Your library needs you!

Help us build an interactive bibliography with your suggested library materials.

Progress Reports: art in an era of diversity explores and interrogates cultural diversity in the arts in the last 15 years. During the exhibition we are asking all visitors to the Stuart Hall Library to help us build an interactive bibliography composed of your suggestions of library materials.

We want to know:



• What library materials have influenced your research and/or practice.?

• What materials are relevant to you in regards to interrogating/exploring/documenting the topic of cultural diversity?

• What artists and examples of their work in this library have been particularly informative or outstanding?


Your suggestions can be a book, an article, a journal, a person from our artist files, an exhibition catalogue, a monograph, a report, an image, a talk/event, a film, a resource pack, a thesis/dissertation – anything at all from the Stuart Hall Library resource! Please send us your suggested titles with a brief note and comments explaining its importance to you.

You can find out what we have in our library resource by searching our online catalogue

To take part and submit your suggestions for the bibliography you can:

• Fill our a form and hand it into a member of library staff
• Email your suggestions library@iniva.org
• Or leave your suggestions and comments in the comment box for this blog post.


Your contributions will be added to our bibliography and will help us build a working bibliography for the Iniva public with a display of these selected materials throughout the exhibition.

Building Bibliographies

It is the last week of installation before Iniva's exhibition
Progress Reports: art in an era of diversity previews Wednesday 27th January, and the library is coming alive!

As part of the public programme the library is working with performance poet Joyful Noise in a research project culminating in a unique live performancein the library Saturday 20th February. Joyful Noise (aka Charlie Weinberg) has been working with the librarians researching the work of Iniva, looking through the archives,and exploring themes of cultural diversity. Her journey through the library has taken her from Arts Council reports, to the works of Ghada Amer, from articles by Eddie Chambers to works by Zarina Bhimji. Charlie is weaving and threading her own unique map through the library collections and creating poems accompanied by an audiovisual presentation in collaboration with artist Trevor Mathison.

Charlie has been documenting her research project so far and here is a sneak peek into her library experience.

The Iniva archive



Inside the archive



Exploring the library stacks


Ghada Amer's exhibition catalogues


States of Exchange,Iniva 2008.


The Ghost of Songs: The art of the Black Audio Film Collective, Liverpool University Press 2007.


The Unmapped Body:3 Black British Artists, Yale University Art Gallery, 1999


Sonia Boyce exhibition information


Redwhiteblue: Here/There/Everywhere, MCCM Creations 2005.



Let the canvas come to life with dark faces, Herbert Art Gallery 1990.


Books waiting to be catalogued


Charlie is working with the librarians to compile all the resources used in the research project and final performance as part of an ongoing bibliography which will be available to view online.

While the Stuart Hall Library is a fantastic and unique resource vital to Iniva's exploration of cultural diversity, it is by no means a definitive collection. Charlie's research is now beginning to broach the topic of the missing voices/texts/ histories from the library and is questionning the gaps in the collection as a means of questionning the missing voices in the wider exploration of cultural diversity. Throughout the exhibition and during Charlie's research and performance project, we are inviting our library visitors to engage with the representation of cultural diversity within the library collections. While the librarians continue to work with Charlie we will explore together examples of the voices and histories missing from this library and will be encouraging all members of the public to do the same.

Throughout the exhibition we will be compiling an annotated bibliography identifying specific key resources that explore notions of cultural diversity, includinging those key resources currently missing from this collection based on suggestings from the public. We will be updating the library blog and website shortly with more information on how to take part and how add your own contributions to the interactive Progress Reports bibliography.

The library breaks its silence

When the Stuart Hall Library was asked to contribute ideas of supporting the upcoming Iniva exhibition Progress Reports: art in an era of diversity, the library began to look at ways we could highlight this unique resource. The library has always provided supporting material for Iniva exhibitions and events through project bibliographies and displays of library and archive material. The library staff play the role of explorer, sorting through library materials and hidden gems in the archive in order to provide further research material for staff and visitors.

But Progress Reports required something more. In 2008, Stuart Hall, the founding chair of Iniva and Rivington Place asked "... Is the era and the goal of ‘cultural diversity' in the arts now over? Has the globalisation of the art world - "let a thousand biennales bloom" - 'solved' the problem? The Progress Reports exhibition explores the concept of cultural diversity over the last 15 years since Iniva was founded and the library wanted to contribute something more than just a reading list.

