Regardless of what sort of position you are applying for, there are several skills and experiences that are valuable for all academic librarians. These include leadership ability, strong communication skills, ability to work in a team environment, good technical skills, and knowledge of the issues facing libraries and higher education. A broad understanding of all aspects of librarianship from reference work to technical services is also useful. Please see the career pathways section on academic librarianship for more information on general skills to develop and courses that will prepare you to work in an academic library setting.

For more information about how positions in academic libraries are changing and current trends, check out the following articles:

ACRL’s Top Trends in Academic Libraries, 2020

This 2020 trends report focuses on change management, evolving integrated library systems, the role of learning analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, open access transitions and transformations, the ethics and maturation of research data services (RDS), social justice topics, streaming media, and student wellbeing, among other trends.

ACRL’s Top Trends in Academic Libraries, 2018

ACRL’s biennial trends report covers the publisher and vendor landscape, fake news and information literacy, project management in libraries, textbook affordability and OER, learning analytics, data collection, and ethical concerns, research datasets acquisition, text mining, and data science, as well as collection management trends.

ACRL’s Top Trends in Academic Libraries, 2016

Explore this list to learn more about how librarians successfully collaborate in the following areas: research data services (RDS), data policies and data management plans, professional development for librarians providing RDS, digital scholarship, collection assessment trends, ILS and content provider/fulfillment mergers, and collection assessment trends, among other emerging trends.