Children's Services Librarian

Childrens Services Librarian

Salary

$44.92 - $54.46 Hourly

Location

Various - Seattle area, WA

Job Type

Civil Service Exempt, Regular, Part-Time

Job Number

IC #40-26

Department

The Seattle Public Library

Opening Date

08/04/2026

Closing Date

8/14/2026 5:00 PM Pacific

• Description
• Benefits
• Questions

Position Description

Invitation to Compete #40-26: Children's Services Librarian

Douglass-Truth Branch, 2300 E. Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122

Regular, FLSA non-exempt, part-time (68 hours per two-week pay period)

Salary Range: $44.92- $54.46 per hour

Schedule:

Week 1: Wed 9:30am-6pm Thur OFF, Fri OFF, Sat 9:30am-6pm, Sun 9:30am-6pm, Mon OFF, Tues 11:30am-8pm

Week 2: Wed 9:30am-6pm, Thurs @ Madrona-Sally Goldmark 9:30am-1:30pm, Fri 9:30am-6pm, Sat OFF, Sun OFF, Mon 9:30am-6pm, Tues 11:30am-8pm

• Please note the shift scheduled at neighborhood branch: Madrona-Sally Goldmark Branch (1134 33rd Ave., Seattle, WA 98122)

A pay period is two weeks in length that starts on Wednesday and ends on Tuesday. This schedule is subject to change based on the Library's current operational need and is part of a bargaining unit represented by AFSCME.

This recruitment is open to the public and to The Seattle Public Library's employees. Please submit your NEOGOV application, cover letter, and resume by 5:00 p.m. August 14, 2026, to be considered.

Please note: This recruitment may be used for up to 90 days following the closing date of this posting to fill regular and temporary Librarian vacancies.

Overview

The Seattle Public Library's mission is to bring people, information and ideas together to enrich lives and build community. We view Seattle as a city where imagination and opportunity continue to thrive. Since 1891, we have grown from a single reading room in Pioneer Square to a world-class library system with 27 locations.

The Library works every day to foster and support a healthy city and a healthy democracy. We do this work guided by the principles of intellectual freedom, literacy and the love of learning, racial equity, privacy and confidentiality, respect for the community, strong partnerships and innovation. We are an active and committed partner in the City of Seattles Race and Social Justice Initiative.

Library employees are highly regarded by the public for their knowledge, quality of service and caring. As a workplace, we value respectful and transparent communication, partnership and engagement. We are enriched individually and organizationally because of our diversity. We take time to recognize and celebrate the achievements of others.

The Seattle Public Library is actively seeking innovative librarians who see community engagement as essential to all aspects of developing, delivering, evaluating and improving programs, services and content. Successful candidates will be creative, self-directed professionals with a strong work ethic, a commitment to equity work, a collaborative work style, a good sense of humor, and the ability to thrive in an environment that requires supportive teamwork to maintain a safe and welcoming service environment for patrons and staff.

Children's Services Librarians serve the whole family and are able to provide innovative services that are consistent with the developmental needs of children and the needs of parents, families and caregivers.

The Children's Services Librarian works with a branch team and a regional team to support the delivery of system-wide programs, develop locally-responsive services, and build collaborative community relationships across the Mid-City East Regions four branches. The librarian will participate in community engagement efforts and contribute to the continual development of innovative and responsive services for the regions diverse community. The ideal candidate will have experience with providing outreach, Story Time programs, experience working with racially, culturally and economically diverse communities, the ability maintain a safe and welcoming public environment utilizing principles of de-escalation to address Community Use Agreement violations and experience with interacting with people who are experiencing housing insecurity and individuals who are living with addiction or mental illness.

The Douglass-Truth Branch was expanded and reopened Oct. 14, 2006. The building follows historic preservation guidelines of the original library, which is a city landmark. The Soul Pole, a 21-foot community artwork depicting 400 years of Black history, proudly greets visitors from the branch's front lawn. The Douglass-Truth Branch has over 10,000 items in its African American Collection, which was established in 1965 through a donation by the Delta Upsilon Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. The main focus for the Children's Services Librarian at the Douglass-Truth Branch will include an emphasis on tween programming and outreach.

The Madrona-Sally Goldmark Branch is in a former fire station building. It has a big window with a bench to sit on while reading or telling stories. A sculpture of animals called "The Peaceable Kingdom" is on the lawn. The branch has a unique collection of Madrona neighborhood mementos, including photos and scrapbooks. The main focus for the Children's Services Librarian at the Madrona-Sally Goldmark branch will be early learning programming, specifically, story time support.