We wanted to bring alive the unique aspects of this library collection, uncovering new art histories and amplifying the voices of the people in this resource. A bibliography could demonstrate the key texts in the recent history of cultural diversity, but a live performance could interpret and interrogate the resource and cultural diversity policies.


Live Bibliographies: Performing the Text is a research project with performance poet Joyful Noise. In collaboration with the librarians and Obinna Nwosu, Joyful Noise has undergone a period of research using the library and archive exploring artists, policies, reports, academic texts, images, talks, and exhibitions focusing on cultural diversity. This research period will culminate in a free live performance in the Stuart Hall Library, Saturday 20th February 2:30pm.

Live Bibliographies has been an exciting research project for the librarians with our reference skills contributing to a unique live performance. The event will feature new pieces by Joyful Noise with an audiovisual collaboration with artist Trevor Mathison. Joyful Noise uncovers lost voices, illuminates new art histories, and playfully interacts with the lexicon of heritage and identity present in the library resource. Her work focuses on translating and playfully engaging with the formal language used to express cultural diversity policies.

Live Bibliographies will of course be supported by an annotated bibliography created by Joyful Noise in collaboration with the librarians. The annotated bibliography will act as a map for the library, threading links between each resource and documenting this original research experience.



The library event is free, to book a place contact bookings@rivingtonplace.org 0207 749 1240. We will be documenting the progress of this research project in the run up to the event, please continue to check the blog for further information.

Hollywood Librarian: Take 2

I am pleased to announce that Hollywood Librarian: Take 2 will be our second in a series of events which explores the representation of librarians in film, literature, and the media in contrast to the changing role of the library as a social institution.

This is a free event for librarians as well as those interested in film studies, gender, and represesentation. Hollywood Librarian: Take 2 is being held at the Stuart Hall Library, Rivington Place, London on Monday 1st March 2010 10:30am - 5pm. Booking is free and includes refreshments and lunch. To book a place please contact bookings@rivingtonplace.org, 0207 749 1240. For further information please contact Holly Callaghan library@iniva.org, 0207 7749 1255.

Hollywood Librarain: Take 2 will again feature 2 film screenings that represent the library profession in very different ways. The event will also feature a panel discussion in which 3 selected librarians/institutions will provide presentations and discuss ways of transforming misconceptions of libraries.

Our first Hollywood Librarian event was extremely well attended and focused on identifying the major stereotypes associated with librarians featured in the media. This sequel event will explore the cinematic representations further as well as providing group discussions and examples of libraries that seek to actively transform these misconceptions.

In the weeks leading up to this event I will be posting relevant articles, suggested filmographies, and case studies for points of discussion, as well as further information about the two films we will be screening so stay tuned!

Festive Librarians

In preparation of our upcoming event Hollywood Librarian II and to add some festive cheer, let's discuss the representation and commodification of librarians during the Christmas holidays!



Due to low staffing, a librarian must spend her Christmas Eve stacking the shelves at a library in desperate need of renovations. After the strain of a long night that has left her feeling "like Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol," she is pleasantly surprised to see Santa and his elves coming to her rescue in a red bookmobile. Santa helps out by signing Newbery winners and starred Caldecotts and then reads to the children. His elves, eager to help, stock the library shelves with Hawthorne, Steinbeck, Millay, and Hemingway and then replace the rugs, fix leaks, and organize gifts according to the Dewey decimal system. After paying overdue library fines, Santa tells everyone, "Do one more good deed. Have a real merry Christmas--teach someone to read!"

It's an etremely twee and whimsical look at libraries that somehow manages to address everyday library issues such as budget cuts and low staffing. While children's books can't be expected to explore the gritty realities of the library and information profession, it's positive to see the importance of a library recognised by even Santa himself.

On a less positive and festive note there is always the classic scene from It's A Wonderful Life (Dir. Frank Capra, 1946)



In this Christmas classic George discovers the tragic news that had he never been born, his wife Mary would have ended up an old maid; she would have become a librarian. The shock of this tragic news is almost too much for poor George, after all, librarianship must be some sort of punishment for those who never marry.

