Lectern

A lectern is a block from which written books can be displayed and read. It also serves as a librarian's job site block.

Obtaining

Breaking

Lecterns can be broken with any tool, but an axe is the fastest. Lecterns drop themselves and the book they are holding.

Natural generation

Empty lecterns can generate naturally in village libraries, up to two for some library variants.

One lectern generates as part of each ancient city, in the secret room at the city center.

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any Wooden Slab + Bookshelf

Usage

Lecterns are the job site block of librarian villagers.

Librarian villagers do not place books into lecterns. They only stare at the lectern from less than a block away as "working".

Holding books

Lecterns can also hold a single book and quill or written book that other players can read at the same time. Right-clicking an empty lectern with a book and quill or written book places it. Right-clicking a lectern that already has a book opens an interface to read the book. Books occupying a lectern can be retrieved through the interface,‌ by punching the lectern,‌ or by destroying the lectern, even when game rule doTileDrops is false.

Lecterns cannot hold enchanted books or normal books. Instead, right-clicking the lectern with an enchanted book or a normal book does nothing and the book won't be placed.

Profession

If a lectern has not been claimed by a villager, any nearby unemployed villager has a chance to change its profession to librarian and claim the lectern as its job site block.

Redstone signal

Lecterns holding a book emit a full-strength redstone pulse that is one game tick long (0.5 redstone ticks) when a page is turned. A redstone comparator also records book reading and sends a signal, depending on what page the player is currently on. Because Bedrock Edition displays two pages of the book at once, the same signal strength increments require double the number of pages.

In Java Edition, a book with only 1 page gives maximum signal strength, however page 1 always gives 1 signal strength if the book contains at least 2 pages.

To calculate the signal strength ${\displaystyle S}$ of a book with more than 1 page, use the following formula:

${\displaystyle S=\lfloor 1+\frac{14(P-1)}{M-1}\rfloor }$

Where ${\displaystyle \lfloor \rfloor }$ is the "floor" operation (round down), ${\displaystyle M}$ is the maximum number of pages the book on the lectern has, and ${\displaystyle P}$ is the current page number the lectern is turned to.

This is most noticeable when a book has 2 pages where the signal strength is either 1 on page 1 or 15 on page 2.

A book that would step up or down in increments of 1 per page would be 15 pages long.

In Bedrock Edition, the formula is slightly different. Due to Bedrock Edition showing 2 pages at once and counting a change to the book's output only if the highest even numbered page contains information, a redstone comparator treats books with 3 pages the same as those with 1 or 2 pages of information, the same as how Java Edition would treat a book with just 1 page.

For 4 or more pages of information use the following formula to calculate signal strength.

${\displaystyle S=\lfloor 1+\frac{14(P^{\prime }-1)}{M^{\prime }-1}\rfloor }$

In this case ${\displaystyle M^{\prime }}$ is half of the maximum page number rounded down, and ${\displaystyle P^{\prime }}$ is half of the current highest page number containing data displayed on the book interface, rounded down.

Rounding down is required to eliminate the discrepancy caused by books containing an odd number of pages. For example, a book with 8 pages gives a signal strength of 15 when looking at pages 7-8. A book with 9 pages has a signal strength of 15 when looking at either pages 7-8 and 9-10.

In Bedrock Edition, a book that steps up or down in increments of 1 per page turned must be exactly 30 pages long, with information left on page 30.

Fuel

Lecterns can be used as fuel in furnaces to smelt 1.5 items.

Note blocks

Lecterns can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass" sound.

Sounds

Generic

Java Edition:

v t e wood sound type
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.wood.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.wood.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.wood.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.wood.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.wood.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

v t e wood sound type
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.wood	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	dig.wood	1.0	0.8
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.wood	0.23	0.5
	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.wood	0.4	1.0
	Players	Walking on the block	step.wood	0.3	1.0
	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.wood	0.12	1.0
	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.wood	0.18	1.0

