LIBRARIAN
Workstation: Lectern|15 trades across 5 levelsBiome-specific
The most important villager for enchantments. Sells enchanted books from the full enchantment pool, plus bookshelves, lanterns, name tags, and clocks. Buys paper and books.
- Last checked
- 26 September 2026
- Java Edition
- 26.3, 15 of 15 rows found
- Bedrock Edition
- 1.26.50.4, 10 of 15 matching
- Edition differences
- 1 row differs, 4 rolled, not comparable
What is the Librarian?
Place a Lectern next to an unemployed villager and it takes the Librarian job on the spot. That single block is also why this is the profession every enchanting run in the game eventually leads back to: no other villager sells enchanted books, and the librarian's book offer is drawn from the entire enchantment pool rather than a curated shortlist. Anvil combining and a full enchanting table setup become optional once a librarian with the right book is standing in front of you.
Because the Librarian is biome-specific, the one you meet in a desert village is not dressed the same as one from a taiga, though what it has for sale runs off the same trade table either way. It buys paper, book, ink sac, and book and quill off you for emeralds, and on top of enchanted books it sells bookshelf, lantern, glass, clock, compass, yellow candle, and red candle as it climbs its 5 career tiers.
The book trade itself is not a fixed line item. It first becomes available at Novice, priced at 5 to 64 emeralds depending on which enchantment the game rolls, and the same offer resurfaces at every tier through Expert. But a fresh novice librarian only carries 2 of its 3 possible offers, so there is roughly 67% odds the book slot is even present the moment it takes the job. That single fact drives most of how people actually work this villager, covered below.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP |  Java 26.3 |  Bedrock 1.26.50.4 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | 16 | 2same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 1same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 1same in Bedrock | verified, rolled price | price computed in game | Random enchantment from full pool |
The game draws 2 of the 3 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 67% of novice librarians, and a specific one takes about 1.5 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 2, so there the same offer is on 100% or 50% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 4 on the enchanted book (5 to 1) up to 6 on the bookshelf (9 to 3). No cost ever drops below one.
The paper offer pays the villager 2 XP a use and the enchanted book offer pays 1, so the 10 XP from Novice to Apprentice is 5 trades one way and 10 the other. That fits inside the 16 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 3 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. 1 of them has a price the game rolls per villager, so the range is what it can roll rather than a fixed number. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.3 | Bedrock 1.26.50.4 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 10same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 5same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 5same in Bedrock | verified, rolled price | price computed in game | Random enchantment from full pool |
The game draws 2 of the 3 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 67% of apprentice librarians, and a specific one takes about 1.5 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 2, so there the same offer is on 100% or 50% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 3 on the book (4 to 1) up to 4 on the enchanted book (5 to 1). No cost ever drops below one.
The book offer pays the villager 10 XP a use and the enchanted book offer pays 5, so the 60 XP from Apprentice to Journeyman is 6 trades one way and 12 the other. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 3 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. 1 of them has a price the game rolls per villager, so the range is what it can roll rather than a fixed number. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.3 | Bedrock 1.26.50.4 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 20same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 10same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 10same in Bedrock | verified, rolled price | price computed in game | Random enchantment from full pool |
The game draws 2 of the 3 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 67% of journeyman librarians, and a specific one takes about 1.5 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 2, so there the same offer is on 100% or 50% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 4 off every trade, so the ink sac goes from 5 to 1. No cost ever drops below one.
The ink sac offer pays the villager 20 XP a use and the enchanted book offer pays 10, so the 80 XP from Journeyman to Expert is 4 trades one way and 8 the other. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 3 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. 1 of them has a price the game rolls per villager, so the range is what it can roll rather than a fixed number. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.3 | Bedrock 1.26.50.4 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 30same in Bedrock | verified | Bedrock asks 1 book and quill rather than 2. | |||
| | 12 | 15same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 15same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 15same in Bedrock | verified, rolled price | price computed in game | Random enchantment from full pool |
The game draws 2 of the 4 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 50% of expert librarians, and a specific one takes about 2 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 3, so there the same offer is on 100% or 33% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 1 on the book and quill (2 to 1) up to 4 on the enchanted book (5 to 1). No cost ever drops below one.
