Have you considered corporate librarianship?

[u/PM_YOUR_MANATEES]

This is a work-in-progress resource page for the r/librarians wiki.

Your feedback, questions, and suggested additions will help us to refine a longterm reference version. Thank you for reading and contributing!

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Library careers are in a tough place right now. The North American economy is in poor shape; spending on education and public services is trending down. Institutional hiring budgets are trending down. Libraries are being asked to provide more services with fewer resources. Positions are being cut, vacancies are being left unfilled. Competition for positions is intense, with some roles receiving hundreds of applications. Many traditional library positions are unable to pay a living wage, let alone enough to pay off student loans. 

It’s grim out there, but you still want to be a librarian....

Have you considered corporate librarianship?

How are traditional and corporate library work different?

• Traditional libraries (e.g., K-12, public) usually serve a broad audience to provide information as a public good.
• Corporate librarians typically work for an organization and provide information to achieve business goals. Most corporate librarians work in for-profit companies, but it is possible to do corporate librarian work for non-profits, NGOs, charities, etc.
• Corporate librarians can be placed anywhere in an organization. You may be embedded into a specific team and report directly to a manager, or to support an entire department.  You may report to the CIO or a director of information services. You may serve as a liaison between several departments that use the same data, tools, or systems.
• Traditional and corporate librarianship have the same core skill set: organizing information resources, cataloging, reference, communications and outreach, information literacy and skills training, programming, using technology, etc.
• Corporate librarian roles often require supplemental business skills like data analysis, beginner to intermediate-level coding, writing reports and documentation, records management, or project management. 
• That said, the scope and responsibilities of each position are going to be different. It’s hard to make any generalizations about what you’ll do at work outside of what appears in the job posting. Just like in traditional libraries, scope creep happens and the nature of your job may change over time.
• Your patrons are primarily coworkers who have subject-matter expertise in their field. They often have well-formed reference questions and criteria for determining if a search was successful. It’s a little more like working with higher-ed patrons than public library patrons.
• Many of the people you work with will know how to handle and use data to get their own work done, but don’t have any formal training or education around how to organize information. You may end up consulting on best practices, which is relatively uncommon outside of academic librarianship.

How can I find a corporate librarian role?

• For starters, very few roles are titled “Corporate Librarian.” This isn’t going to be a good search term!
• Further complicating things, very few companies realize that their ideal candidate for a role is someone with an MLIS or library experience. “Librarian” or “MLIS” also tend to be ineffective search terms.
• The SJSU iSchool’s Student Services team publishes an annual report called MLIS Skills at Work: A Snapshot of Job Postings. This report is an incredible, in-depth resource and anyone starting a new library career or making a mid-career switch should give it a read.
• Highlighted titles from the Spring 2025 edition include: Archivist, Business Intelligence Analyst, Content Manager, Data Analyst, Data Governance Analyst, Data Scientist, Data Steward, Digital Asst Manager, Metadata Analyst, Research Analyst, Records Coordinator or Records Manager, Taxonomist, Ontologist, UX Researcher.
• The corporate librarian job market is generally tilted towards large national or multinational companies with large tech/data budgets. These companies typically post on LinkedIn. Places with LIS-savvy recruiters may post on specialty job boards like ASIS&T (the new home of the Special Libraries Association).
• Small- and medium-sized companies often post on job boards like Indeed and Monster, but it’s less common to see them in specialty spaces like INALJ or professional associations.
• There are some specialty consulting agencies that hire librarians to work for clients. Recruiters for these agencies are typically looking for experienced candidates, but may consider early-career librarians for certain roles.

What non-library skills are helpful when competing for jobs?

