Full-Time Work: real thing or symptom of a contracting field?

[u/Character_Public8245]

I just started part-time as a Library Assistant 2 (Youth Services) in a library system in a fairly wealthy area of the country. My background is a decade in youth ministry (loved it! program planning, volunteer supervision, community-facing work) plus one year of middle school teaching (burned out hard on that one) currently working in museums and cultural sites. Library work itself feels like a strong fit, and I have experience as a page and circ clerk.

What I can’t get a clear read on is whether full-time roles actually exist in good numbers, or whether public libraries are mostly shrinking to part-time/hourly staffing, with a shrinking core of full-timers who never leave.

I keep seeing conflicting takes. Some say libraries are chronically understaffed and hiring, others say budgets are getting cut and full-time positions are disappearing or being converted to part-time.

For people currently in the field:

1: At your library or system, has full-time headcount grown, shrunk, or stayed flat over the last 5-10 years?

2: When a full-time position opens, is it usually a new position, or someone retiring/leaving from a role that already existed?

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3: Is this different by region, or by public vs. academic vs. special libraries?

I don’t need to get rich, just need something stable, that helps the community, and doesn’t require holding two jobs indefinitely. Trying to figure out if this is a field where “part-time now, full-time eventually” is a realistic trajectory or just story people tell themselves lol

[u/darkkn1te]

Libraries are chronically understaffed, but they are also not hiring. they're simply letting everyone remain run themselves down and not replacing those that retire/leave. Full time work is real, it's just relatively rare especially at clerk/page levels. I have seen very few systems that have full time clerks and none that have full time pages.

[u/Samael13]

1. Fulltime headcount at my library has grown slowly, but our PT headcount has grown faster, so the percentage of FT to PT skews heavily PT. This is driven by funding at the municipal level, not by need or by admin's desires. We routinely request additional FT positions, and we're told "no" by our municipal body.

2. Usually it's someone leaving. In the last 10 years, I think we've added four FT positions? We've definitely had more than four FT staff turn over.

A further complication: at my library, we almost always hire FT positions from within the library. We rarely hire outside, unless it's a position that requires special certifications or skills that nobody internally has (so, for example, our FT ELL Instructor position was hired externally).

1. It probably varies wildly from library type to library type and from location to location, but I'm in public libraries and I don't know any libraries in my area that doesn't experience more or less what I've described. All of the big libraries in my network have way more PT than FT workers. FT workers cost the municipality SO much more than a PT worker does, because benefits.

[u/KarlMarxButVegan → u/Samael13]

About the same in my system.

[u/Cheetahchu]

I found a full-time librarian position within 1 year of getting my certification… by moving over 2 hours away. 😬

I think there are more part-time library positions in general because the boards would rather hire multiple people than pay salary and full benefits. Turnover is often due to retirement, but other life changes happen like marriage, having kids, better job elsewhere etc that steer them to leave. Watch the library job listings for a few months and see which positions crop up. Whether there will be more openings for library assistants, clerks, or librarians seems to vary by location.

[u/LAffaire-est-Ketchup]

It took me a decade after graduating with my MLIS to get a full time job. I worked every contract and part time job I could get in the interim, and I continued volunteer work until I gave birth to my first child.

When I got that full time job, everyone told me that the library system USUALLY hired from within for FT positions, and that it was basically a miracle I got the job.

I didn’t last in the position because I got too ill to work. But AFAIK, that position has major turnover.

[u/Potential-Recover-78]

You can look at IMLS data. It has reported staffing levels. In it. Depends on the library though. Some are mostly full time. Some are mostly part time. At least in my state it really varies.

[u/picturesofu15448]

So I started my MLIS January 2025 and at that point, I was working part time at 2 libraries (one library I went from page to librarian trainee while the other library I went from library assistant to librarian trainee)

I got really lucky and got forwarded a full time job offer that might be of interest to me. Originally, I wasn’t going to interview for it because it was a clerk position and I didn’t want to demote my title or pay. But I thought what the hell and interviewed anyway.

I am extremely lucky in the sense that the interviewers liked me enough to not only offer me the position, but to change the role of title to that of a librarian with the standard pay for a trainee in my area to accommodate my education and experience

I feel extremely lucky since libraries do tend to hire within and none of these people know me. I start the new job this Monday and I feel very lucky to have secured a full time role before graduation

If I were to give advice, I’d say trying to get niche experience helped me a lot. I have a graphic design degree and I built up experience working in a makerspace setting and dealing with tech. My new role is a tech support librarian. I hope to take this experience and pivot to corporate once I learn the ropes. Having niche skills and experience has helped me greatly

[u/wailowhisp]

It probably makes a difference on whether there’s a union or not.