And Christmas just wouldn't be christmas without a little bit of commodification. In case you are stuck for ideas of gifts to please a librarian during the holidays then here's some librarian gifts. My personal favourite is the home librarian kit, perfect for those who are strict with lending their own personal books.


From librarians who are so under-staffed they rely on Santa to help them organise their collections, to lonely 'old maid' librarians, to librarians that can't separate their work from their home life - Happy Holidays and see you at Hollywood Librarian II March 2010.

Hollywood Librarian II: The Sequel

We are pleased to announce that the Stuart Hall Library will be hosting our second Hollywood Librarian event Monday 1st March 2010.

Continuing the themes of stereotypes and professional idenities we are inviting librarians from all sectors to join us for a day of discussions and film screenings in the Stuart Hall Library. While dispelling the myths and preconceptions of the roles of librarians and libraries, we will focus on specific examples of libraries that engage with new approaches to promoting their services.

More information about the day will be posted soon with full details of the the schedule as well as information on how to book a place.

To get the conversation started take a look at this 10 min film comissioned by JISC which looks at the future of academic libraries.


Ignore the fact that the video heavily promotes JISC services; the film raises some contentious claims in regards to the future of academic libraries. Nobody is denying that academic libraries are changing at a rapid pace, but some of the opinions raised in this piece are questionnable. Are we really that threatened by google? Are librarians incapable of engaging and interacting with the internet and e-resources? Is the world of printed material dead?No of course not, and I'm sure many of us tire from contending these arguments both personally and professionally. And what about the physical library space? How is the library space being used and transformed, and how does this affect the perception of librarians?

We will take a look at these misconceptions in relation to further examples of librarians in all aspects of popular culture. At the last Hollywood Librarian event we indentified certain stereotypes; Hollywood Librarian II gives us another opportunity to look at how the library and informatian profession is represented in cinema, as well as identifying new examples of the changing librarian.

Evaluating a collection of practice.

The Stuart Hall Library recently hosted the engage event A Collection of Practice. The event posed the question - does a canon of gallery education resources exist? The event was chaired by Veronica Sekules, Head of Education and Research at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia; with guest speakers Paul Dash(Head of Teachers as Artists programme, Goldsmiths, University of London) and Yara El-Sherbini (Artist)


Guest speakers and attendees were asked to consider the following points:

• 
  
  Are there key books and resources that have informed or developed the practice of gallery education and visual arts learning?








• 
  
  How are books chosen for reading lists for academic courses?








• 
  
  How relevant are the texts to practice in gallery learning?
  

The guest speakers presented their work in the context of research, citing various texts and key resources that have influenced their practice. Both Paul Dash and Yara El-Sherbini were extremely complimentary of the Iniva library resource, and Yara directly referenced materials from the library collection.Nobody was denying the influence that research has on artistic practice and in the work of gallery education; it's how this list of resources can be collected and shared that is the most interesting aspect.

Veronica Sekules leading group discussions.

Paul Dash presentation

Yara El-Sherbini presentation

As the librarian in charge of managing the engage collection in the library this was a fascinating opportunity to explore gallery educators' and artists' suggested key texts and resources, some of which can be found in the engage resource and Iniva collections, and some which are located further afield.

Recently I have put together a suggested reading list of materials available from the engage resource and also the Stuart Hall Library collection, in support of the engage conference, focusing on gallery education and regeneration. The library is also responsible for creating a number of reading lists throughout the year in support of Iniva's own work and exhibitions. In creating these reading lists, my own background in the arts and cultural theory as well familiarity of the library's collection enables me to construct relevant reading lists. But what about a subject I have no background in? Did I feel qualified to construct a reading list in relation to gallery education and regeneration?

The bibliography I created in support of the recent engage conference provided a series of key texts focusing not only on education and regeneration, but also on cultural diversity and international case studies based on materials belonging to the Stuart Hall Library collection. This was not an enage reading list, this was not even a bibliography for arts and regeneration, but was an Iniva reading list produced around the themes of the engage conference and provided context for the engage resource within the library collection.

