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Library technicians

Also called Library tech, Library assistant, Circulation technician, Technical services technician, Library paraprofessional

In brief

In May 2025, BLS counted 68,690 US library technicians, with median pay of $44,580 a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the highest was 76,670, in May 2023. The earliest figure here is an estimate of 65,000 from 1969, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for library technicians: RFID + library self-checkout, 2001 to 2015. Self-checkout rollout shifted circulation desk staffing ratios downward at libraries that adopted it broadly.

What the sources say

Official outlook

BLS projects employment to decline 6.4% from 2025 to 2035.

BLS Employment Projections 2025-35

AI exposure studies

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend.

Last updated .

Cite this page
APA

Future History. (2026, October 11). Library technicians: jobs and pay since 1969 [Data set; data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35]. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-4031

Chicago

Future History. "Library technicians: jobs and pay since 1969." Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. Last modified October 11, 2026. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-4031.

BibTeX

@misc{futurehistory_25_4031, author = {{Future History}}, title = {Library technicians: jobs and pay since 1969}, year = {2026}, month = oct, howpublished = {\url{https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-4031}}, note = {Last updated 2026-10-11. Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35}, }

The access date is today's date on your device.

drag to travel through time
1925195019752000now
2026
Known then as Library Assistant / Sub-professional (post-Williamson Report era)
Known then as Library Technician (GS-1411 federal classification era)
Known then as Library Technician / Library Paraprofessional (LEPU policy era)
Known then as Library Technician / Library Para-professional (ILS automation era)
Known then as Library Technicians (BLS SOC 25-4031)
Known today as Library Technicians (BLS SOC 25-4031)
Projected to still be called Library Technicians (BLS SOC 25-4031)
Data from the May 2025 survey
US Employment
69K
Est.

Stated in source: BLS OEWS

Official statistic
Report an error
Median Annual Wage
$44,580

≈ $43,437 in 2024 prices (derived by us, CPI-adjusted)

Official statistic
Report an error
Beat · 1923

Charles C. Williamson submits the Williamson Report to the Carnegie Corporation, proposing a formal two-tier distinction in library work: professional (requiring graduate education) and clerical or non-professional. The report is the conceptual birth certificate of the library paraprofessional role, establishing the argument that a trained sub-professional could handle the majority of library operations at lower cost than a credentialed librarian.

Beat · 1937

Los Angeles City College launches the first formal library technician training program in the United States, establishing the community college as the primary educational home for library technician preparation. The program model spreads slowly at first: by 1961 there are still only 31 such programs nationwide.

Beat · 1966

June 1966: the U.S. Civil Service Commission issues the Library Technician Series, GS-1411, the first official federal job classification for library technicians, with defined duty descriptions and salary grades. This is the moment the occupation acquires formal federal recognition as a distinct paraprofessional category. By 1969, more than 90 library technician training programs are listed by the Council on Library/Media Technicians (COLT), founded in 1967.

Beat · 1968

Henriette Avram completes the Library of Congress MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) pilot project by June 1968, distributing approximately 50,000 records in a standardized machine-readable format. MARC becomes the international standard for bibliographic data in 1973. Shared cataloging via MARC records is the foundational technology that will eventually allow libraries to transfer original cataloging from credentialed librarians to trained library technicians performing copy-cataloging.

Beat · 1970

ALA Council approves the Library Education and Personnel Utilization (LEPU) policy statement, which for the first time proposes formal educational requirements and three distinct levels of support personnel: library associate, library technical assistant, and clerk. LEPU gives the technician tier a place in the professional taxonomy endorsed by the largest library professional association in the country.

Beat · 1971

The Ohio College Library Center (OCLC) launches online shared cataloging services. A library technician can now search a shared database, find an existing MARC record for a new acquisition, copy it, and add local holdings information rather than typing an original record. Copy-cataloging becomes the defining technical task of the library technician role for the next three decades, and the technician becomes the primary human operator in the workflow that processes new library materials from acquisition to shelving.

Beat · 1976

The Council on Library/Media Technicians (COLT) becomes an affiliate of the American Library Association, gaining formal recognition within the library profession's primary governing organization. This affiliation marks the consolidation of library technicians as a recognized professional community with an advocacy voice alongside credentialed librarians.

Beat · 1993

The Support Staff Interests Round Table of ALA is officially established (1993), providing a formal organizational home for library support staff advocacy within ALA. The same year, the OPM publishes an updated GS-1411 standard (September 1993) incorporating revisions made with COLT's assistance in 1982 and updated job classification levels reflecting the ILS-era skill set.

