The article's focus is librarianship and its development from 1475 to 1780, treated in the doctoral thesis "Bibliotekarien : om yrkets tidiga innehåll och utveckling (2010)". It begins with defining the library as the working place. During the analysed period three in progress semi-parallel processes form a complex profession from everyday routines to common values of the concept of library as an institution with certain qualities and from there goes on to discussing theories of librarianship and finally ends in self-reflecting thoughts upon librarianship and characteristics of a librarian, close to a professional code of ethics.