One of the things the library is interested in is ways of interacting with library users through our reading lists. How useful is a list of suggested material? As librarians what is our selection process? How will someone else find this list useful? A Collection of Practice allowed us to assess our own practice of compiling reading lists. We have already begun to create annotated reading lists providing comments and descriptions of the suggested texts. However this particular event opened up the possiblities further.

For the first time the library utilised our blog to create an online interactive reading list in this post inviting engage members, librarians, artists, academics, library users, and the general public to suggest key resources that have inspired gallery education. We were very keen not to specify just 'books' which is what most people think of when contributing to a reading list; in fact the term reading list can often be problematic placing focus on printed material only. We wanted suggestions encompassing books, articles, journals, films, websites, people, case studies, reports, institutions, workshops - anything! In the weeks leading up to this event we collected not just a list of key materials, but often accompanying annotated notes describing the material and highlighting it's place in gallery education.

From the discussions that took place during A Collection of Practice it was understood that reading lists have the ability to be flexible and interactive in order to benefit as many people as possible. Several attendees made the comparison to the 'recommended reads' signs which appear in bookstores, in which materials are selected by staff with a brief summary and a review of the material. Others made the suggestion for more flexible library catalogue systems which mirror the structure of online webstores in which materials are recommended for the user based on previous searches.

At the moment the reading list created via the blog, email, and suggestions in person, features a diverse range of disciplines and formats. Where possible we have attempted to annotate each item with the orignal notes as they were suggested.We have also included where possible the name of the person recommending the material as this was suggested a useful tool by engage members. The reading list should not be treated as a finished document; we will continue to accept suggestions and will continue to update the reading list. Please leave feedback in the comments section of this blog post as well as forwarding suggestions for anything which you consider a key resource to library@iniva.org.

• Abdalla, G. (2003) A Review of the Status of Paelistinian Refugees in Lebanon. Palestine: Palestinian Human Rights Organisation.(Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Althusser, B. et al. (2009) A Manual for the 21st Century Art Institution. London: Whitechapel. 'Published to mark the reopening of the Whitechapel Gallery in 2009 and told in the format of a guided tour around the different areas of the building.' (Recommended by Laura Cherry)

• Althusser, L. (1971) Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. London: New Left Books. (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Anderson, D. (1999) A Common Wealth: Museums in the Learning Age. London: DCMS. 'A report written by David Anderson, perhaps now a little out of date but the passion and committment still oozes from his words, has also been hugely influential.' (Recommended by Amanda P.)

• Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin (Recommended by Sue Clive)

• Barr, J. (1999) Liberating Knowledge: Research, Feminism and Adult Education. Leicester: NIACE. (Recommended by Clare)

• Barthes, R. (1972) Rhetoric of the Image in Barthes, R. Mythologies. London:Cape (Recommended by Amanda P.)

• Benjamin, W. (1992) Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction in Benjamin, W. Illuminations. London: Fontana. 'Of great importance to me and how I work are two essays from the canon of postmodern theory which I share in case they are of interest to anyone else. (Recommended by Amanda P.)

• Bennett, T. (1995) The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics. London: Routledge (Recommended by Kaija)

• Bourdieu, P. (1969) The Love of Art: European Art Museums and Their Public. Cambridge: Polity Press

• Bourdieu,P. (1979) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge. 'Both critique the idea that certain audiences have an innate ability to 'read', appreciate, or enjoy art, while for many it is seen as an exclusive and inaccessible world. Rather, this sense of 'taste' or 'cultural capital' has more to do with social class, background, education and therefore is not innate but can and should be made available for all to enjoy.' (Recommended by Simon)

• Bourriaud, N. (1998) Relational Aesthetics. France: Les Presse Du Reel. (Recommended by Yara El-Sherbini)

• Byszewski, Janusz http://www.modernart.ie/museum21/archive06.html [online] 'On a less academic note, an inspirational educator Janusz Byszewski, Poland, and especially experienced in a live situation!' (Recommended by Kaija)

• Chora & Bunschoten, R. (2000) Urban Flotsam. Rotterdam:010 Publishers (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Cultural Policy Collective. (2004) Beyond Social Inclusion: Towards Cultural Democracy. London: The Cultural Policy Collective. 'A comprehensive and timely dismantling of New Labour's social inclusion agenda which confirmed much misgivings in the gallery education sector and voiced the need for less instrumentalisation and control of the sector.' (Recommended by Johnny)

