Further Questions: How long should librarians keep grad school accomplishments, activities, internships, etc. on their CVs/resumes?

This week we asked people who hire librarians

How long should librarians and information professionals keep grad school accomplishments, activities, internships, etc. on their CVs/resumes? 5 years out of school, 15 years out, forever? Another way to consider this: if you were applying for jobs now, would you keep those items on your CV/resume?

While one might wish to summarize after a decade, I see no reason to remove them.

– J. McRee (Mac) Elrod, Special Libraries Catalouging

I am not sure if there is a hard and fast rule but my preference is for those things to come off the CV after the first job since you should have plenty of work experience when you are applying for your 2nd job.

– Julie Leuzinger, Department Head, Library Learning Services, University of North Texas Libraries

I’ve been out of grad school for 10 years and college for…eek…13, and I do still keep some things I did there on my CV. Mostly things that I did in library school-like my capstone project dealing with alternative funding streams for public libraries- and my college library experience, where I trained students and supervised, because I do think it’s relevant to my job. However, I don’t put things like “Founding member of the anime club” and “college radio DJ”, because, while it may establish me as being a very cool lady, it doesn’t establish me as a good, experienced librarian.

That’s my 2 cents.

– Margaret M. Neill, Main Library Manager, El Paso Public Library

I think, once you are past your first job, you should only retain honors (such as Beta Phi Mu) and perhaps internships that indicate experience that you would otherwise not show on your CV/resume. Once you have experience that outweighs the internship experience, remove it. Keep the honors.

– Laurie Phillips, Associate Dean for Technical Services, J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans

I think everyone should keep a life-long “curriculum vitae” list of all career related accomplishments.  The master document can then be used to created shorter resumes that are tailored to the job application before you.  Over time, as the document grows, some of the early career activities like accomplishments and activities pale in comparison to other activities and you can consider removing them.  Internships should, unless they were worthless to you, stay on a resume. As an employer, they show me evidence for work experience and hustle!

– Catherine Alloway, Director, Schlow Centre Region Library

Keep these items on your CV/resume if they add value to your application. If you are switching from a public library to an academic library and have an academic internship, then include it. If you have been working five years in a public library and are applying for another public library position it may not be as necessary to include a grad school accomplishment related to public libraries. By customizing your resume to the position you are applying to you will know whether your grad school accomplishments, activities, and internships are a good fit.

– Jason Grubb, Director, Sweetwater County Library System