{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/library-assistants-clerical/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Library Assistants, Clerical",
    "soc_code": "43-4121",
    "category": "Office",
    "us_employment": 85520,
    "median_annual_wage": 36910
  },
  "verdict": "COOKED",
  "risk_resistance": 29,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 7,
    "embodiment": 10,
    "liability_shield": 0,
    "trust_premium": 8,
    "judgment_accountability": 4
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "A 7 reflects that maybe a third of the day — shelving carts by call number, shelf-reading for misfiled items, setting up the story-hour room, unjamming the public printer, walking a patron through the OPAC or a resume template — cannot be scripted away, while circulation desk transactions, overdue notice generation, MARC record copy-cataloging, and ILL request routing already run themselves in Koha/Sierra/Polaris with self-check kiosks and RFID sorters absorbing the volume.",
    "embodiment": "At 10, the physical work is real but confined to a climate-controlled building on known floorplans: lifting and pushing loaded book trucks, reaching high and low stacks, processing and repairing damaged spines, hauling donation boxes and AV equipment for programs — repetitive and bodily, but nothing like a lineworker or field tech operating in weather and unmapped conditions.",
    "liability_shield": "A 0 is literal: the MLS-holding librarian handles collection decisions and the challenged-material process, most assistant postings ask only for a high school diploma with on-the-job training, and no state licensing board, certification, or personal exposure attaches to checking out a book or entering a bib record.",
    "trust_premium": "An 8 recognizes that regulars know you by name, kids come back for the same story hour, and the elderly patron who needs the fax machine explained asks for you specifically — but the relationship is a byproduct of who happens to be at the desk that shift, not a contracted book of business that follows you if you leave.",
    "judgment_accountability": "A 4 fits work governed by the circulation policy manual and the fine schedule: fee waivers, hold placement, meeting room bookings, and lost-item charges all have written thresholds you apply and escalate above, and the genuinely ambiguous calls — a records request, a patron behavior incident, a materials challenge — go straight to the librarian or branch manager."
  },
  "rationale": "The clerical core of this job — checking materials in and out, issuing library cards, sending overdue notices, entering catalog records, tracking holds and interlibrary loan paperwork — has been eroding for two decades via self-checkout, RFID sorters, and integrated library systems, and AI closes the remaining gap on reference lookups and record cleanup. What holds is the physical and human side: shelving and shelf-reading, running story hours and after-school desks, helping patrons who cannot navigate a screen, and being the person in the building when the printer jams or a patron needs help. There is no license and no personal liability, and budget-driven staffing cuts, not technology alone, will set the pace of decline.",
  "outlook": "Expect continued slow contraction: fewer clerical positions per branch, with the surviving roles reshaped around programming, patron tech help, and physical collection care.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "Continued shift of the role toward physically-present duties automation can't touch: shelving and shelf-reading in dense open stacks, processing donations, setting up and running story hours and maker/3D-print spaces, unjamming printers, wrangling public-computer users. If systems automate the desk transactions entirely, the residual job is the in-building tier; watch for job postings that drop 'circulation' language and lead with programming and stacks work.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Digital-navigator and benefits-access funding that pays specifically for a human sitting beside a patron: IMLS/state-library digital equity grants, and the pattern of public libraries being contracted as in-person assistance points for government services (e.g. IRS/VITA tax help, ACA and SNAP application help, passport acceptance agents). If a library assistant is the designated human at such a counter, buyers are paying for presence, not lookup.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "De facto frontline duties that carry real consequence: mandated-reporter obligations for unattended minors, deciding whether to call police or a social worker on an intoxicated or in-crisis patron, enforcing behavior policy and issuing suspensions. Formalizing these in job descriptions and training (as several urban systems have done with social-work partnerships and trauma-informed training) moves the role from clerk to on-scene decision-maker.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Two-tier split is real but thin: if AI absorbs record cleanup, overdue notices, and simple reference, what remains is programming design, patron de-escalation, and troubleshooting — but this remainder is small enough that libraries can cut headcount rather than redefine the role. Rises only where a system commits to keeping the position and rewriting it around programming.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "No licensure, no personal liability, and no credible route to one — omit liability_shield entirely. The binding constraint is municipal and school-district budgets, not capability: a redefined, judgment-heavier role is likelier to be filled by a lower-headcount librarian (25-4022) or a part-time page than by a retained clerical assistant. Realistic ceiling is low-40s and even that requires deliberate institutional choice."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 94140,
        "wage": 25810
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 88970,
        "wage": 26500
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 85910,
        "wage": 27490
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 84560,
        "wage": 28730
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 78470,
        "wage": 29450
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 77660,
        "wage": 31150
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 83680,
        "wage": 34020
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 80070,
        "wage": 36010
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 85520,
        "wage": 36910
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": -9.2,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [
    {
      "slug": "self-enrichment-teachers",
      "title": "Self-Enrichment Teachers",
      "verdict": "EXPOSED",
      "risk_resistance": 50,
      "median_wage": 46800,
      "overlap": 64,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Learning Strategies",
        "Active Learning",
        "Operations Analysis",
        "Instructing"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}