The successful candidate must demonstrate a strong commitment to providing high quality learning opportunities and understand tween, teen, and young adult learning and development as well as the role of the family and community in the larger context. Demonstrated experience engaging and collaborating with partners using culturally responsive strategies and have an understanding of relationship building, power sharing, and collaboration when working with and between community and institutional partners, and experience operating in a cross-functional team is preferred.

This position will respond to the evolving needs and interest of our communities by developing, facilitating, and supporting community-led programs and activities that promote cultural enrichment, school and career readiness and success, teen development and engagement, community building, and emerging literacies, such as, social, digital, media, information and text based.

Job Responsibilities

• Cultural Competency: Recognition of the need to continually develop and practice cultural competence in customer service, reference services, reader's advisory, program development, community engagement, team work and leadership with communities and staff that a librarian does not identify with.
• Community Engagement and Partnerships: Understand the role of community engagement in identifying community needs and goals, and develop relevant and responsive programs, services, and content that meet those needs. Engage with community members and organizations to develop and maintain both formal and informal relationships to realize outcomes that further the community's and Library's goals. Understand the importance of bringing Library resources to where people are, both inside the library and spaces in the community.
• Reference Services and Reader's Advisory: Assist patrons of all ages and interests in finding information they need and materials that surprise and delight. Support system-wide service initiatives and strategic priorities. Develop and deliver local targeted programming for area-specific populations. Develop and maintain expertise in a wide range of information resources in order to deliver high quality reference and reader's advisory service in a variety of modes (in person, phone, virtual). Ensure that information resources and the library collection reflect the range of information needs in the community and effectively serve Seattle's diverse and growing population.
• Program and service design, development, delivery, and evaluation: Commitment to continually support community needs and interests. Use community information to create relevant programs, services, and content that responds to specific community interests and needs. Design and deliver relevant training and instruction for the public and library colleagues. Create and give presentations to colleagues and peers, stakeholders, and/or the Library's administration to market programming or obtain funding for future programming. Use evidence-based practices, data-driven decision-making, and outcomes-based evaluation practices to review and ensure programming is meeting expectations.
• Programmatic Leadership: Understand how the role of the librarian functions within the context of the system-wide service initiatives and local service delivery. Initiate conversations with staff about service delivery and lead staff, volunteers, patrons, community partners, vendors, etc.
• Operational Leadership: Knowledgeable in the effective use of library facilities, equipment, services, and programming. Cultivate healthy working relationships with colleagues locally and regionally; engaging with them in support of the Library's programs and services. Working effectively under the supervision of the Regional Manager, the librarian will regularly serve as a staff lead.
• Project management: Create, execute, and manage all aspects of project planning for designed services delivery including budget, resources, timeline, and outcomes based evaluation. Coordinate all administrative and logistical details, such as coordination of volunteers when needed, marketing and advertising, budget tracking, and leading project teams.

Qualifications

• Information Services: At least one year of experience providing information services to the general public.
• Programming: At least one-year of experience providing programming to children and families and demonstrate the ability to develop, plan, implement and evaluate a program using a community and youth and family voice.
• Exemplary Customer Service: Minimum one year of experience providing customer service in person, via online chat, or over the phone; and/or instructional or outreach services to the general public. The successful candidate will demonstrate a proven commitment to public service and providing exceptional customer service. Candidates must possess excellent interpersonal communication, problem solving, customer relations and teamwork skills; a sense of humor; and the ability to demonstrate a positive and enthusiastic commitment to public service.
• Intellectual Freedom: Applicants must have a strong commitment to intellectual freedom as defined by the American Library Association's Bill of Rights.
• Race and Social Justice Initiative: Applicants must be able to support the City of Seattle's Race and Social Justice Initiative and have a strong commitment to providing equitable services to marginalized or underserved populations throughout Seattle.
• Project Management and Team Work Skills: Experience planning programs and designing outreach, developing and implementing a project, and evaluation; preferably using outcome-based evaluation methods. Experience serving as a member on a working committee or project team in lieu of the above experience may be considered.
• Excellent Communication and Interpersonal Skills: Must be able to communicate clearly, diplomatically, and in a friendly and positive manner with staff and library users from diverse language, ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, as well as with neighborhood-based or special interest groups.
• Commitment to Continuous Learning: Acquire and maintain the necessary skills to better serve our patrons and help our organization evolve. A commitment to develop and grow a racial equity practice; this includes but is not limited to focusing on and addressing the emerging needs of specific age groups and understanding the impacts of race and intersectionality in our larger systems, library policy, programs and services.
• Resiliency: Applicants must be resourceful and able to deal with evolving and emerging dynamics in the community as well as the workplace, cope with pressures, and learn from failures in ways that respond to patron needs and help the organization move forward. Must have the ability to maintain a high level of professionalism and customer service while enforcing the Library's Community Use Agreement, working in public areas, and when confronted by aggressive or challenging patrons.
• Leadership: Applicants must be able to utilize their knowledge, skills, and abilities to effect positive change. They must actively seek out information from the library industry and other industries; pursue opportunities to develop networks with the intent to learn about best practices from other organizations and share The Seattle Public Library's best practices; take initiative in helping the organization to meet its goals; and be able to communicate how the library is fulfilling its mission.
• Technology and Informational Resources: Must have current working knowledge of PCs in a Windows environment and library applications and be able to use online Internet searching methods and information resources. Familiarity with social media platforms and blogging software is highly desirable. Experience with Horizon library automation or a similar system is preferred.
• Other Required Skills and Abilities: Candidates must be flexible, able to handle multiple competing priorities and tasks, adaptable to change, and able to work effectively in a fast-paced, high-volume environment. An ability to incorporate and apply newer/emerging technologies in support of creative, effective programming and information services is desirable.
• Education: Must have a MLS or MLIS degree from an ALA-accredited library school and a Washington State Librarian Certification. (Note: Washington state law prohibits an individual from being hired as a librarian unless they have obtained a Washington State Librarian Certification.)

