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Real Duties of a Librarian (And How to Make Them Less Overwhelming)

Let’s set the record straight: being a librarian is not just about shelving books and saying “shhh.” It’s about juggling multiple roles—curator, educator, tech support, event planner, community builder, record keeper—often all before lunch.

Here are just a few of the invisible-but-crucial duties librarians handle daily:

📚 1. Cataloging and Accessioning

Keeping track of each book that enters your library, assigning it an accession number, and recording its details might seem like mundane admin work—but it’s the bedrock of your collection. Miss a step, and suddenly a book “doesn’t exist” in your system.

🧾 2. Inventory and Weeding

Librarians regularly evaluate which books are actively used, which need repair, and which have quietly vanished. Without a clear, organized record, this becomes an endless guessing game.

🎓 3. Supporting Lifelong Learning

From children’s storytime to adult computer classes, librarians create programs that educate and empower. But preparing for these takes time—especially when basic recordkeeping isn’t streamlined.

💡 4. Managing Donations and New Acquisitions

Books come in from everywhere—publishers, donors, school boards, patrons. Accessioning them efficiently ensures nothing slips through the cracks and every book finds its rightful shelf.


Let’s Make It Easier.

If you're still tracking accessions on loose sheets or outdated spreadsheets, there’s a better way.

📘 Try the Library Accession Book for Librarians – a traditional, straightforward logbook designed for easy, consistent recordkeeping. Whether you're running a school library, a community library, or even a private collection, this book helps you:

  • Log every item with ease

  • Maintain clarity for audits and weeding

  • Stay organized without digital clutter

It’s not fancy. But it works. Every page is a quiet time-saver.

👉 Get it now on Amazon

Because every librarian deserves tools that respect their time.

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