The book and quill offer pays the villager 30 XP a use and the enchanted book offer pays 15, so the 100 XP from Expert to Master is 4 trades one way and 7 the other. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 4 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. 1 of them has a price the game rolls per villager, so the range is what it can roll rather than a fixed number. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.3 | Bedrock 1.26.50.4 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 30same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 30same in Bedrock | verified | verified |
The game draws 3 of the 2 offers this tier holds, which is all of them, so every master librarian shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock builds this tier out of 1 group and draws 1 of 4, so there the same offer is on 25% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 2 off every trade, so the yellow candle goes from 3 to 1. No cost ever drops below one.
Master is the top tier. Its offers still pay 30 XP a use, but there is no tier above for that XP to open. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 2 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
Novice to Master: what the climb costs
A Librarian does not level up on time served, it levels up on trading XP, and each of its offers pays a fixed amount of it. That makes the climb a countable thing rather than a chore: 19 trades take one from Novice to Master if you use the offer that pays most at every tier, and the tiers below say which offer that is.
| Climb | XP | Offer that pays most | Trades | You hand over | You get back |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novice to Apprentice | 10 | The paper offer, 2 XP a useon 67% of librarians at this tier | 5 | 120 paper | 5 emeralds |
| Apprentice to Journeyman | 60 | The book offer, 10 XP a useon 67% of librarians at this tier | 6 | 24 books | 6 emeralds |
| Journeyman to Expert | 80 | The ink sac offer, 20 XP a useon 67% of librarians at this tier | 4 | 20 ink sacs | 4 emeralds |
| Expert to Master | 100 | The book and quill offer, 30 XP a useon 50% of librarians at this tier | 4 | 8 book and quills | 4 emeralds |
| Novice to Master | 250 | no restock needed | 19 | 120 paper, 24 books, 20 ink sacs and 8 book and quills | 19 emeralds |
The bill for the whole climb is 120 paper, 24 books, 20 ink sacs and 8 book and quills. It pays for itself: 19 emeralds more than you started with by the time it is Master. No offer in the route runs past what its slot holds, so a Librarian with full stock can be walked all the way up in one sitting.
Counted, not timed. The XP each offer pays is the xp field of its own trade file, the 10, 60, 80, 100 XP between the tiers is VillagerData.NEXT_LEVEL_XP_THRESHOLDS, and the prices and use counts are the table above. Where a tier has more than one offer paying the top rate, the route takes the one any villager can hold, then the one that pays rather than costs, then the cheapest. XP over the line is not lost, it counts toward the next tier, so no trade in the route is wasted. How that check works.
Odds, groups and price rules for every Librarian trade
| Trade | Java odds | Bedrock odds | Bedrock group | Price multiplier | One cure takes off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
24 Paperfor1EmeraldLibrarian, Novice | 67% | 100% | 1 | 0.05 | 6 items |
9Emeraldfor1 BookshelfLibrarian, Novice | 67% | 50% | 2 | 0.05 | 6 items |
| 5Emeraldfor1Enchanted BookLibrarian, Novice | 67% | 50% | 2 | 0.2 | 25 items |
| 4Bookfor1EmeraldLibrarian, Apprentice | 67% | 100% | 1 | 0.05 | 6 items |
1Emeraldfor1 LanternLibrarian, Apprentice | 67% | 50% | 2 | 0.05 | 6 items |
| 5Emeraldfor1Enchanted BookLibrarian, Apprentice | 67% | 50% | 2 | 0.2 | 25 items |
5 Ink Sacfor1EmeraldLibrarian, Journeyman | 67% | 100% | 1 | 0.05 | 6 items |
| 1Emeraldfor4GlassLibrarian, Journeyman | 67% | 50% | 2 | 0.05 | 6 items |
| 5Emeraldfor1Enchanted BookLibrarian, Journeyman | 67% | 50% | 2 | 0.2 | 25 items |
2 Book and Quillfor1EmeraldLibrarian, Expert | 50% | 100% | 1 | 0.05 | 6 items |
5Emeraldfor1 ClockLibrarian, Expert | 50% | 33% | 2 | 0.05 | 6 items |
4Emeraldfor1 CompassLibrarian, Expert | 50% | 33% | 2 | 0.05 | 6 items |
| 5Emeraldfor1Enchanted BookLibrarian, Expert | 50% | 33% | 2 | 0.2 | 25 items |
3Emeraldfor1 Yellow CandleLibrarian, Master | 100% | 25% | 1 | 0.05 | 6 items |
3Emeraldfor1 Red CandleLibrarian, Master | 100% | 25% | 1 | 0.05 | 6 items |
Enchanted Book Price Formula
The Librarian's enchanted book trade is randomly selected from the full enchantment pool, including treasure enchantments like Mending, Frost Walker, Soul Speed, and Swift Sneak.