• Dickson, M. (1995) Art With People. London: AN Publications. 'A survey of the art and ideas of the eighties in the community arts and early gallery education sector, which I found important to give a grounding to some basic principles of engagement.' (Recommended by Johnny)

• Dickson, M. (1990) David Harding in The Variant, No 8. pp.41-48. 'A second influence is David Harding's tenure as 'Town Artist' in Glenrothes from 1969 to 1979 where he formed part of the planning team. David then went on to establish the Environmental Art Course at Glasgow School of Art, whose philosophical cornerstone was 'Context is half the work.' - borrowed from APG and used to a great degree in the fine work of the department right up until the late 90s.' (Recommended by Malcolm Dickson)

• Duncan, C. (1995) Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums. London:Routledge. (Recommended by Kaija)

• Education at Cooper-Hewitt. Available at http://www.cooperhewitt.org/EDU/ [online] 'Quite early on, about 1979 or 1980 - I attended a Museum and Gallery Conference in Melbourne, Australia. One of the workshops was led by Eileen who had created a brilliant and inspiring education programme at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York. This was radical stuff! Her thoughts, her practice, her experiments, her enthusiasm, extended my horizons and showed me what could be.' (Recommended by Moria Johnson.)

• Egashira, S. (2006) Before Object, After Image: Koshirakura Landscape 1996-2006. London: AA Publications. (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Ewald, W & Lightfoot, A. (2002) I Wanna Take Me a Picture: Teaching Photography and Writing to Children. East Sussex: Beacon Press. 'It isn't specifically about education in galleries but relates to ways of helping grow children and young people's visual and written literacies by focusing on representing themselves and their worlds.' (Recommended by Janice McLaren)

• Friere,P. (1968) Pedagogy of the Opressed. 2nd rev. ed. London: Continuum. (Recommended by Emily Pringle)

• Hooks, B. (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. London: Routledge. (Recommended by Kaija)

• Hylton,R. (2007) The Nature of the Beast: Cultural Diversity and the Visual Arts Sector. A Study of the Policies, Initiatives and Attitudes 1976-2006. Bath:ICIA 'This book provides and analysis of cultural diversity policies in the visual arts within the publically funded sector.' (Maxine Miller)

• Jacir, E. (2001) Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages Which Were Destroyed, Depopulated and Occupied by Israel in 1948. Refugee tent and embroidery thread, 138"x115"x96" Contemporary Art Center Studio Exhibition, NYC. (Recommended by Yara El-Sherbini)

• Jacir, E. (2001) Where We Come From. Mixed media, 30 framed texts, 32 photos. Anthony Reynolds Gallery. (Recommended by Yara El-Sherbini)

• Kaprow,A. (1993) Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life. California: University of California Press. (Recommended by Emily Pringle)

• Kelly, O. (1984) Community, Art and the State: Storming the Citadels. London: Comedia. 'I'd like to contribute my favourite book on the subject . It very eloquently argued the case for cultural democracy as distinct from the democratisation of culture, and this remains a compelling debate which is still pertinent, as many of the comments at the the recent engage conference indicate.' (Recommended by Malcolm Dickson and Emily Pringle)

• Kester,G. (2005) Conversation Pieces:The Role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art In Kocur, Z. & Leung, S. Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985. London:Blackwell. (Recommended by Yara El-Sherbini)

• Kwon, M. (2004) One Place After Another: Site Specific Art and Locational Identity. MIT Press. (Recommended by Yara El-Sherbini)

• Lacy, S. (1994) Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Bay Press. (Recommended by Yara El-Sherbini)

• Lacy,S. (1993) Oakland Projects: The Roof is on Fire. Live art, Oakland, California. (Recommended by Yara El-Sherbini)

• Lefaivre, L & Doll. (2007) Ground-Up City. Play as a Design Tool. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Lefaivre,L et al. (2002) Aldo Van Eyck: The Playgrounds and the City in The Architectural Review Oct 1. (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Luckett, H. (1982) Through Children's Eyes: A Fresh Look at Contemporary Art. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. (Recommended by Sue Clive)