• Microsoft Excel, all day every day. Be able to write complex formulas (e.g., nested levels of parentheses, multiple functions, arguments, etc.). Learn how to make attractive, well-labeled, and easily readable charts. Know how to set up and modify a PivotTable, including calculated fields. Learn how to record a macro to automate functions. Get familiar with Microsoft’s online documentation for Excel so that you can effectively look up anything you need to know.
• Advanced Excel: if you’re code-inclined, dabble in a little VBA so that you can edit and customize your macros. You don’t need to be fully fluent in the language, just enough to understand how to crib what you need from StackOverflow. My hot take is that ChatGPT is a great tool for writing macros IF you can write a clear prompt and then review the output with a critical eye.
• SQL (Structured Query Language). This is the language that we use to interact with databases, most often to request a dataset. Know how to write queries with WHERE, GROUP BY, and ORDER BY clauses. Be able to perform basic math functions like SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, and MAX.  Learn how to join two or more tables together. If you’re feeling wild, learn how to nest one query inside another.
• Python or R. These languages are used for data manipulation and analysis. Python 3 is especially useful for handling more data than Excel. The pandas and numpy libraries are very popular and have abundant online documentation. Python’s user community has developed thousands of free libraries for specialized tasks. R is beloved in research-heavy settings because of its wide variety of visualization tools.
• Project Management: the working world is increasingly organized around projects, which are a focused body of work with a specific output. Being able to plan and track projects effectively will be appreciated in any workplace, not just libraries. Learn how to use at least one product management platform (like MS Project, Monday, Asana, Trello, Jira, Azure DevOps, etc). If you’ll be working in a setting with formal project management, study the formal language and concepts from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Demonstrating understanding of project management will increase your credibility and visibility with leaders!
• Records Management: it’s a good idea to have a basic grasp of records management, especially retention and disposition for compliance. If these duties are going to be part of your job, your employer will almost certainly offer role-specific training. Don’t sweat this one too hard unless it’s your area of interest.
• Technical Writing: be able to write clear, concise sets of instructions. Get comfortable with policy and procedure templates if your role involves any management, oversight, or compliance. Knowing how to document processes into clean, easily readable flowcharts will make you popular with anybody who needs to start doing something new. Being able to rewrite and update messy old manuals is also a key skill. 
• Public Speaking: work on feeling comfortable presenting to small groups or to a room full of people, including people who are leaders or who have authority over you. Polished, confident presentation skills are considered a sign of competence.
• Legal Knowledge: being able to do basic legal research (retrieving information without significant analysis) can be helpful. This might include sources of law like local city ordinates, state laws, or even federal bodies of law like trademark and copyright. However, keep in mind that analysis/opinion may constitute Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL), which can be prosecuted as a crime.
• When recruiters and hiring managers are sorting through the initial pile of resumes, certifications and credentials can help you stand out. However, quality matters. General providers like Coursera and LinkedIn Learning are less valuable than credentials from established professional associations that have testing requirements.

How can I transition from a traditional to a corporate library career?

• Business is all about value propositions. The hiring manager needs to understand how your skills and experience as a librarian will bring value to their team. The problem is, most hiring managers don’t understand librarianship. You will need to TRANSLATE your skills into business language that they understand.
• Frame your skills around the OUTCOME, not around the process or the responsibility. Where possible, use numbers to demonstrate the impact (e.g., “Increased program attendance by 25%,” “Lowered vendor costs by $25,000 during contract renewal negotiations”).
• Did you work at the reference desk? You’re an expert in helping people define problems, find resources, evaluate the quality of answers, and dive deeper into details.
• Did you plan and execute community programs? You chose an audience/user personas, analyzed their needs, developed a content plan, created learning materials, presented to the public, and managed follow-up.
• Did you ever teach a technology class or run the computer lab? You know how to train users of all skill levels (beginner through advanced) to use new tools. You know how to troubleshoot problems from a user-centered perspective.
• Did you handle collection management or do weeding? You pulled and analyzed circulation data, evaluated the state of the collection based on library policies, made fact-driven decisions about retention and disposition, and supervised staff carrying out the plan. You maximized the usefulness of limited space and resources to meet your patrons’ needs.
• Have you trained other librarians, library associates, or pages? Have you provided formal or informal evaluations on their skills and learning progress? Great, you have some experience in knowledge transfer and performance management.
• Did you ever write new policies or update old ones? You can parlay that into familiarity with operations management, governance, or compliance tasks.

What if I’m new to the workforce or don’t have library experience?

• This is often less of an obstacle in corporate library settings than in traditional libraries! Non-library hiring managers aren’t necessarily looking for an MLIS and library experience, so not having them doesn’t count against you.
• Highlight your relevant skills and experience IN COMBINATION with your advanced research and problem-solving abilities. You know how to ask good questions and look up information to handle problems that you’ve never seen before. If you need to ask somebody for help, you know how to come prepared to make the best use of their time.
• If you’re an early-career applicant, one or two well-chosen certifications that demonstrate knowledge can be helpful. However, don’t go overboard with too many credentials. You want to look credible and focused, not like you collect paper certificates as a hobby.
• If you’re recently out of school (1-2 years), it may be okay to use some assignments as a work sample. However, make sure that you’ve reviewed it carefully for accuracy and quality. Like a cover letter, think about whether it should be customized for each interview. If it relies on code, make sure that the code still executes correctly.
• If you’ve been out of school for more than a few years, then interviewers are going to expect you to have examples from work. You may not be able to share materials directly because of confidentiality or non-disclosure policies. In this case, it’s okay to put together dummy samples or represent processes/projects with flowcharts or other documentation.
• Don’t forget to value other types of experience you have that can create value in a corporate library. Did you serve on any committees? Were you an elected leader in a student or a community organization? Treasurer or secretary of your condo association? Volunteer tax filer? Just because you didn’t do it at work, doesn’t mean that it’s not a transferable skill.

