that is updated annually, ranging from paid one-year roles, to two-week voluntary opportunities. However, many opportunities are arranged by directly contacting an archive to ask for experience, and so…
• The National Archives Database – can be used to explore 2,500 archives.

There is often confusion about whether you should be paid to do an internship or work experience. It will depend on your arrangement with the employer as well as on the status of the employer. To find out if you are entitled to be paid when undertaking work experience or an internship, visit the Government’s webpages on the National Living Wage.

‘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.

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.

Graduate traineeships are offered sporadically between October and March – so it’s worth checking regularly for new opportunities. Oxford runs a Bodleian graduate trainee programme. Applications open in November and the closing date is usually end of January for a September start.

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 or postgraduate diploma, 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.

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.

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.

Associations, societies and news

• Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals - jobs board for CILIP, for graduate traineeships and library work 
• Archives & Records Association of UK & Ireland
• Information and Records Management Society

Sector vacancies

• LIS Job Net – Key jobs site for library and information work
• Information and Records Management Society
• 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 in library services and information management 
• Local Government Jobs – Local roles in archives and libraries
• Local Gov Jobs - similar to above 
• LinkedIn Jobs
• I Need A Library Job – Great board for USA, Canada, and a fair amount of UK roles too

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
• ‘What is a Legal Information Professional?’ – Great introduction to work in law libraries by the British and Irish Association of Law Libraries (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
• CB Resourcing

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 that are aimed at specific groups and many are being recognised for their approach to being inclusive employers.

Try the following to discover more about the policies and attitudes of the recruiters that you are interested in:

• Read their equality, diversity and inclusion policy
• Search their website to see if they have any specific staff networks
• Look 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, EmployAbility or one of the many other organisations that are working for specific communities
• Explore what they do to celebrate diversity on their Facebook and Twitter pages

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

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, visit the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s webpage on the Equality Act and the Government’s webpages on discrimination.