Recognise your value. Communicate your expertise. Open up new possibilities.

Library work develops an extraordinary range of skills — but because you use them every day, it can be difficult to recognise just how valuable they are.

You might describe your work as literature searching, cataloguing, liaison, information literacy or answering enquiries. Outside the library sector, the same expertise might be described as evidence review, information architecture, stakeholder engagement, learning development or user-needs analysis.

Library Skills Are Anywhere Skills is a practical, self-guided course that will help you uncover, translate and confidently communicate the expertise you already have.

This course is not about telling you to leave libraries. It is about giving you choices.

Whether you want to progress within the profession, apply for a new role, explore another sector, develop a parallel career or simply stop underplaying your contribution, this course will help you make your value visible.

What you’ll explore

You’ll examine five powerful areas of transferable library expertise:

information organisation
research and evaluation
user-focused service
digital adaptability
coordination and project delivery

You’ll move beyond simply listing your skills and learn how to connect them to real examples, evidence and impact.

Through the recording and practical exercises, you will:

recognise skills you may have dismissed as “just part of the job”
translate library terminology into language other sectors understand
identify how your work benefits people and organisations
build compelling, evidence-based skills stories
create a clear and confident personal pitch
explore possible career directions
develop a realistic 30-day action plan

What’s included

The Library Skills Are Anywhere Skills workshop recording
A comprehensive career exploration workbook
Practical skills-mapping exercises
Skills-story and personal-pitch frameworks
A 30-day action-planning tool
Real career stories and further videos
Links to Lorene Kennard’s The Librarian Linkover podcast
Additional support with library interviews and finding a fulfilling career

Who is it for?

This course is ideal for library and information workers who:

struggle to explain the full value of what they do
want to prepare for applications, interviews or appraisals
are considering a move into another library sector
are curious about careers beyond traditional library roles
want to develop a portfolio or parallel career
feel stuck, overlooked or uncertain about their next step
want greater confidence in their professional identity

You do not need to have decided what comes next. This course gives you the space and tools to explore your options without pressure.

By the end, you will have clearer language for describing your expertise, evidence of the difference you make, at least one completed skills story, a draft personal pitch and a practical next step.

Your skills are not small because they are familiar to you.

Library work builds judgement, care, clarity, evidence skills, systems thinking and human understanding. These are not only library skills.

They are anywhere skills.

Join a Live Empower Session