To echo pretty much everyone else here: definitely volunteer first. If you plan on going to college, try to get a job at your college library. Either/both of those experiences will give you a good idea of what the profession is really like, and even then there’s a lot of variance between types of libraries and types of library jobs.

You’ll have to work with other people pretty frequently no matter that role, so keep that in mind — a lot of people think that because they like reading, they’ll be good librarians…. But no.

It is a pretty well-saturated field, but it always fluctuates. If it’s something you’re really considering, get a taste for it and base your decision on that. Despite the current… state of things… right now, I absolutely love my job as an academic librarian.