Desired Qualifications

• Experience working with tweens and families with young children

Additional Information

How to Apply

Please submit the following items by 5:00 p.m. on August 14, 2026 to be considered for this position. Your application will not be considered if these items are missing or incomplete.

• Complete online application.
• A cover letter that describes how your experience and skills align with the job responsibilities and qualifications. Please let us know why you want to do this work.
• Current resume that summarizes relevant education, experience, knowledge and skills.

Applications that do not include a cover letter, resume, and complete online application will not be considered.

Applicants will be screened for competitiveness, completeness, and written communication skills. Initial screening will be based on a review of application materials. The employment history detailed in your application materials MUST validate/support your responses to the supplemental questions. If your responses cannot be validated, you will not proceed to the next steps of the review/selection process. The most competitive candidates will be invited to participate in a series of one or more interviews.

Benefits and Salary Information

The full salary range for this position is $44.92- $54.46 per hour.

The City of Seattle offers a comprehensive benefits package including vacation, holiday, and sick leave as well as medical, dental, vision, life, and long-term disability insurance for employees and their dependents. More information about employee benefits is available on the Citys website at: https://www.seattle.gov/human-resources/benefits/employees-and-covered-family-members/most-employees-plans

Information about retirement plans can be found at: https://www.seattle.gov/retirement

Additional Information

If you have questions regarding this bulletin or employment at The Seattle Public Library, please send an email to job.applications@spl.org. The Library promotes diversity and inclusion in employment. If accommodations are needed during the selection process, please contact us.

Please keep in mind that job offers are contingent on a review of criminal history as well as verification of information provided by the applicant as part of the application process.

The City of Seattle offers a comprehensive benefits package including vacation, holiday and sick leave as well as medical, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance for employees and their dependents.

More information about employee benefits is available on the Citys website at:

Benefits - Human Resources | seattle.gov

01

Are you able to work the anticipated schedule for this position: Schedule: Week 1: Wed 9:30am-6pm Thur OFF, Fri OFF, Sat 9:30am-6pm, Sun 9:30am-6pm, Mon OFF, Tues 11:30am-8pm Week 2: Wed 9:30am-6pm, Thurs @ Madrona-Sally Goldmark 9:30am-1:30pm, Fri 9:30am-6pm, Sat OFF, Sun OFF, Mon 9:30am-6pm, Tues 11:30am-8pm

• Yes
• No

02

Please briefly describe your experience working with racially, culturally and economically diverse communities. Type N/A for no experience.

03

Please briefly describe your experience interacting with people who are experiencing housing insecurity and individuals who are living with addiction or mental illness. Type N/A for no experience.

04

Do you have an MLS or a MLIS degree from an ALA-accredited library school?

• Yes
• No

05

Do you have a Washington State Librarian Certification or are you able to obtain it within 90 days of employment?

• Yes
• No

06

Do you have at least one year of providing information services to the general public?

• Yes
• No

07

How many years of experience do you have providing programming to children and families?

• No experience
• Less than 1 year
• 1 -3 years
• 4 or more years

08

I understand that this position may be deployed to any Seattle Public Library location.

• Yes
• No

09

I affirm that the information I have included in my online application, resume, cover letter and answers to the above supplemental questions are true and correct.

• Yes
• No

Required Question

Employer City of Seattle

Address Seattle Municipal Tower

700 5th Avenue, Suite 5500

Seattle, Washington, 98104

Website http://www.seattle.gov/jobs