Librarian
Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Librarian occupation series (code 1410), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (June 2026).
The verdict
Librarian is a smaller, specialized federal occupation: 660 employees (0.0% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Library and Archives Group family. At an average salary of $129,880 it pays above the federal average, and headcount declined from the prior period.
- Headcount change
- -4.2%
- Pay change
- +0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 15.7 yrs
- Rank in family
- #2 of 6
What the Numbers Say About Librarian
On pay, the move between reporting periods was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change. On length of service, this series shows a long average tenure, typical of career federal roles where employees stay through much of a full career before retirement. Headcount moved down versus the prior period, a modest but trackable signal for anyone considering this specialized federal career path.
Code 14, the Library and Archives Group family, is where the federal government classifies Librarian alongside 5 related occupations. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Librarian postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Library and Archives Group family. Across the Library and Archives Group family, 3,259 employees work in 6 occupations; Librarian is 20.3% of that headcount. Its average salary ranks in the top half (80th percentile) of pay among Library and Archives Group occupations.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Librarian pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$129,880
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+10.7%
Where Librarian ranks on rich federal pay
Librarian earns more on average than 75% of federal occupation series (407 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Librarian sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Librarian.
Related Occupations in Library and Archives Group
5 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archives Technician | 1,284 | $68,544 | 14 yrs |
| Archivist | 571 | $121,113 | 15.8 yrs |
| Technical Information Services | 483 | $128,567 | 16.8 yrs |
| Library Technician | 260 | $70,783 | 16.4 yrs |
| Library and Archives Student Trainee | 1 | n/a | 1.8 yrs |
Nationwide occupation series with similar scale or pay
Two peer sets for Librarian outside the Library and Archives Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (660 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($129,880 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Librarian pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Library and Archives Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Librarian postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.