Unique

Java Edition

Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Page rustles	Blocks	When the page of a book is turned	item.book.page_turn	subtitles.item.book.page_turn​	2.0	0.9-1.0	16
	​Book thumps	Blocks	When a book is placed on a lectern	item.book.put	subtitles.item.book.put​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Librarian works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a librarian is working	entity.villager.work_librarian	subtitles.entity.villager.work_librarian​	2.0	0.8-1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Sound	When the page of a book is turned	item.book.page_turn	2.0	1.0
	Blocks	When a book is placed on a lectern	item.book.put	4.8	1.0
	Blocks	Randomly while a librarian is working	item.book.put	4.8	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Translation key
Lectern	lectern	Block & Item	block.minecraft.lectern

Name	Identifier
Block entity	lectern

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Lectern	lectern	449	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3] (Numeric: -194)	tile.lectern.name

Name	Savegame ID
Block entity	Lectern

Block states

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
facing	north	east north south west	The direction the lectern is facing. The opposite from the direction the player faces while placing the lectern.
has_book	false	false true	If the lectern currently has a book.
powered	false	false true	If the lectern is currently outputting a redstone signal.

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Metadata Bits	Default value	Allowed values	Values for Metadata Bits	Description
minecraft:cardinal_direction	Not Supported	south	east north south west	Unsupported	The direction the lectern is facing. The opposite from the direction the player faces while placing the lectern.
powered_bit	0x4	false	false true	0 1	If the lectern is currently outputting a redstone signal.

Block data

A lectern has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

History

Java Edition
August 18, 2012							The lectern was an old project of Dinnerbone's. It was meant to be a stand for written books, so they could be easily read. He was well on his way to creating it when he encountered problems and scrapped the idea, but mentioned that he might pick up work on the lectern in the near future.
December 18, 2013							Dinnerbone states in his Reddit AMA that he has revisited lecterns, but scrapped them again as "something about them just didn't feel right".
October 18, 2018							Dinnerbone reveals that the lectern is once again in development.
1.14			18w44a				Added lecterns.
							Lecterns are currently obtainable only from the Creative inventory and have no functionality.
							Lecterns currently have a BookItem field, which holds the book item to be displayed. However, this field cannot be set and is not written to the block entity.
							There is a file lectern.png which has each texture of the lectern on a large sheet. However, this is unused, as separate files are also present.
			18w45a				The inventory icon of lecterns has been slightly changed from to .
							Removed the unused lectern.png file.
							The texture of lecterns has now been changed.
							The bottom texture of lecterns has been changed from to .
			18w47a				The bottom texture of lecterns has been changed, once again.
			18w48a				Lecterns now generate in the updated plains villages.
			18w49a				Lecterns now generate in the updated savanna villages and the new snowy tundra villages.
			18w50a				Lecterns now generate in the updated desert and taiga villages.
			19w02a				Lecterns now have a crafting recipe.
							Lecterns can now be used to hold books.
							Lecterns now emit a redstone pulse when a page is changed.
							Lecterns now use the correct cullface argument for its bottom face.
			?				Lecterns now use some corrected side cullface arguments for the front and back of their base plate.
			19w03a				Certain blocks can no longer be supported by the top of a lectern.[1]
			19w03c				Lecterns now use correct cullface arguments on the left and right hand side of their base plate.
			19w11a				Lecterns now serve as librarian villagers' job site block.
1.17			21w08a				Lectern position within the Redstone tab has been moved out of the "essential" group in the Creative inventory.
			21w11a				Tweaked the lectern model.
1.18			Pre-release 5				The base texture of lectern has now been changed.
1.19			22w13a				Lecterns now generate as part of ancient cities.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				Added lecterns.
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.1				Lecterns now emit a redstone pulse when a page is turned.
1.20.30			Preview 1.20.20.21				Increased the hardness and blast resistance of lecterns from 2 to 2.5.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90							Added lecterns.
1.91							Lecterns now emit a redstone pulse when a page is turned.
							Lecterns can now be moved by piston.

Data history

Bedrock Edition
1.20.30			Preview 1.20.30.20				Lecterns now use the minecraft:cardinal_direction block state instead of direction.

Issues

Issues relating to "Lectern" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Renders

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Screenshots

• 
  One of the two first images of the lectern.
• 
  The second of the first images of the lectern.
• 
  The first image of a modern lectern.^[2]
• 
  A lectern holding a book and quill.
• 
  Sunny using a lectern.

In other media

• 
  A lectern as seen in A Minecraft Movie.

References

External links

• Taking Inventory: Lectern – Minecraft.net on November 23, 2023

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