Beat · 2001

The University of Nevada Las Vegas Lied Library opens in January 2001 as the first US academic library with an RFID-based checkout system fully integrated with library automation software. Self-checkout using RFID spreads through academic and public libraries over the following decade. By the time the technology reaches mass adoption, approximately 88 percent of library patrons with access to self-checkout choose it over the service desk, permanently reducing the transaction-processing workload at the circulation desk.

Beat · 2025

In 2025, two of the major library automation vendors release AI-powered cataloging assistance tools that directly target the library technician's core workflow. OCLC's AI Classification Assist (Connexion, December 2025) and Ex Libris Alma's AI Metadata Assistant (February 2025) both generate draft MARC records or suggest classification numbers from existing bibliographic data or images of physical items. Pilot users report saving up to 20 minutes per title on cataloging. The tools do not automate the cataloger's judgment: incorrect Dewey and LC numbers remain common enough that every AI-generated suggestion requires expert review. The technician's role shifts from producing metadata to verifying it.

How to read this number

OEWS is a point-in-time survey snapshot, not a continuous time series; BLS advises against using it for year-over-year trend comparison.

Each dot is a cited figure over time; the dotted line only links them (values between aren't measured). Hollow dots are estimates.

Official statistic: Copied by a script from a statistics agency table or a published study's table, not retyped by hand. BLS figures and the forecast and exposure tables are also re-checked against that table on every data run. Researched context: Researched from the cited source rather than copied from it by a script, so it is not machine-checked yet. Spot a mistake? Each figure has a “Report an error” link.

Cited forecasts · present → 2035

Will AI replace library technicians? What the research says

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, we show the disagreement rather than an average.

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, the spread is the honest signal.

What published forecasts say
Forecast change in the number of people doing this work, as published by each named source. Bars share one scale on every role, centred on zero and reaching the end at ±30%. Grey marks a small change, 3% or less either way.
BLS Employment Projections 2025-35
→ 2035
-6.4%
BLS National Employment Matrix, 2025-35 cycle, line for SOC 25-4031 (Library technicians): 72.8 thousand jobs in 2025, projected 68.1 thousand in 2035, a change of -4.6 thousand (-6.4%). Matrix employment counts all jobs in the occupation, including self-employed workers. The average for all occupations in this cycle is +3.5%.
Official statisticReport an error
How exposed is this work to AI (research measures)
Scores as published by each study. Each row says what it measures. These measure what AI could technically do, not forecasts of jobs lost.
Eloundou et al. (2023), "GPTs are GPTs"
2023 study · Share of tasks exposed to LLMs (β, human-rated)
52.9%
of tasks
What this measures

Published occupation-level exposure from the paper's occ_level.csv for O*NET-SOC 25-4031.00 Library Technicians. Shown: human-rated β = 0.529, the share of the occupation's tasks an LLM could do in at least half the time at equal quality, counting tasks that need LLM-powered software at half weight (β = E1 + 0.5 × E2). Other published measures for this occupation: human-rated α (LLM alone) 0.269 and γ (all LLM-assisted) 0.788; GPT-4-rated β 0.567. This measures how much of the work an LLM could touch, not how many jobs disappear.

Official statisticReport an error
Today, in this role

What's changing day to day for library technicians

Three parts of your work where AI is already doing real lifting, and what stays yours.

AI is sitting alongside you hereProcess and catalog incoming print and digital acquisitions in the ILS, assigning Dewey or LC classification numbers and subject headings, then reviewing AI-generated metadata suggestions from tools like OCLC Connexion or Alma AI Metadata Assistant before accepting, correcting, or discarding them.

Process and catalog incoming print and digital acquisitions in the ILS, assigning Dewey or LC classification numbers and subject headings, then reviewing AI-generated metadata suggestions from tools like OCLC Connexion or Alma AI Metadata Assistant before accepting, correcting, or discarding them.[4],[7]

Where your edge is

Develop fluency with MARC 21 and linked-data standards so you can catch AI errors: incorrect Dewey numbers and subject headings remain common enough to require expert review on every record.

AI is sitting alongside you hereDigitize and create basic metadata for special collections and archival materials, using scanning equipment, OCR software, and repository platforms such as CONTENTdm or ArchivesSpace to improve access to unique holdings.

Digitize and create basic metadata for special collections and archival materials, using scanning equipment, OCR software, and repository platforms such as CONTENTdm or ArchivesSpace to improve access to unique holdings.[5],[8]

Where your edge is

Learn descriptive metadata standards for digital collections (Dublin Core, EAD, PREMIS) alongside basic digital preservation concepts. Digitization work involving unique or fragile originals requires human handling judgment AI tools cannot replicate.

