The Handy Librarian, LLC is a domestic limited liability company registered in Wisconsin and carrying general liability insurance through Everspan Insurance Company. For more information, please reach out via email or phone.

After I lost my academic librarian/archivist job in August 2025, I knew finding another "normal" job was going to be a huge challenge. Librarian jobs are few and far between (archivist jobs even more so) and most people who work outside libraries don't understand what librarians do or value our generalist skill sets. 

For months, I tried to squeeze myself into specialist boxes on job applications without much success. Then one day, I came across a comment from Mercury Stardust, the Trans Handy Ma'am, encouraging women and nonbinary people to get into trades and handyman work, specifically catering to clients who aren't comfortable inviting traditional handymen into their homes and would much rather work with someone like us.

In that moment, I realized that all of the qualities I had been trying to downplay about myself to traditional employers were the exact qualities a lot of folks like me would be looking for in a contractor. I was never going to be happy trying to fit into narrow specialist boxes and I decided to build my own box instead. 

So here it is, The Handy Librarian, LLC, my odd jobs business where I get to use my librarian background to research new skills and put them into practice helping folks solve their problems. I'm not a traditional handyman and I think that's a good thing! 

I'm a Jac of all trades, a generalist who loves learning how to fix things, make tired things look beautiful again, and help people reclaim their spaces and lives when things are overwhelming them. 

I've done minor home and office repairs for as long as I can remember, starting every project by thoroughly researching the problem and determining if the solution is within my skill set. I'm not too proud to ask for help when I need it or to admit that I can't do something on my own, but if I need help from a professional, I want to make sure I understand the problem well enough to be able to learn from their expertise so that maybe next time, I can solve the problem on my own.

I started helping people with decluttering, organizing, and cleaning projects in their homes nearly 20 years ago and have continued doing residential cleaning projects on and off ever since while also applying those skills to my work spaces at all of the "normal" jobs I've had. There aren't many people who can say they have experience cleaning homes owned by people with hoarding disorder and that they once cleared out half a floor of a college building so that they could move 1800 boxes of records into that space without any professional help - and I might be the only one of them who can say they did it all in lipstick and a petticoat.

If you need help solving a problem, let's talk! Even if I can't help you, I'll do my best to help you find someone who can.