Meaning & use
cybrarian
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableinformal
A person who organizes and helps people find digital information, especially online, rather than only printed books.
Grammar: Countable: a cybrarian, two cybrarians.
Patterns
- work as a cybrarian
- a cybrarian at a university
After the library moved most of its journals online, they hired a cybrarian to manage the databases.
The cybrarian showed students how to search academic archives more efficiently.
She calls herself a cybrarian because she spends her day curating web resources, not shelving books.
Word forms
| plural | cybrarians |
|---|
Common combinations
- work as a cybrarian
- He works as a cybrarian for a large research institute.
- hire a cybrarian
- The school decided to hire a cybrarian to help with online learning.
- digital librarian
- Many people say 'digital librarian' instead of 'cybrarian'.
Synonyms and how they differ
- librarian
- A librarian may work with books and other media; a cybrarian focuses specifically on digital or online resources.
- digital librarian
- This is a clearer, more formal term for the same job; use it if you want to avoid the informal 'cybrarian'.
Word family
- cybrary noun
- A humorous or informal term for a library of digital materials.
Commonly confused: cybrarian or cyberarian?
cybrarian vs cyberarian
This is a common misspelling. The correct spelling is 'cybrarian' (from 'cyber' + 'librarian').
Practice
What is a cybrarian most likely to do at work?
Choose one answer.
A cybrarian is a librarian who specializes in digital and online information, so helping users find reliable internet resources fits best. Repairing computers is a technician's job, and teaching reading from printed books is the traditional librarian's role, not the digital focus of a cybrarian.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cybrarian”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.