• Mörsch,C. (2009) Documenta 12 Education 2: Between Critical Practice and Visitor Services. Results of a Research Project. Berlin: Diaphanes. 'This first volume gives and insight into education formats and models used at the Documenta 12 and the second volume focuses on methods and contexts, and reflects theoretically on the given examples. The books provide an excellent basis for practitioners and academia and encourage a critical reflection of dominant approaches.' (Recommended by Anna)

• Norman, N. (2003) An Architecture of Play; A Survey of London's Adventure Playgrounds. London: Four Corners Books. (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• O'Donaghue, H. (2006) Access All Areas. Dublin: IMMA

• Tanner, R. (1987) Double Harness: An Autobiography. London:Impact Books. 'Tanner's text 'Learning and the Arts' has always been my inspiration, it works for adults too:"...every boy and girl I taught was unique, with gifts and graces peculiarly their own...it was my privelege to create a setting or environment or, one might almost say, a climate in which these startling powers could emerge and flourish."(Recommended by Cleo)

• Sedgwick, F. (2002) Enabling Children's Learning Through Drawing. London: David Fulton. (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Sharp, C & Dust, K. (1990) Artists in Schools: A Handbook for Artists and Teachers. Slough: NFER (Recommended by Emily Pringle)

• Shaw, J. & Robertson, C. (1997) Participatory Video: A Practical Guide to Using Video Creatively in Group Development Work. London:Routledge. (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Warner, M.(1993) Richard Wentworth. London: Thames &Hudson. (Recommended by Reem Charif)

• Wieczorek, W. (2009) Documenta 12 Education 12 Education 1: Engaging Audiences, Opening Institutions. Methods and Strategies in Gallery Education at Documentat 12. Berlin: Diaphenes. 'The first volume gives an insight into education formats and models used at the Documenta 12. The books provide an excellent basis for practitioners and academia and encourage a critical reflection of dominant approaches. (Recommended by Anna)

• Zureik, E. (1996) Palestinian Refugees and the Peace Process. Washington DC: Institute for Palestine Studies.

A collection of practice

The engage resource is currently housed at the Stuart Hall Library and is a specialist collection of gallery education materials including reports, case studies, teachers packs, exhibition catalogues, audio visual materials, and cultural theory. On November 19th The Stuart Hall Library will be hosting A Collection of Practice - a free evening event exploring the notion of the bibliography in gallery and visual arts education.

In preparation for the event we are asking engage members, gallery educators, lecturers, students, librarians and all interested parties to contribute their thoughts and to take part in the construction of an interactive online bibliography.We want your suggestions for key resources within the field of gallery education, please let us know in the comments below.

We will be using the Stuart Hall Library blog to debate the issues surrounding the canon of reading lists and bibliographies in gallery education. The event will be posing three questions to the guest speakers:

* Are there key books and resources that have informed or developed the practice of gallery education and visual arts learning?
* How are books chosen for reading lists for academic courses?
* How relevant are the texts to practice in gallery learning?


We are interested in reading your thoughts on these topics and enthusiastically welcome any personal recomendations of 'key texts' within this field. Are there resources that you feel are neglected in traditional bibliographies? Are there 'forgotten' materials or resources that you would like to suggest to be added to this bibliography? Have you ever contributed or constructed a reading list bibliography and if so what has this process been like?

As we get ready to explore these issues please use the library blog comments to suggest materials and voice your opinions. In the run up to the event we can begin to compile this shared interactive bibliography and debate the canon of gallery education reading lists.



engage is the National Association for Gallery Education: a professional organisation for those in the field of the visual arts and learning. Members include policymakers, curators, gallery staff, teachers and artists. engage supports Gallery Education through projects and programmes, Continuing Professional Development, publications and resources. For information about membership go to www.engage.org/join

Attack of the killer librarian!

As it's almost Halloween lets focus on why Librarians are just so scary. Don't believe me?



Hands up how many of us have dreamed up doing that with a copy of AACR2?

If you too want to walk as the undead librarian this Halloween
here's some handy tips for perfecting your costume.



These instructions for creating a zombie librarian look certainly seem to be based on the traditional stereotype of the librarian, all the vitals are there:
'Frumpy dress'
'Granny glasses'
'Sensible shoes'
'Sssssh!'

