Gross earnings for a part-time library assistant| Hours a week | At $10.00 an hour | At $16.50 an hour | At $21.50 an hour |
|---|
| 8 hours | $80 | $132 | $172 |
| 15 hours | $150 | $248 | $323 |
| 20 hours | $200 | $330 | $430 |
| 15 hours a week over 36 weeks | $5,400 | $8,910 | $11,628 |
Why is library work attractive for students?
Two reasons: the schedule is steady and the study space is free.
The schedule is the practical one. The desk has to be covered whenever the building is open, so the hours are distributed across the week and the shifts are short. That makes it one of the easier roles to fit around a course timetable.
The study space is the other. Library staff on most campuses get priority for study space during busy periods, which on a heavy reading week is worth more than a small pay rise.
The third reason is the reference. A library assistant role is a year-round job on a campus, and it is the kind of position a hiring manager asks about when an internship application needs an example of reliability.
Our guide to flexible part time jobs for students covers the scheduling conversation.
Which libraries hire part-time assistants?
Academic libraries hire most, and the larger the library the more specialised the roles get.
At a large research university the library is a department with several sites, a media centre, a data services unit and an archives reading room.
Each of those areas hires its own student assistants, and the archives and data roles pay at the top of the campus band because the work is specialist.
Smaller institutions combine the desk and the shelves into one role, which is more varied and pays at the lower end. Our guide to part time campus dining hall worker covers the other year-round campus role with a similar hours pattern.
Where library assistant work comes from| Setting | Rate position | What to check |
|---|
| Small college library | Lower campus band | How many roles the desk covers |
| Large university library | Mid campus band | Whether the shift includes scanning |
| Archives and special collections | Top of the band | Whether specialist training is provided |
| Data services and media centre | Top of the band | Whether the work is technical |
Do library jobs come with benefits?
Almost never through a medical plan, because the hours sit below the thresholds.
Health coverage at one national retailer starts at 25 hours a week, and coffee shop benefits start at 20 hours. A library role of fifteen hours a week clears neither.
What a campus library does offer is its own package, and it varies. Priority study space during peak periods is common. Some libraries extend a meal plan or a book store discount, and a few run a tuition credit for a fixed number of hours.
Two questions settle the rest. Whether the role is work study or regular student employment, and how the hours are capped if it is work study.
Our guide to part time campus tour guide jobs covers the same hour cap question on a different campus role.
How do you find a library assistant job?
Search the library's own pages, because the hiring sits inside the library rather than in a central office.
Three routes work. The library employment page lists the assistant and circulation roles. The central student employment site lists the work study eligible versions, filtered by department.
The third is a direct approach to the reference desk, which works at smaller institutions where the hiring decision is made locally. Ask whether they need a scanner or a desk assistant, because the two roles have different training and different rates.
Two questions settle it. Ask how many hours the role delivers in a busy term, and ask whether the training includes the catalogue and the scanning system.
Our guide to evening part time jobs hiring near you covers the evening desk hours that carry the busiest circulation.
What changes about library hiring next?
Expect more self-service, which cuts the desk work and raises the specialist work.
Three forces shape the next two years. Self-service borrowing removes the transaction that defined the desk role, which is the same pattern that is reducing cashier work across retail. Research data services keep growing, which pulls more student assistants into the technical roles.
The pressure on the wage is the usual one. Campus hourly scales move with state minimum wage rules, and the library budget is set annually, so the rate rises slowly while the skill expectation rises faster.
For a candidate the conclusion is that the desk role is shrinking and the technical role is worth chasing, because it pays at the top of the campus band and the training is harder to find elsewhere.
Next steps
Apply to the library directly and ask whether the role includes scanning or technical work.
- Check the campus wage scale, where published rates run from $10.00 to $21.50 an hour
- Ask whether the role includes scanning, since that is the data entry task
- Work out how the hours are distributed across the week
- Confirm whether the role is work study and what the hour cap is
- Ask about study space priority and any meal or book store benefit
- Ask whether the training covers the catalogue and the scanning system
One final thought. The rates here come from published campus policies and the federal handbook, which is the best guide available before an application.
gov/understand-aid/types/work-study">Federal Student Aid work study page sets out the programme rules, including the hourly-only payment rule and the federal minimum wage floor that every work study employer must meet.
Photo: PourquoiPas, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/photos/book-read-woman-reading-glasses-841171/)
Fazlur Rahman
