Libraries, Archives & Information

Librarians, archivists, conservators, and information organizers who help people find and trust knowledge.

Top pay: highest pay, longest training

• Library Director / Dean of Libraries: Leads a public library system or university library, with its staff, buildings, budget, and community programs. Typical pay $125k.

Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship

• Law Librarian: Research expert at a law firm, court, or law school who finds cases, statutes, and legal information fast. Typical pay $85k.
• School Librarian / Library Media Specialist: Runs a school library and teaches students research skills, media literacy, and a love of reading. Typical pay $64k.
• Public Librarian: Helps the public find information, books, and services, and runs community programs. Typical pay $64k.
• Children's / Teen Librarian: Runs story times, summer reading programs, and teen spaces at public libraries. Typical pay $60k.
• Archivist: Preserves and organizes historical documents, photos, recordings, and digital files so people can use them. Typical pay $62k.
• Medical / Health Sciences Librarian: Helps doctors, nurses, and researchers find the latest medical research. Typical pay $75k.
• Metadata Librarian / Taxonomist: Designs the labels and categories that make information findable, in libraries or at tech companies. Typical pay $72k.
• Digital Asset Manager: Organizes a company's or museum's huge libraries of photos, videos, and digital files. Typical pay $78k.
• Book & Paper Conservator: Repairs and preserves fragile old books, maps, and documents using careful hand techniques and chemistry. Typical pay $60k.
• Research Data Librarian: Helps university researchers manage, share, and preserve their data sets. Typical pay $75k.
• Correctional Facility Librarian: Runs the library inside a prison or jail, providing books, legal research materials, and education support. Typical pay $62k.
• Professional Genealogist: Researches family trees and, in forensic genealogy, uses DNA databases to identify unknown people or solve cold cases. Typical pay $55k.
• Audiovisual & Multimedia Collections Specialist: Preserves and organizes collections of film, audio, photos, and video at libraries, museums, and media companies. Typical pay $57k.
• Library Systems Librarian: Runs the technology behind a library: the catalog, e-book platforms, and public computers. Typical pay $72k.

Starter: fastest way in

• Library Technician: Helps run library services: checking out materials, processing new books, and helping patrons. Typical pay $40k.
• Library Page / Shelver: Shelves books and keeps the library organized, often a first job for teens. Typical pay $30k.
• Bookmobile / Outreach Library Associate: Drives a library on wheels to rural areas, nursing homes, and neighborhoods without a branch. Typical pay $40k.
• Children's Library Associate: Runs storytimes and kids' programs and helps families find books at a public library. Typical pay $38k.
• Interlibrary Loan Specialist: Borrows books and articles from other libraries around the world for patrons who need them. Typical pay $42k.
• Children's Book Reviewer: Reads and reviews new picture books and young adult novels for magazines that librarians and teachers use to decide what to buy. Typical pay $50k.
• Accessible Educational Materials Specialist: Turns textbooks, worksheets and tests into braille, audio, large print and screen-reader-friendly files for students with disabilities. Typical pay $52k.

Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.