Top 12 Library Technician Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the evolving landscape of library services, a sharp, true-to-you resume that shows your distinct library technician skills can tilt the odds your way. A nimble blend of technical know-how, patron care, and practical organization carries weight. That mix helps you thrive on the desk, behind the scenes, and anywhere your catalog leads.
Library Technician Skills
- Cataloging
- Dewey Decimal
- MARC21
- LibraryWorld
- Research
- Customer Service
- Digital Archiving
- Information Literacy
- Interlibrary Loan
- Bibliographic Instruction
- Collection Development
- RFID Technology
1. Cataloging
Cataloging is the craft of building precise, consistent records for books, media, and all the odds and ends that live in a library. You describe, classify, and encode. You make items findable, and that means usable.
Why It's Important
Accurate cataloging powers discovery. Patrons get what they need quickly, staff work faster, and the collection’s value is unlocked instead of buried.
How to Improve Cataloging Skills
Sharper records, fewer headaches, happier users. Try this:
Stay current: Track updates to cataloging rules and local practices. RDA, subject headings, authority control—keep them fresh.
Use the right tools: Connexion, MarcEdit, or your ILS editor can speed cleanup, batch changes, and validation.
Quality checks: Peer review tricky records. Create quick checklists for common formats and languages.
Authority work: Maintain consistent names, series, and subjects. Clean authority control pays dividends later.
Patron-first thinking: Add summaries, contents notes, and local notes that actually help people decide if an item fits their need.
Document local decisions: A slim local cataloging manual reduces drift and speeds onboarding.
Commit to clarity, consistency, and small continuous improvements. The catalog becomes a map, not a maze.
How to Display Cataloging Skills on Your Resume
2. Dewey Decimal
The Dewey Decimal Classification arranges knowledge into numbered neighborhoods so materials sit where patrons expect—and where staff can find them fast.
Why It's Important
Dewey brings order. Browsing gets easier, shelving stays consistent, and locating a title becomes habit, not a hunt.
How to Improve Dewey Decimal Skills
Keep up with revisions: Apply updates so subjects land in the right spots.
Train and retrain: Short refreshers for staff keep call numbers consistent at intake and during shifting.
Tune for your community: Add local cutters or signage where your users struggle—cookbooks, language learning, test prep.
Audit the shelves: Spot-check misfiles and edge cases. Fix trends, not just one-offs.
Clear signage: Big, plain labels and shelf guides reduce “where is” questions instantly.
Leverage your ILS: Batch edits and spine label tools keep physical and digital in lockstep.
How to Display Dewey Decimal Skills on Your Resume
3. MARC21
MARC 21 is the shared language for bibliographic, authority, and holdings data. Structured fields, predictable tags, easy exchange between systems.
Why It's Important
Standardized records travel well. They import, export, and interoperate—so your work scales beyond one catalog.
How to Improve MARC21 Skills
Master the fields that matter: Titles, statements of responsibility, publication, physical description, subjects, and notes. Know the common traps.
Validate: Run record checks and fix indicators, subfields, and punctuation before they spread.
Batch smarter: Use tools to merge, split, and normalize data in bulk without mangling it.
Authority alignment: Link headings to authority records and resolve conflicts quickly.
Document local practices: Record exceptions so future you doesn’t have to guess.
How to Display MARC21 Skills on Your Resume
4. LibraryWorld
LibraryWorld is a cloud-based library system for cataloging, circulation, inventory, and patron management—no local servers, just a browser and your workflow.
Why It's Important
It streamlines daily tasks, keeps data centralized, and reduces technical overhead, which frees time for service and collection work.
How to Improve LibraryWorld Skills
Refine records: Standardize item types, locations, and statuses. Clean data makes every other feature better.
Customize views: Tailor search facets, displays, and labels so patrons see what helps them decide fast.
Build quick guides: Short, visual tips for staff and patrons cut errors and repeat questions.
Collect feedback: Offer a simple form for pain points and wish lists. Fix small snags quickly.
Integrate your stack: Coordinate with calendars, e-resources, and reporting tools. One ecosystem, fewer clicks.
Stay updated: Review release notes and schedule brief feature demos with staff.
How to Display LibraryWorld Skills on Your Resume
5. Research
Research means finding, judging, and organizing information to answer questions or unearth new ones. In a library, it’s helping people navigate sources with clarity and speed.
Why It's Important
Strong research support turns scattered queries into reliable results. Patrons remember that. They come back.
How to Improve Research Skills
Search craft: Use advanced operators, subject headings, and citation chasing. Teach shortcuts; apply them yourself.
Toolbelt: Know the major databases, e-book platforms, and discovery layers your users actually touch.
Subject depth: Pick a few high-demand areas—health, local history, small business—and build go-to pathfinders.
Source evaluation: Model credibility checks, bias spotting, and date relevance. Fast, practical, repeatable.
Track answers: Save successful strategies and sources in a shared guide for the team.
How to Display Research Skills on Your Resume
6. Customer Service
Customer service for library technicians is direct, patient help—on the phone, at the desk, online. It’s problem-solving with a human touch.
Why It's Important
Great service builds trust. Trust builds return visits, program attendance, and community goodwill.
How to Improve Customer Service Skills
Active listening: Let patrons finish. Paraphrase their need. Confirm before you act.
Plain language: Ditch jargon. Show, then summarize steps they can repeat.
