Lectern

Lectern

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	2.5
Hardness	2.5
Luminant	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	Yes (30)
Catches fire from lava	Yes

A lectern is a librarian's job site block found in villages. It is used to hold books for multiple players to read in multiplayer.

Obtaining

Natural generation

Lecterns can generate in village libraries.

Breaking

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

Block	Lectern
Hardness	2.5
Tool
Breaking time
Default	3.75
Wooden	1.9
Stone	0.95
Iron	0.65
Diamond	0.5
Netherite	0.45
Golden	0.35

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any wood Slab + Bookshelf

Usage

Lecterns hold a single book and quill or written book that other players can read at the same time. Right-clicking an empty one with a book and quill or written book places it. Right-clicking a lectern with a book already occupied opens an interface to read the book. Books occupying a lectern can be retrieved through the interface,‌^{[Java Edition only]} punching the lectern‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} or by destroying the lectern, even when /gamerule doTileDrops is false.

Redstone signal

Lecterns holding a book emit a 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. (e.g. a book with 15 pages can power 1 redstone level per page, or one with 5 pages emits 3 signal strength per page.) Because Bedrock Edition displays two pages of the book at once, the same signal strength increments require double the number of pages.

Changing profession

If a village has a lectern that has not been claimed by a villager, any villager has a chance to change their profession into librarian if those villagers have not already chosen a job site block.

Fuel

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

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Breaking the block	block.wood.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	None	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.wood.fall	None	0.5	0.75	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	Mining the block	block.wood.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	Block placed	Blocks	Placing the block	block.wood.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.wood.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition: ^{[needs in-game testing]}

Sound	Description	Namespaced ID	Volume	Pitch
?	Breaking the block	dig.wood	?	0.8
?	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.wood	?	?
?	Mining the block	hit.wood	?	0.5
?	Jumping from the block	jump.wood	?	?
?	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.wood	?	?
?	Walking on the block	step.wood	?	?
?	Placing the block	use.wood	?	0.8

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Translation key
Lectern	lectern	block.minecraft.lectern

Name	Namespaced ID
Block entity	lectern

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Lectern	lectern	448	tile.lectern.name

Name	Savegame ID
Block entity	?

Block states

See also: Block states

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
facing	north	east north south west	The direction the lectern is facing. Opposite from the direction the player faces when placing a 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	Default value	Allowed values	Description
direction	0	0 1 2 3	The direction the lectern is facing. Opposite from the direction the player faces when placing a lectern.
powered_bit	0	0 1	If the lectern is currently outputting a redstone signal.

Block entity

See also: Block entity format

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

• Block entity data
  • Tags common to all block entities see Template:Nbt inherit/blockentity/template
  •  Book: The book item, without the slot tag, currently on the lectern, may not exist.
    • Tags common to all items see Template:Nbt inherit/itemnoslot/template
  •  Page: The page the book is currently on, starting from 0, does not exist if there's no book.

History

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.
Java Edition
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.
		18w45a			The inventory icon of lecterns has been slightly changed from to .
					The texture of lecterns has now been separated, and the layout of each part has been tweaked.
					The bottom texture of lecterns has been changed from to .
		18w47a			The bottom texture of lecterns has been changed, once again.
		18w48a			Lecterns can now generate in plains village libraries.
		18w49a			Lecterns now can also generate in savanna and snowy tundra village libraries.
		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.
		19w03c			Lecterns now use correct cullface arguments on the left and right hand side of their base plate.
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.
Legacy Console Edition
		1.90			Added lecterns.

Issues

Issues relating to "Lectern" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery

• 

  One of the two first images of the lectern.

• 

  The second of the first images of the lectern.

• 

  The new lectern that was recently added.

• 

  A lectern holding a book and quill

• 

  Lectern holding a book shown from above.

References

Redstone

View at: Template:Redstone/content [edit]

Blocks

View at: Template:Blocks/content [edit]