And for all those Children's Librarians there's some reading material to keep children afraid




Librarians are scary whether its the constant Shushing, or the enjoyment of public humiliation of offending library patrons, Librarians can be portrayed quite literally as monsters. Here are a few examples of horror librarians in film:

Ghostbusters (1984)


One of the first ghosts encountered by the Ghostbusters is the ghost of Eleanor Twitty at the New York Public library. Her ghost appears harmless enough, quietly shelving books. Until the ghostbusters disturb her and attempt to capture her, her full monster is revealed.
Top tip: Don't ever disturb a librarian while shelving under any circumstances.Librarians take their job very seriously, even in the afterlife, because of course librarians don't actually have lives.


Personal Ads(1990)

Jennifer O'Neill plays a timid librarian who by day shelves books, but by night stalks men via newspaper ads then kills them on the first date. Proof if needed that librarians are hysterical and fearful creatures and that women should not be trusted with a position of power.


Chainsaw Sally (2004)


Sally works at the local library who likes to take revenge on uninformed library patrons with ehr chainsaw. She carries out a series of murders justified by her role as librarian:

Sally: I've been looking for you. Waiting, waiting … you never came back. Why, Tina?
Tina: Why? I don't know what you're talking about.
Sally: Don't pretend you don't know.
Tina: Please! I have no idea what you're talking about!
Sally: No idea? NO IDEA?? Is it not true that in June of last year you checked out a book from the public library? Is it not true that you, Tina Gray, checked out Atkins for Life by the late Robert C. Atkins? (Shouting) And is it not true that since then that book has not been able to be checked out by any other patron of the Porterville Public Library? Is it?
Tina: (sobbing) Yes! I guess so!
Sally: And why is that, Tina? WHY IS THAT, TINA!!!
Tina: Because! I never brought it back!
Sally: That's right. You never did. And now your fine is in the double digits. But, Tina, you only live four blocks away. I sent notices. I sent letters. What the fuck is wrong with you, girly girl? Now there are a bunch of freakin' fat asses waddling around Porterville, and it's all thanks to your complete and utter LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY!!



The Church (1989)

Evan is a cataloguer working on a historic collection of books at the old cathedral when he accidently unleashes an evil being hidden underneath the cathedral. Evan becomes posessed by the demon proving that it is not healthy for librarians to be around books all day long.

The Off-Season (2004)

Kathryn plays a library assistant who unfortunately checks into a haunted room in a motel possessed by evil spirits. Maybe her reference skills can save her?

So why are Librarians so scary?

Librarians in film - extended bibliography

In preparation for Hollywood Librarian I created a bibliography citing articles, studies of the librarian stereotype,and also examples of film and telelvision programmes featuring librarian characters (you can access the bibliography here)

This was by no means an exhaustive list and I previously asked for your own responses and suggestions for mateirals, texts, and films to be included on the list via this blog.

A big thank you to Lira Ferandes, Cataloguing and Indexing Manager at the BFI who very kindly brought the following bibliography to my attention. Lira was kind enough to bring a copy of a bibliography compiled by the Bibliography Instruction Discussion Group in 1993 to the Hollywood Librarian event. I've copied the information from this resource to the blog to share with you a newly extended list of librarian film appearances. The bibliography has been compiled by a wide range of librarians and institutions and is well worth reading for the humorous summaries and mini reviews of the relevant films.

This is a fantastic resource and structures the examples of films into groups depending on how vital the role of the librarian is to film. The bibliography itself was compiled in 1993 and as always we want YOU to continue to contribute. What films and television texts are we missing? No matter how small, if a librarian has been on screen we want to know!



The image of the librarian in commercial motion pictures: an annotated filmography

By BI-L (The Bibliographic Instruction Discussion Group)

The films are arranged alphabetically in three groups:

1. MAJOR
A Librarian plays a central role and/or furnishes a particular powerful image of the profession. Most of these are also pretty good films in their own right, worth watching even if they didn’t have any library connection.

2. MINOR BUT MEMORABLE
Either (1) a librarian is a main character, but his/her occupation is not exploited as critical to the story, or (2) a librarian appears in only one or two scenes, but leaves a strong impression. Most of these present the stereotype, but a few are remarkable for their uniqueness.