base_price = 2 * enchant_level + floor(random * 5 * enchant_level + random * 5)
Treasure enchantments: price is doubled
To get a specific enchantment, place a lectern, check the trade, then break and re-place the lectern to re-roll. See our Villager Rolling Guide for details. Check all available enchantments at enchantments.astroworldmc.com.
Librarian trades by tier (Novice to Master)
A Librarian climbs five career ranks, and each rank it reaches adds a fresh batch of offers on top of the ones below it. The experience gates are fixed: the Novice tier opens immediately with 3 offers, 10 more trade-XP points unlock Apprentice (3 offers), 60 more trade-XP points unlock Journeyman (3 offers), 80 more trade-XP points unlock Expert (4 offers), and 100 more trade-XP points unlock Master (2 offers). The full price list for every rank is laid out below; emerald costs marked as a range roll randomly within that band each time the trade is generated or restocked.
Tier 1 · Novice
3 trades · available from the startSell to villager: 24 papers for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: bookshelf for 9 emeralds and enchanted book for 5-64 emeralds plus 1 book.
Tier 2 · Apprentice
3 trades · 10 cumulative XPSell to villager: 4 books for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: lantern for 1 emerald and enchanted book for 5-64 emeralds plus 1 book.
Tier 3 · Journeyman
3 trades · 70 cumulative XPSell to villager: 5 ink sacs for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: 4 glass for 1 emerald and enchanted book for 5-64 emeralds plus 1 book.
Tier 4 · Expert
4 trades · 150 cumulative XPSell to villager: 2 book and quills for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: clock for 5 emeralds, compass for 4 emeralds, and enchanted book for 5-64 emeralds plus 1 book.
Tier 5 · Master
2 trades · 250 cumulative XPBuy from villager: yellow candle for 3 emeralds and red candle for 3 emeralds.
Librarian trading tips
Reset before you trade, not after: a librarian's offers lock in the moment you complete a single trade with it. If the book slot rolled the wrong enchantment, or did not roll at all, breaking the lectern and giving it back generates a brand new list, worth doing since even at Novice only 67% of fresh librarians show the enchanted book offer at all. Full walkthrough in our villager rolling guide.
Farm villagers, not one villager: since the enchantment on offer is random and the slot itself is not guaranteed at any tier below Master, a row of several jobless villagers next to their own lecterns beats waiting on one to reroll into the enchantment you actually want. Check the full spread of what can come up at enchantments.astroworldmc.com before you commit a stack of books to the attempt.
Funding it: the cheapest way to keep a librarian stocked with the paper it needs to sell books back to it is buying in bulk. It takes 24 paper for a single emerald, and that Novice-tier slot alone can be used 16 times before it needs to restock at its lectern.
Cure it once you have a keeper: once a librarian is finally holding the enchantment you want, do not trade with it yet. Let a zombie infect it, cure it with a Splash Potion of Weakness and a Golden Apple, and the price on that exact book drops hard, often to the lowest end of its band. Only then complete the trade. Full method in our zombie-villager discount guide.
Rolling and locking a Librarian
Rerolling a Librarian until Mending shows up is covered in How to Reset Villager Trades in Minecraft, and How to Lock Villager Trades in Minecraft keeps the book once you have it. For the lowest Mending price, see How to Get Mending Books Cheap in Minecraft.
- Paper, 24 per emerald at Novice: How to Build an Automatic Sugar Cane Farm in Minecraft