AI is sitting alongside you hereProcess interlibrary loan requests: verify item eligibility against license coverage, submit requests through OCLC WorldShare ILL, track fulfilment status, and notify patrons

Process interlibrary loan requests: verify item eligibility against license coverage, submit requests through OCLC WorldShare ILL, track fulfilment status, and notify patrons. AI routing now automatically declines out-of-coverage copy requests and identifies the fastest lending partner.[6]

Where your edge is

Concentrate on exception handling: requests that fall outside automated routing, licensing edge cases, and patron communication. AI reduces processing volume by roughly 50%, so staff time shifts toward complex or disputed requests.

Where library technicians go next

Natural next steps for someone with your foundation: not exits, evolutions.

What each move takes

A direction you could grow

Museum Technicians and Conservators

Technicians with digitization, metadata, and archival processing experience can transition to museum or archive settings as conservators or collections technicians. The metadata and physical-handling skills transfer directly; conservation adds materials science and preservation chemistry not typically covered in library training.

What you'd add
  • · Digital preservation standards (OAIS, PREMIS, NDSA Levels)
  • · Archival description standards (EAD, Describing Archives: A Content Standard)
  • · Conservation basics: environmental monitoring, enclosure construction, reformatting assessment
  • · Repository platform operation (ArchivesSpace, Archivematica, CONTENTdm)
What it takesSome new skills to pick up
Tools of the era

How has the work of library technicians changed since 1923?

The tools that defined the work, one line per era. Select an era to see how it reshaped the work.

  • Card catalog and manual cataloging (Dewey + LC classification, typed catalog cards)

    For the first four decades of the library technician role, the card catalog was both the primary tool and the primary product of the job. Technicians typed catalog cards on manual typewriters, filed them into wooden drawers by author, title, and subject, and maintained the physical order of a system that could number in the millions of cards for a large research library. By the 1960s the Library of Congress catalog alone held over nine million cards. Cataloging according to Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress Classification numbers required training but not a graduate degree, which is precisely why the technician role was created to handle it. The card catalog also governed circulation: checking out a book meant pulling a borrower card from a pocket inside the cover and filing it. Accuracy was entirely a matter of human discipline and physical organization.

  • MARC records + shared cataloging (Library of Congress MARC pilot complete 1968; OCLC online 1971)

    Henriette Avram completed the Library of Congress MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) pilot project by June 1968, distributing tens of thousands of records in a standardized machine-readable format. MARC was originally conceived as a way to automate the printing of catalog cards; it quickly became the international standard for bibliographic data. In 1971, the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC) went online, giving libraries access to a shared cataloging database where a technician could search for a record, copy it, and add local holdings rather than typing an original record from scratch. The labor impact was substantial: shared cataloging transferred routine original-cataloging work from professional librarians to library technicians, who could now handle the copy-cataloging workflow that accounted for the majority of new acquisitions processing in a typical library. At the same time, the spread of automation in federal libraries began eliminating the most repetitive record-keeping tasks that technicians had previously performed by hand.

    Effect on the work

    OCLC shared cataloging enabled many large libraries to transfer cataloging and classification duties from credentialed librarians to technicians for the first time. ALA historical sources note that the spread of automation in federal libraries affected library technician work primarily through the gradual elimination of routine but labor-intensive record keeping.

  • Integrated Library System (ILS): Dynix (1983), Innovative Interfaces, NOTIS, SirsiDynix

    ILS software unified cataloging, circulation, acquisitions, serials management, and the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) into one system. For library technicians, the ILS was a fundamental reorganization of daily work: circulation tasks that had required physical card-file maintenance now ran through a terminal. Patron records, item records, holds, and fines all lived in a database. The OPAC replaced the card catalog for patrons as well, and by the late 1990s OPAC interfaces were migrating from text terminals to web browsers. Technicians became the primary operators of the ILS for circulation and copy-cataloging, making computer fluency a baseline job requirement for the first time.

    Effect on the work

    The ILS consolidation allowed libraries to reduce the clerical-tier workforce (the lowest tier below technicians) as automated overdue notices, automated holds, and terminal-based checkout reduced repetitive manual processing. The technician tier held relatively stable through this era as the person doing the skilled-but-paraprofessional system operation.

  • RFID + library self-checkout (UNLV Lied Library 2001; national rollout 2003-2010)

    The University of Nevada Las Vegas Lied Library, which opened in January 2001, was the first US academic library to install an RFID-based checkout system integrated with library automation software. RFID self-checkout proved faster than barcode-based equivalents because patrons could process a stack of items simultaneously on an antenna pad. By the mid-2000s RFID was rolling out across public and academic library systems nationally. Today approximately 88 percent of library patrons who have access to self-checkout use it over the traditional service desk. The effect on library technicians was directional but not catastrophic: routine transaction processing at the circulation desk declined, but the technician's role shifted toward exception handling (items that failed RFID reads, account issues, holds complications) and toward the higher-value tasks of cataloging, metadata maintenance, and patron instruction that self-checkout could not address.