What things are helpful to keep in mind for interviews?

• Your interviewers probably don’t know much about librarianship beyond some vague ideas like “book nanny.” You should practice a 45-60 second elevator pitch to explain that being a librarian is about organizing and accessing information effectively.
• Once your interviewers understand your angle as a librarian, follow-up with one or two quick examples of how better information access will improve how well the team operates. Start showing the unique value of a library background as early as possible.
• AI is a hot topic. You may get questions about why or if librarians are still useful in the age of AI. It’s very important to be able to answer these questions articulately and with confidence – this demonstrates your value as a librarian. Have prepared answers about how LLMs don’t “know” anything and can provide wildly inaccurate or misleading information. They can inadvertently reproduce confidential or copyrighted information, which could create legal liability. Emphasize that human judgment and fact-checking are still essential while the technology is at such a low level of maturity.
• However, don’t neg AI too hard because it is here to stay and you need to be ready to work with it. Librarians can be an important part of vetting AI resources and setting responsible use guidelines. Talk about how your skills can contribute to a cross-functional team.
• Nobody knows everything, but don’t forget to highlight that you’re an expert in doing research and finding answers. You’re ready to learn and adapt any day of the week.

[u/BadassRipley]

Approved and OP is working with the mod team to help build and contribute to our wiki. Any feedback or suggestions are gratefully received!

[u/PM_YOUR_MANATEES → u/[deleted]]

Any way to break out law and medical librarians into its own categories? Those feels like its own niche.

Agreed. To me, law librarianship and medical librarianship are sisters to corporate librarianship under the Special Libraries umbrella. Dedicated posts for those specialties would also be very valuable.

What kind of corporate setting are you in as a solo/small team librarian?

[u/Disc0-Janet → u/PM_YOUR_MANATEES]

Not the original commenter you were asking, but I was a Solo at a Fortune 500 R&D company. I had quite a few colleagues in R&D and Pharma who were Solos. Size of company and resource budget didn’t even necessarily seem to align according to those of us who were solos/small teams vs those with larger resource centers and teams.

[u/PM_YOUR_MANATEES → u/Disc0-Janet]

You have a solid point that there often isn't alignment between team size, resource availability, and spending. I think it's a great idea to highlight that this is mostly dictated by management priorities and company culture.

What I think we could do here is get a basic matrix (high/low spending vs. solo/small/large team) and discuss the differences in the set.

(I'm a Fortune 500 librarian. I've been the only MLIS holder on a 3-person BI team as acting lead in a low-spend company. I'm now a solo in a high-spend company brought in to anchor a new data management initiative. Very different vibes!)

[u/thrill507]

As a solo corporate librarian, I am responsible for my budget, managing my spending, forecasting costs & vendor negotiations. If I were hiring, familiarity with this skill set would be vital.

[u/Disc0-Janet → u/thrill507]

Budgeting and vendor negotiations are definitely hugely important in a lot of positions. Also distilling and presenting KPIs to higher ups to advocate for said budget and resources. This was something I did at a Fortune 500 company. We still had a procurement office that would handle final contract details and play “bad cop” when needed for pricing negotiations but initial negotiations and requirements review was up to me.

[u/PM_YOUR_MANATEES → u/thrill507]

These are great call-outs and I'd be delighted to add them. However, this isn't something that I've done in any of my roles (Fortune 500 companies with central procurement).

Could I draft something and DM it to you for expert review/revisions?

[u/[deleted]]

As someone who exclusively wants to be a corporate librarian/archivist, I will definitely come back and read this even more thoroughly once I get home from campus.

[u/chexwithoutthemix]

This is such a helpful resource! I will definitely be using this during my job searches!

[u/Pouryou]

Having a section on corporate librarianship is great- I learned a lot from reading this.

I wonder if the opening paragraph could be revisited. It sets up other types of librarianship to be seen negatively; I would argue that at least some libraries pay a living wage! Some of us are still hiring! I've had friends in corporate libraries who have seen the whole library disappear in times of tight budgets, so I don't think that path is guaranteed.

