Your steps to apply

Library Technician (Collections Specialist)
Library of Congress · Washington, District of Columbia · Closes in 27 days

1 Check you can apply
2 Resume and documents
3 Apply on USAJOBS
4 After you apply

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1 Check you can apply You are here

Who can apply: The public.

This job is open to the public. You must be a U.S. citizen, national, or owe allegiance to the U.S., but the Library may hire a non-citizen if no qualified U.S. citizens are available.

Experience: You must have progressively responsible experience and training that gives you the listed skills, such as processing and maintaining library materials, using integrated library systems, and retrieving items from collections. The announcement does not state a number of years or a grade level.

Experience can be paid or unpaid, volunteer work included: if it matches the duties, it counts. The full rules are in the announcement.

2 Resume and documents

Write a federal resume for this job. For each job you held, give the month and year you started and ended, your hours per week and what you did, using the words of the experience the announcement asks for. Many announcements accept resumes of up to 2 pages: check this one.

Resume ready: dates, hours per week, duties Resume with relevant work experience, education, and contact information Federal employees: pay plan, series, and grade on resume Transcripts from accredited schools if you rely on education Most recent SF-50 for current or former federal employees DD-214 for 5-point veterans' preference SF-15 and required documents for 10-point veterans' preference Certificate of eligibility if applying under the Selective Placement Program

3 Apply on USAJOBS

Closes in 27 days (November 30, until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time).

You sign in to USAJOBS with a Login.gov account, answer the questionnaire and upload your documents, then you submit. Answer the questionnaire honestly: your resume must show what you claim.

How they rate you: The Library uses an applicant questionnaire and a structured interview, and may also use license, education, or narrative reviews or a phone interview. You must show full experience in the KSAs marked with two asterisks, and missing required information may lower your rating or make you ineligible.

Apply on USAJOBS ↗

4 After you apply

In USAJOBS, under Applications, you can see where your application stands: received, reviewed, referred to the hiring manager or not, then selected or not. It can take a few weeks.

For the interview, prepare three examples with the STAR method: the Situation, the Task, what you did (Action) and the Result.

If they choose you: a tentative offer, then a background check, then the final offer with your start date.

Tips for this job:

Address each double-asterisk skill (processing library materials, integrated library systems, and teamwork) directly in your resume and questionnaire.
Upload multiple documents of the same type in one combined file, or only the last one may be seen.
Submit all documents before the closing time, as late or missing materials will exclude you.

Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.