    Effect on the work

    Self-checkout rollout shifted circulation desk staffing ratios downward at libraries that adopted it broadly. The BLS employment series for 25-4031 shows a gradual decline from the early-2000s peak, partly attributable to this efficiency gain alongside broader budget pressure on local government services.

  • Great Recession budget cuts (2008-2012 library staffing contraction)

    The 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession produced the most significant short-term staffing contraction library technicians had experienced since the 1970s budget squeeze. Most public library systems faced flat or reduced budgets, with personnel as the primary target for cuts alongside collections and hours. Brooklyn libraries and library systems in major cities saw the biggest staff reductions in 2012. Hiring freezes, layoffs, and reduced hours hit support-staff tiers harder than professional librarians, who were somewhat protected by credentialing requirements and civil service classifications. Paradoxically, library use surged during the recession: newly unemployed patrons flooded branches for computer access, job-search help, and free resources, meaning that the technicians who remained were busier than before with fewer resources.

    Effect on the work

    National employment of library technicians and assistants declined measurably between 2008 and 2013 as local government tax receipts shrank. ALA surveys documented widespread hiring freezes and layoffs across the public library sector during this period.

  • AI-assisted cataloging and ILL routing (OCLC Connexion AI 2025; Ex Libris Alma AI Metadata Assistant 2025)

    The current wave of AI tools applies directly to the core technical tasks of the library technician: metadata creation, classification, and interlibrary loan routing. OCLC's AI Classification Assist in Connexion, released December 2025, suggests Dewey Decimal and LC Classification numbers plus LC Subject Headings as catalogers work in MARC records, drawing on hundreds of millions of WorldCat records. Pilot testers reported saving many minutes per title. Ex Libris Alma's AI Metadata Assistant, released February 2025, generates structured MARC 21 records from images of physical items or PDFs. OCLC's WorldShare ILL Smart Fulfillment uses AI routing to reduce interlibrary loan staff review time by approximately 50 percent. These tools do not eliminate the technician but they restructure the job: the primary skill shifts from producing metadata to reviewing, correcting, and approving AI-generated metadata. That review requires expert judgment about classification and subject analysis that remains firmly in the human domain, since AI error rates on edge cases in Dewey and LC classification remain high enough to require per-record human oversight.

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Library Technicians employment and pay by year

On record since1923
Latest US employment68,690 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error
Latest US median pay$44,580 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error
Outlook-6.4% by 2035Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35Official statisticReport an error
View all 27 years of cited US data, each linked to its source
YearUS employmentAnnual pay (median unless marked)SourceReport
196965,000n/aEst., ALA Researched contextReport
198282,000n/aEst., ALA Researched contextReport
1993n/a$16,800BLS historical bulletin Researched contextReport
2000100,690n/aBLS OEWS 2000 Official statisticReport
2003108,940$24,240BLS OEWS May 2003 Official statisticReport
2004113,520$24,940BLS OEWS May 2004 Official statisticReport
2005115,770$25,650BLS OEWS May 2005 Official statisticReport
2006113,940$26,560BLS OEWS May 2006 Official statisticReport
2007114,150$27,680BLS OEWS May 2007 Official statisticReport
2008113,510$28,820BLS OEWS May 2008 Official statisticReport
2009111,390$29,570BLS OEWS May 2009 Official statisticReport
2010109,240$29,860BLS OEWS May 2010 Official statisticReport
2011106,560$30,430BLS OEWS May 2011 Official statisticReport
2012100,230$30,660BLS OEWS May 2012 Official statisticReport
201395,980$31,280BLS OEWS May 2013 Official statisticReport
201494,260$31,680BLS OEWS May 2014 Official statisticReport
201594,170$32,310BLS OEWS May 2015 Official statisticReport
201693,410$32,890BLS OEWS May 2016 Official statisticReport
201790,030$33,690BLS OEWS May 2017 Official statisticReport
201888,690$34,040BLS OEWS May 2018 Official statisticReport
201988,720$34,900BLS OEWS May 2019 Official statisticReport
202089,070$37,010BLS OEWS May 2020 Official statisticReport
202173,000$36,970BLS OEWS May 2021 Official statisticReport
202273,330$37,600BLS OEWS May 2022 Official statisticReport
202376,670$39,310BLS OEWS May 2023 Official statisticReport
202473,770$39,970BLS OEWS May 2024 Official statisticReport
202568,690$44,580BLS OEWS May 2025 Official statisticReport
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