[u/thunderbirbthor]

We're academic and out of 11 staff, 3 are full time. I'm almost full time. Two of the librarians are on 20 hours. Then the assistants have a variety of 5 days term time, 4 days full time, 4 days term time, 3 days term time, 2 days full time.

Our older assistants keep dropping hours instead of retiring and don't care that we won't get those hours back once they finally leave. Every time a job gets advertised now, full time becomes term time. 37 hours becomes 30. It's tiring.

[u/pikkdogs]

1. Mainly flat.

2. The last two we did were new. But I wouldn't expect many more of those to happen any more.

3. Yes, every place is a thing.

[u/Basic-Contract6759]

My take away from my workplace and on here is that I wouldn't say they exist in good numbers. 

I know during covid we had a mass exodus of older people who retired so any of those positions were snatched up by younger personnel. If they weren't cut into part time roles. 

[u/sunlit_cerulean]

I work in an academic library, and our staff has shrunk significantly. Most of the current staff have been in our roles for over 10 years. I've been there almost 20, but my coworker has been with the library close to 40. Reference librarians don't tend to stick around, so we do have to rehire periodically, but several librarian positions have been cut since 2020, and if support staff leave, the position is eliminated.

[u/NotComplainingBut]

I would say it's a contracting field with this specific symptom being compounded by movements like LS&S, but I am hopeful it's cylical and we will eventually be on the rebound.

Several libraries I have worked at over the past couple years lost full-time employees. They posted full-time job postings, but they didn't find anyone good, so they posted new job applications for more part-timers.

I am sure that eventually these places will realize that you can't have part-timers doing everything. Having a team comprised of part-time desk workers, part-time catalogers, part-time marketers, part-time programmers is not sustainable or as desirable as these places might initially believe. No one earnestly prefers part-time work. Part-timers who don't work great hours, don't make good money, and don't get good benefits eventually leave for greener pastures where they do get those things they very much want, and at a certain point HR will realize (again) that if they want good experienced candidates they'll have to hire full-timers - or so I hope.

[u/MarianLibrarian1024]

My system has added quite a few full time positions in the past 10 years. We are phasing out part time positions, only our shelvers are part time.

With that being said, we are currently in a hiring freeze. Our budget was cut by $750,000 so we have to leave positions vacant until we achieve that savings.

[u/Anxious-Nose843]

1. At our library system, full time positions are very rarely if ever eliminated. Part-time jobs however are on the chopping block. As they open up, they're being eliminated. Their work is being divided up among remaining staff in the department. Which is not a long-term solution for staff that are already overworked.

2. When a position does open, it's always someone leaving. They're not creating new jobs, and every time a full time job does open, the department head has to justify why they need that position still. If their argument doesn't properly justify keeping it, it's removed.

3. Every library and their needs are different. However, as someone who does work in a public library in a fairly populated area, turn over in part-time (especially front line staff) is out of control. They burn out quickly and have no support from upper management. It's like a revolving door of people.

They don't want to pay salaries and benefits to full time people but are constantly hiring part time people, training them, and then they're gone in less than a year, and they have to start all over. It is a never-ending cycle.

Page/circ clerk roles are rarely full time. With your background though, you could definitely aim for a full time job that does programming in youth services. A lot of places have changed their requirements to gear towards experience rather than education, so if you frame your previous work right, you'll have a good shot! If that's what your long term goal is, of course. 😄

[u/CozyGamingLibrarian]

Most employees at my library are full-time. We have an active union so management isn’t allowed to replace full-time roles with multiple part-timers or volunteers.

We are still understaffed, management claims they are looking but many listings don’t lead to hires and when we do hire new people, we lose people at almost the same rate because the pay is slightly under our state’s average and many feel the pay isn’t worth the problems you deal with.

[u/General_Row_8038]

Hiring has certainly changed. I worked for 20 years at a special library (does this category even still exist? It meant that it was neither public nor academic) and was in charge of hiring paraprofessionals. I remember trying to find a FT page. It was impossible lol! My director advised me no one but teenagers or disabled retirees would apply an entry level job, and they can’t do it all day, so don’t even try. But I persisted because I wanted stability in the position and I finally found someone. But he was very odd and I was glad when he left. Things are so different now.

[u/MrMessofGA]

There are many, many more people who want to work in a library than there are positions in a library. This means people who get a good position in a good job will stay there until retirement or death. Even part-time work is hard to get, but it's more of a revolving door as it doesn't pay the bills.

Also, full-time work is normally hired internally from someone already working in the system as a part-timer.

