West Virginia·Educational Instruction and Library Occupations·SOC 25-4022

Best Librarian programs in West Virginia, ranked by enrollment

Administer and maintain libraries or collections of information, for public or private access through reference or borrowing.

2 schools in West Virginia run programs that feed this job, graduating 17 people a year. The job pays a median of $42,980 in West Virginia across about 610 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledLibrarianMedia SpecialistReference LibrarianLibrary Media SpecialistCatalogerCataloguerClassifierBibliographer
Graduates / yr
17
in West Virginia
Median pay · West Virginia
$42,980
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
610
people employed
Schools
2
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
61%
across those schools
Median net price
$10,199
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in West Virginia that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in West Virginia that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in West Virginia (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own West Virginia page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
117
100.0%
2$40,786$33,629

Top 2 schools in West Virginia

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 2 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1American Public University System
Charles Town, WV Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
11Educational/Instructional Technology57%$10,199
2West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
6Educational/Instructional Technology65%89%

All 2 schools in West Virginia

Every school in West Virginia with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in West Virginia that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
American Public University SystemCharles TownPrivate for-profit111
West Virginia UniversityMorgantownPublic61

What librarians and media collections specialists earn in West Virginia

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in West Virginia
$42,980
Mean annual
$46,340
Jobs in state
610
What the range looks like
10th pct$29,910Median$42,98090th pct$63,130
Versus the national median
-37.0%

U.S. median $68,270. West Virginia pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
1.01×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in West Virginia

Morgantown, WV
$61,110median
60 jobs
Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
$60,800median
120 jobs
Charleston, WV
$50,740median
60 jobs
Wheeling, WV-OH
$43,560median
60 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+1.7%
Little or no change
Openings per year
13,500
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
2,400
142,100 → 144,500
Typical entry education
Master's degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Librarians and Media Collections Specialists page.

How to become a Librarian

Job zone 5 of 5 · SVP 8.0 and above
Typical entry education
Master's degree

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Top skills

Reading ComprehensionActive ListeningSpeakingCritical ThinkingWritingMonitoring

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in West Virginia

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 5 majors mapped to Librarians and Media Collections Specialists5 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 13.0501Educational/Instructional Technology
  • 13.1334School Librarian/School Library Media Specialist
  • 25.0101Library and Information Science
  • 25.0102Children and Youth Library Services
  • 25.0199Library Science and Administration, Other

Common questions

Answers for people weighing librarians and media collections specialists programs in West Virginia.

What degree do you need to become a Librarian?+

Master's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Educational/Instructional Technology, which awarded 17 degrees in West Virginia in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Librarian?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Educational/Instructional Media Design. Together they graduate about 17 people a year in West Virginia.

How much do librarians and media collections specialists earn in West Virginia?+

The median is $42,980 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 37.0% below the U.S. median of $68,270. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for librarians and media collections specialists growing?+

BLS projects a +1.7% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, little or no change, with roughly 13,500 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in West Virginia?+

2 institutions in West Virginia reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do librarians and media collections specialists work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Librarian, Media Specialist, Reference Librarian, Library Media Specialist among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 25-4022.

Librarians and Media Collections Specialists in other statesUtahGeorgiaCaliforniaTexasNew YorkIndianaPennsylvaniaNorth Carolina
Programs in West VirginiaEducational/Instructional Technology

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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