The Science of the Cover Letter: How to Apply for an Academic Librarian Job

Abstract

While serving on a search committee at my institution, I started thinking about what I wish someone had told me when I was trying to break into the field of academic librarianship. And at the top of the list is how to write a cover letter that will increase your chance of getting hired. This article contains a list of nine tips about how the hiring process works at one public university in Virginia. Readers will learn how to interpret the qualifications list in a job ad, how to link their experiences to those qualifications, and which rules they can ignore (like one-page cover letters). An example cover letter is included.