Not what I was going for but I can see how it can be read that way. My point was that librarian is a job that requires a lot of academic training because it’s a job that heavily relies being able to navigate academic work, which really isn’t the case for plumbing or other trade jobs. That doesn’t make the work mindless, you obviously have to engage your mind to engage in any skilled work. It’s just a different kind of mental engagement, I don’t think anyone who has worked a ‘traditional’ academic job and a trade job would contest that.

So... plumbers require education, too. In the US it's apprenticeship, trade school, or community college to get licensed. In the UK it's similar, so not just a US thing. You do one of these routes to prove you can do the skilled labor, and receive a license for doing so.

There is not a "trade school" for a librarian, because to prove you can be a librarian, you need to prove you can learn consistently and over a long period of time. That's not possible without longer education.

Your argument makes it sound like plumbers don't require education (not your intent, I know), but denigrating the librarian trade doesn't help, either.

The core skill missing from literature and history is curration, how do you grow, prune and organize a collection of books to meet the needs of the community.

Then you've got maintenance, repair and handling of the books themselves which is super important if you're working with rare items.

Finally, most librarians are basically running a community centre filled with children, and you have all the skills and safeguarding concerns that go along with that.