What librarians do
The librarian role, the dashboard, ticket and review handling.
Librarians do the daily work of keeping the Library running. They read the feedback that comes in, respond when a response is warranted, decide which corrections land and which do not, publish or reject book reviews, and keep the ticket queues moving. This page explains the role, the dashboard, and how to apply.
What librarians do
A librarian’s day-to-day work is mostly reading and responding. The four main things you do:
- Read incoming feedback and respond when a reader has asked a question or raised a point that deserves a reply.
- Read incoming corrections, judge whether the proposed fix is right, and either accept it (the change is queued for the next update), decline it (with a written reason), or ask for more sources.
- Read submitted book reviews and either publish them on the public reviews page or reject them with a note (for example, if a review is off-topic or hostile in a way that does not engage the book).
- Mark old, resolved tickets as archived so the queue stays focused on what still needs attention.
Librarians do not write the books, set the editorial direction, or grant badges. The head librarian does those. Librarians do the steady work in between.
How to apply
Visit /apply/librarian/. The form asks three things:
- Your statement of why you want the role.
- Relevant experience — research, archives, teaching, journalism, public-records work, prior moderation of online communities, anything you think is relevant.
- Time commitment — a rough estimate of how many hours a week you can put into the queue.
Click Submit. You get a ticket number like LA-2026-00007. The head librarian reads your application. If accepted, you receive the librarian role and the librarian dashboard at /librarian/ becomes visible to you. If declined, the head librarian replies with a reason.
There is no minimum experience requirement. The Library is especially interested in librarians who have read carefully in a related field — public lands, school finance, state government, archival research, or one of the books — and who can write a clear sentence.
What the librarian dashboard looks like
The dashboard at /librarian/ has six tabs, each a queue: Feedback queue, Corrections queue, Applications queue (decided by the head librarian, but listed so other librarians see what is pending), Reviews queue, Patrons (searchable list with ticket history), and Moderation (visible only if you also hold the moderator role; see Discussion moderators).
Each tab shows a list ordered by submission date. Click an item to open it.
How to respond to a ticket
Open the ticket. Read the body, the attachments, and any prior responses. Type your reply in the Response box and click Send response. The submitter receives it by email and in their Inbox; it is also attached to the ticket history. A good response is short, specific, and signed off with a status — closed as noted, accepted, in review, or declined.
How to publish or reject a review
Open the review from the Reviews queue. Read the rating, the body, and any attachments. Click Publish to make it live on the book’s reviews page, or Reject with a note to send it back. Most reviews are published. Rejection is for reviews that are off-topic, that are personal attacks on the authors rather than engagement with the book, or that are clearly automated.
How to handle correction submissions
Open the correction. Read the claim, the proposed fix, the source, and the reasoning. Then:
- Accept — the fix is right. Click Accept. The change is queued for the next update. The submitter is notified.
- Decline — the fix is not right. Click Decline and write a short reason.
- In review — you cannot decide yet. Leave the status as In review, write a note, and come back to it.
The Library would rather move slowly and get this right than move fast and break the record. If a correction sits in your queue for a week because you are not sure, that is fine.
What only the head librarian can do
Ordinary librarians can read, respond, accept corrections, publish reviews, and archive tickets. The head librarian can also:
- Grant roles — make a patron a librarian, or a discussion moderator.
- Grant badges — state expert, board member, friend of the Library, citizen historian, and so on.
- Change a ticket’s type — for example, reclassify a piece of feedback as a correction so it goes through the structured process.
- Edit a published response if a mistake slipped through.
See The head librarian role for what that role is and how it works.
More on tiers and advancement: /pro/roles/ — the institutional ladder, with the full list of recognition and stewardship paths.