Friction fixes: Track the top five recurring issues and remove a barrier each month—signage, forms, instructions.
Feedback loops: Offer quick satisfaction prompts and actually adjust processes in response.
Inclusive practice: Accessible spaces, multiple formats, flexible communication options. Everyone gets in the door.
How to Display Customer Service Skills on Your Resume
7. Digital Archiving
Digital archiving preserves files—documents, images, audio, video—so they remain usable and trustworthy years from now. Think formats, metadata, storage, and checksums.
Why It's Important
Bits decay, platforms change, people move on. Good practices keep memory intact and accessible despite all that churn.
How to Improve Digital Archiving Skills
Metadata discipline: Use consistent schemas like Dublin Core or METS. Capture provenance, rights, and technical details.
Preservation planning: Follow an OAIS-informed approach. Define ingest, storage, monitoring, and retrieval clearly.
Format choices: Prefer open, well-documented formats (for example, PDF/A, TIFF, WAV) when feasible.
Storage strategy: Redundancy over hope—3 copies, 2 media types, 1 offsite. Test restores periodically.
Document workflows: From digitization to access, write it down. Update when tools or staffing change.
How to Display Digital Archiving Skills on Your Resume
8. Information Literacy
Information literacy is the ability to find, judge, and use information with purpose. In practice, it’s teaching people to navigate abundance without getting lost.
Why It's Important
It empowers patrons to ask sharper questions and pick better sources. That independence turns one-off help into lasting skill.
How to Improve Information Literacy Skills
Teach in small bites: Short workshops, quick videos, one-page guides. Focus on what patrons can use today.
Embed in context: Tie concepts to real tasks—grant searches, job applications, school projects.
Assess and adapt: Use brief check-ins or exit tickets to see what stuck and what needs a new approach.
Model critical thinking: Source credibility, bias, and timeliness—show how you evaluate, step by step.
Know your tools: Discovery layers, databases, citation managers. Confidence is contagious.
How to Display Information Literacy Skills on Your Resume
9. Interlibrary Loan
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) lets libraries borrow and lend across institutions, widening access far beyond local shelves.
Why It's Important
ILL fills gaps. Patrons get niche materials, older editions, and rare items without delay or dead ends.
How to Improve Interlibrary Loan Skills
Smooth requests: Use request templates, required fields, and clear routing to cut back-and-forth.
Transparent policies: Publish turnaround times, loan limits, and fees. Set expectations; reduce complaints.
Tool proficiency: Get comfortable with your ILL platform (for example, WorldShare, RapidILL, or Relais). Speed comes with familiarity.
Vendor and partner rapport: Keep lines open with frequent lenders and borrowers. Courtesy speeds fulfillment.
Measure and tweak: Track fill rates, turnaround, unfilled reasons. Fix bottlenecks you can control.
How to Display Interlibrary Loan Skills on Your Resume
10. Bibliographic Instruction
Bibliographic instruction teaches people how to search catalogs, databases, and beyond—so they can find, evaluate, and use information with confidence.
Why It's Important
It turns curious visitors into capable researchers. That competency compounds over time, for them and for your library.
How to Improve Bibliographic Instruction Skills
Make it interactive: Live searches, quick polls, mini-challenges. Participation beats passive listening.
Tailor by audience: First-year students, job seekers, local historians—each needs a different on-ramp.
Scaffold: Start with discovery basics, then layer in subject headings, filters, and advanced strategies.
Offer takeaways: Handouts, screenshots, short videos. Let users revisit steps later.
Request feedback: Short post-session questions reveal what to refine next time.
How to Display Bibliographic Instruction Skills on Your Resume
11. Collection Development
Collection development is the selective, ongoing work of choosing, evaluating, and managing materials so the collection fits your community now—and stays relevant tomorrow.
Why It's Important
A living collection meets real needs. It reflects the community, invites discovery, and retires what no longer serves.
How to Improve Collection Development Skills
Know your users: Quick surveys, circulation patterns, holds lists, program tie-ins. Let data steer choices.
Audit regularly: Identify gaps, duplicates, worn items, and outdated content. Weed with purpose.
Diversify voices: Intentionally include perspectives across identities, geographies, and experiences.
Policy clarity: A concise selection and reconsideration policy protects decisions and ensures fairness.
Leverage your ILS: Use collection analytics for turnover, age, and demand. Act on the numbers.
Share resources: Consider consortia, standing orders, and digital packages to stretch budgets.
Request input: Patron and staff suggestions often surface the next must-have areas.
How to Display Collection Development Skills on Your Resume
12. RFID Technology
RFID uses radio waves to identify tagged items automatically. In libraries, that means quick checkouts, speedy returns, and painless inventory sweeps.
Why It's Important
It trims lines, cuts manual work, and strengthens security. Staff get time back; patrons get flow.
How to Improve RFID Technology Skills
Tag strategy: Use reliable tags, place them consistently, and test read ranges in your actual space.
Reader tuning: Adjust antenna placement and power to reduce dead zones and misreads.
Software alignment: Ensure your RFID and ILS settings match for statuses, blocks, and permissions.
Security and privacy: Enable encryption where supported, and define clear policies for handling tag data.
Routine maintenance: Schedule audits of gates, pads, and tags. Replace weak links before they break.
Staff practice: Short refreshers on exception handling—multi-item reads, tag failures, and offline modes.
How to Display RFID Technology Skills on Your Resume