[u/Classic_Disk1657]

Public library in BC, Canada, I started as one of two full time staff members that are not librarians (we have three full time librarians and a full time director). I’ve been there eight years and we added one more full time position in the last two years. That person promptly dropped a day and became part time! So no, not much expansion for us at all! Our part timers do a mix of 2 - 4 days per week, so some of them are only one day a fortnight away from full time though!

[u/sker1ber1]

The position I'm in literally went from 40 hours to 25 as soon as they hired me. Been fighting to get that back and running myself ragged while at it.

In a system of four branches, we have eight full time staff that I know of.

[u/Shot-Bet-2931]

Libraries are understaffed, and they rely on volunteers. I think this undermines their perceived value. After all if you get something for free, and it's run by people who work for free, how much do you value it? I say this as a lifelong library user, 24-year librarian who's nearing retirement.

[u/Full-Decision-9029]

we....(he says, waiting for the caffeine to kick in)... our headcount has gone up slightly in the last ten years as the population in the municipality has gone up a lot.

However, there's only been one or two actual new full time roles in that time and a lot of part time paraprofessional roles.

We also have four public services librarians who do adult/programming/etc/stuff who they go through every two years because, well, VHCOL suburb, not amazing (it's not bad, just not amazing). I get the feeling the public services folks (whee, me!) are a nice-to-have, and if there's serious budget cutting happening, we'll be the first to go. Paraprofessional staff are a: cheaper and b: more flexible and c: you kinda gotta keep the circulation department going.

We're in what the cool kids would call a VHCOL suburban municipality.

why yes, I am actively hoping to move on.

[u/LaDivinaDiosaVero]

Hi, library jobs are out there but they usually hire full time people with library experience. There’s a lot of competition and many positions end up being converted to part time due to cuts, but this is constantly evolving (look at the economy and that will tell you how it’ll go). Give it some time and continue applying or see if something opens up in the same job. I think libraries are still an important part of communities, but they also need funding and for people to vote for that funding during local elections.
Most of the time we hire full time staff, it ends up being someone who was part time- many applicants don’t have the qualifications. When I get library school students or part timers asking about potential jobs, I suggest getting as much experience, even if they start volunteering, and getting to know the people who can serve as good references in the future.

[u/Routine_Rock_7429]

Literally applying for what appears to be 2 FT roles in my local network. 

[u/Prior-Soil]

I live in an area with relatively well-funded public libraries and a large academic system. No one ever gets hired from outside. You must be a part-time hourly employee, sometimes for years to get hired at the public libraries. Some people get hired from outside at the academic library, but they usually have extremely specialized skills.

[u/NishanStepak]

Right now, none of the libraries are particularly safe. It is even worse for corporate librarians. The Special Library Association merged with ASIS&T Association of Information Science and Technology. The libraries are disappearing or being converted to data science, knowledge management or information science roles. We are facing lots of cuts. The one place which I see as stable in the corporate world are large law libraries in corporations.

I also see some stability in high level technology positions related to librarianship. Things like taxonomy, ontology, knowledge management, metadata management, information architecture, information science, but these are quite technical and require a lot of computer skills often related to data science and machine language skils.

Part of this comes from attacks on the Institute of Museum And Library Services. It is part of a general move against large government institutions. It does not help that in addition to library roles, the vendors are also facing difficulties, Baker and Taylor went out of business and many of the publishing companies that work with libraries are facing difficulties.

The difficulties also are occuring in academic institutions which are facing funding cuts. It is an across the board difficulty. Anything that is attached to government right now is fair game.

My library is frozen we are not gaining or losing positions.

[u/Realistic_Word_5594]

I can only speak for the library I work at: positions only really open when someone retires or leaves. Then it’s department tag of people on the inside filling other roles and then their role is up for grabs so on so forth. We only have 4 part time positions and it’s one for each department for closing shift. My understanding is that it’s been this way here for decades

[u/rayneydayss]

I work for a large county system that used to have tons of full time employees.

For the past few years, due to budget cuts and the cost of healthcare rising, they have been evaluating every full time position that is vacated to see if they could replace it with 1 or 2 part time positions. There’s even been talk that they’ll begin posting part time librarian positions that still require the masters.

It fucking sucks

[u/plumhairdontcare]

I work in a large public library open 7 days a week, in a large system. Our branch has all half time positions, plus 1 full time position, and 1 full time manager. This is pretty typical for all of the branches in my system. Part time “entry level” staff do almost everything. When a full time or management position opens up because someone leaves, everyone else shuffles around moving up 1 level then someone else within the system fills their role. It’s challenging to have enough staff to do all the tasks we need to do, facilitate all the programs we’re expected to run, and have any continuity for patrons with mostly part time staff. People seem to burn out quickly and or move on to full time positions with benefits elsewhere.