How to become a Librarian
Also called: Acquisitions librarian, Chief librarian, Children's librarian, Database librarian, Documentation librarian, Library consultant, School librarian, Special collections librarian, Digital Asset Librarian, Digital Asset Manager, Library consultant, Special collections librarian
Librarian collects, selects, develops, organises and maintains library collections and other information repositories. He/she organises and controls other library services and provides information for users.
Main tasks
- Organising, developing and maintaining a systematic collection of books, periodicals and other printed, audio-visually and digitally recorded material
- Selecting and recommending acquisitions of books and other printed or audio-visually and digitally recorded material
- Organising, classifying and cataloguing library material
- Managing library borrowing and inter-library loan facilities and information networks
- Retrieving material and providing information to business and other users based on the collection itself or on library and information-network systems
- Conducting research and analysing or modifying library and information services in accordance with changes in users’ needs
- Devising and implementing schemes and conceptual models for the storage, organisation, classification and retrieval of information
- Preparing scholarly papers and reports
Ways in
- University: Arts & Humanities degrees, Offered by 3 universities in Singapore
Pay · Outlook · AI and this job
- Median pay: $79,908 a year. The middle half earn $64,224 to $101,640 a year.
- Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.
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Questions people ask
How do I become a Librarian?
Ways in include: Arts & Humanities degrees.
How much does a Librarian earn in Singapore?
Median full-time pay is $79,908 a year (Ministry of Manpower (via data.gov.sg)). The middle half earn $64,224 to $101,640.
Will AI change the work of a Librarian?
Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Ministry of Manpower (via data.gov.sg): Resident Occupational Wages (Occupational Wage Survey) (June 2024 (data.gov.sg update 2026-04-01)), Singapore Open Data Licence v1.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
Updated 4 October 2026