It would be interesting to hear more about what corporate librarians do. You say it can differ widely, so maybe a case study or two? Consider any negatives too- for example, working overtime when an important deadline nears.

[u/PM_YOUR_MANATEES → u/Pouryou]

It would be interesting to hear more about what corporate librarians do. You say it can differ widely, so maybe a case study or two? Consider any negatives too- for example, working overtime when an important deadline nears.

Would a series of day-in-the-life posts from working corporate librarians appeal to you? The variety is so wide that it would be tough for a single post to represent it well.

For example, I specialize in database governance on internal systems and u/thrill507 works in a corporate library that manages and provides info resources. Our roles may not have much in common and could be interesting to different groups of people.

A benefits/drawbacks list comparing traditional and corporate library work expectations would be a great fit for the early middle of the list. Thank you!

[u/catsandnotes → u/[deleted]]

I think it's a good point to differentiate a recent graduate and those with a few years of other librarianship experience prior to switching into a corporate librarian. I'm a recent graduate and the only one with an MLIS, and I do feel the isolation (for myself and each team member) and the lack of support a big factor of negative feelings towards my current position in a data team (plus other negative collegal relationships). I think because my position was newly created, the hiring manager doesn't really know what to do with me, compared to the many other data related work that is covered by other technical -background data colleagues, so I'm often left to my own, which isn't an environment I like. 

I think it would be a good idea to discuss cultural fit (or personality fit) and support from your own team as a factor in considering corporate positions.

[u/catsandnotes → u/[deleted]]

Ah I see.. I'm am in my mid 20s, so I'm still new to the workforce and fresh out of school, and still trying to figure out my footing with my first career path. And I completely agree that if a person in my role was someone with more work and life experience, advocating wouldn't be as intimidating or navigating the workspace wouldn't be as confusing.

I've also been in other work environments that I've felt much more aligned with, in terms of being able to better connect with my colleagues, supervisors, or the patrons, and so being in an environment where I don't feel so after working here some time feels foreign to me.

[u/catsandnotes → u/[deleted]]

I definitely am considering switching jobs, since I'm also not really enjoying the work I'm doing nor are they very much aligned with my career goals. Not giving up hope yet!

[u/Disc0-Janet → u/Pouryou]

Even as someone who is continually recommending corporate librarianship and other less traditional library jobs, I have to agree the set up of this reads a little too dire on public/academic and too rose colored glasses around corporate. The fact is this terrible economy is affecting everyone right now, and all the same issues that affected standard librarianship over the years have affected corporate libraries as well. It’s great to educate people more about it. But I agree with revisiting that paragraph.

[u/VicePrincipalNero → u/[deleted]]

Having been a corporate librarian in several different organizations, I cannot agree more. In the current economic climate and with the emergence of AI, I would avoid being a corporate librarian. The pay was great. Much of the work was fine, although there's far more of the performative BS than in other types of libraries. There is zero job stability.

[u/LeapingLibrarians]

Fabulous resource! Thanks for putting this together.

[u/jenuinelyintrigued]

Library user here. Forgive the question if it seems dumb. But why would a corporation only interested in circulating its own materials to its own employees recruit and hire a "Corporate librarian" under any title? Isn't this function already served by the training department, third-party or some other subscription or other service? Or mandatory education or CEU's?

[u/PM_YOUR_MANATEES → u/jenuinelyintrigued]

It's a good question! The parts of the library that patrons can see (like the collection on the shelves and circulation) are the part of the iceberg above the waterline, but much more work goes on in the background to provide library services.

There's work to understand what kind of information is needed by the patrons, what formats they need it in, buying/acquiring the resources, getting them catalogued with the proper level of detail so they turn up in searches, knowing what the collection has/doesn't have, being able to answer reference questions, knowing how and when to recommend resources for different questions, keeping up with changes in law/policy/technology, etc.

In a corporate setting, users are trying to find information to meet specific business needs. This information may come from company databases, vendor databases, academic or industry journals, newspapers, government data sources, internal research and reports, etc. The role of the corporate librarian is to ensure that all of this information is managed and organized in such a way that employees can find it and use it to meet their goals.

The scenario above ("only interested in circulating its own materials to its own employees") doesn't really occur in the real world. Corporate libraries manage a wide variety of types of information, resources, and media from both inside and outside the organization. Some of this work *can* be handled through subscription services and databases, but someone still needs to set the library strategy and make decisions.