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This post was last updated on April 1, 2026
Minecraft librarians are a specific type of villager who, surprisingly, deal with books and other book-related items.
Librarians are one of the best places to find rare enchanted books, so having them around can be quite handy.
This guide tells you everything you need to know about Minecraft librarian villagers – what they do, how to make them, and all the other important facts.
What Do Minecraft Librarian Villagers Do?
The main purpose of librarian villagers is to trade enchanted books. For a few emeralds, you can buy some powerful enchantments – the higher the librarian’s level, the stronger the enchantment’s they offer too.
They also buy and sell other certain items which vary depending on their level.
Simply right-click the villager to start trading.
Items a Minecraft Librarian Buys
Librarians will buy the following items from players, typically as a trade for one or two emeralds depending on their level.
- Paper
- Book
- Ink sacs
- Written book
- Gold Ingot
Items Librarian Sells to Players
Librarians sell the following items to players, in exchange for some of their items.
- Enchanted books (anywhere between 1 and 64 emeralds depending on the level)
- Bookshelves
- Glass
- Clocks
- Compass
- Lanterns
The items offered, and their prices depend on the level of your Minecraft librarian – find out more about villager levels below.
As for the enchanted book types, librarians have an equal chance of selling any type of enchantment. So you are just as likely to find a common enchantment like Unbreaking or Silk Touch as you are a rare one like Mending – which is usually only found in treasure chests.
You will also need a book for the librarian to enchant, as well as the emeralds.
How to Make a Villager into a Librarian
Converting a villager to a librarian is pretty easy. All you need is a lectern and an unspecialized villager (a zombie villager won’t work). Librarians are one of the most useful villager professions – so having one around is worth the effort.
Follow these steps to craft librarian villagers:
- Craft a lectern. (See our guide on how to build lecterns here!)
- Place the lectern close to a common villager without a profession – it will now become a job site block.
- Wait a few seconds, and you should see green particles fly out of the villager.
- Finally, the regular villager has now been trained with the profession librarian and will be linked to this specific job site block – in this case, the lectern you just placed.
Note, the librarian will also need a bed in the same house (or nearby in the village), to be able to obtain the job. Both the bed and the lectern will be reserved by the villager after they get their job.
How to Create Librarian Villagers in Creative Mode (or With Commands)
If you’re in creative mode, or you have access to cheats and commands in your single or multi-player server, you can use the librarian command to summon librarian villagers.
The formula for summoning villagers is as follows
“/Summon Villager X Y Z {Profession:*1, Career:*2}”
X Y Z corresponds to the coordinates where the villager spawns.
*1 (Profession) determines the appearance style
*2 (Career) determines the job.
The job number for librarians is 1, so to summon librarian villagers, type the following librarian command in the chat line.
“/Summon Villager X Y Z {Profession:1, Career:1-2}”
You can see your current coordinates by hitting F3 and looking at the top left of the debug data screen.
You can also write the summon librarian command into a command block. This lets you execute the command by simply hitting the block with a redstone signal – no need to use the chat line!
Librarian Villager Profession levels
Librarians have five profession levels – beginner, apprentice, craftsman, expert, and master.
Each level unlocks better trades and more items, so if you want to get better enchanted book trades in the game then help your librarian buddy level up.
This shows how much XP you need for each level
- Novice = 0 XP
- Apprentice = 10 XP
- Journeyman = 70 XP
- Expert = 150 XP
- Master = 250 XP
How to level up your villager librarian fast
Use this strategy to level up your librarian villager quickly and economically.
- Find as many emeralds as you can.
- From level 0 to 2 (apprentice), spend one emerald to buy 24 papers (giving 2 xp) on repeat.
- From apprentice to max level, buy four books for one emerald- this trade gives 10xp.
This method shouldn’t take too long to get your librarian to the max level.
It’s worth noting that the trade will get limited to 2 trades per day after you reach a certain number of trades of that type. You should be able to reach the max level within five in-game days.
In some cases, you can reverse the trades, and sell the items for emeralds. This is a more efficient way to use emeralds, which can otherwise be fairly rare.
Identifying a Librarian Villager
If you don’t want to create librarian villagers, you can sometimes find them in a village.
You can easily identify a librarian villager from their clothing.
The core outfit for librarians is white clothes with a red hat. This stands out well from other profession types like farmers.
You will also find them hanging around near a library house, which will contain a lectern and often bookshelves.
Their clothing also changes based on the biome you find them in, having unique appearances based on the following biomes:
- Plains
- Deserts
- Savannas
- Snowy plains
- Snowy taigas
- Taigas
Conclusion
As you can see, a librarian sells a range of useful items (mostly books) which help to make your life in Minecraft easier.
Remember that there are a bunch of other villager types which are also handy – for example emeralds can be traded for weapons, armor, or tools from other village dwellers.
Check out some of our other guides on these village job types for more information!
FAQs
How Do You Make a Librarian in Minecraft?
To make a librarian villager in Minecraft, all you need is a lectern and any other villager which doesn’t have a profession. Put the lectern down near a common villager and they will eventually bind to the lectern as their job site blocks.
They can also be summoned with commands, which we’ve explained in the above guide.
Why Isn’t My Villager Turning Into a Librarian?
If your villager isn’t turning into a librarian, they may already have a profession. If you right-click on the villager and it opens some kind of trading interface, this indicates that they have a profession already.
You won’t be able to start trading with them until they unlock the profession librarian (or another profession). You also can’t convert a zombie villager into a librarian (or any other profession).