3. PASSING SCENE
The librarian shushes a patron, or someone meets someone in the library, uses the card catalogue, or passes through the stacks for some other purpose neither particularly noteworthy nor important.



1. MAJOR ROLES/IMAGES

Batman (the 1960s television series and the 1967 film).

Batgirl, aka Barbara Gordon , was a librarian in the downtown branch of the Gotham Public Library. Often she was able to assist the Dynamic Duo, and her own crime-fighting career, by using the resources of the library. In spite of her research skills, however, she never did discover the real identities of Batman and Robin. But she did help break the spinsterish image of female librarians. She did not appear in the 1989 movie. Also, in the TV series the entrance to Bruce Wayne’s secret room was through the library.

Desk Set (1957)
Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Joan Blondell. Tracy is hired to install a new computer in the reference department of a TV network. Misunderstandings lead to marvellous interplay among the employees. Librarians, although all single women, are knowledgeable professionals. Search EMERAC using Boolean logic? Never!




Name of the Rose (1986)
Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham. Mysterious deaths occur at a monastery in Northern Italy in the 1300s. The search for clues to the deaths leads Connery to the brother who supervises the scriptorium and the closed library. A suspenseful scene in the library has him trying to learn the arrangement of the collection, and leads to a confrontation with the librarian, then to the solution to the mystery, and finally to a fire that destroys the library.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Jason Robards, Jr., is a meek librarian with some dark secrets and regrets, but he is also the only person in town with enough courage and will power to confront the evil brought to the little town by the travelling carnival and the mysterious Mr. Dark

Sophie’s Choice (1982)
Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline. Poignant adventures of a recent Polish immigrant in America. Sophie goes to the library to get a book by her beloved Emily Dickinson, but in her heavy accent she asks the librarian for a book by the American poet ‘Emil Dickens.’ The librarian, a surly young man with very thick glasses, lambastes her for her ignorance because we all know that Charles Dickens was not an American, nor did he write poetry. Should be shown to every MLS reference class as an example of the worst reference interview of all time.



Storm Center (1956)
Bette Davis, Brian Keith. Davis, the fiery small town librarian, fights censorship and suppression of free speech by refusing to expurgate a book on communism. A strong, positive image.

The Time Machine (1962)
Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux. Taylor builds a time machine and travels far into the future, where he encounters two distinct societies who know nothing of their past. He is taken to a dusty old place where there is a shelf of books, but turns furious when the book he is holding disintegrates. Later he discovers of a museum/library that contains a ‘history machine’, a set of metal rings that ‘speak’ when they are spun. It is here that he learns how this future was formed.

You’re a Big Boy Now (1967)
Peter Kastner, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Julie Harris. Kastner is a 19 year old page in the New York Public Library trying to make his way through the usual rites of passage in a series of unusual encounters. His mother tries her best to retain his innocence, but his father, a librarian in the rare book collection, has other ideas. Many scenes are shot in the NYPL, and the film reaches a bizarre climax when the father tries to seduce the landlady in the incunabula vault by showing her rare volumes of illustrated erotica.




2. MINOR BUT MEMORABLE

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard. They stop by the new York Public Library to find the book he has written. They use the card catalogue, and eventually take the book to the circulation desk. There the spinsterish librarian shushes them a few times and eventually asks them to leave because they want to autograph the book.

Citizen Kane (1941)
Orson Welles’ masterpiece has a short scene in which Georgia Backus plays the world’s meanest archivist, a woman with her hair in a bun and an intimidating stare on her face, a real dragon lady at the gates of knowledge.

Farenheit 451 (1966)

Oskare Werner, Julie Christie. Not really about libraries, but rather about their absence. The future society burns books (hence the title, the temperature at which paper burns) because, as expression of individual idea in an emotionless world, they cause only unhappiness. Werner begins as a book burner, but eventually he and Christie flee to an outlaw group to spend their time memorising books.

Foul Play (1978)
Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase. Hawn is a librarian pursued by Chase, a detective. She is quite attractive at the party in the opening scene, in contrast to how she looks when she goes to work in her sensible shoes



Ghostbusters (1984)
Billy Murray, Dan Ackroyd. New York gets slimed. Two librarians appear in this film. The first (a ghost) is shown as the classic harsh old maid with her hair in a bun, a mean look on her face, and with her only message being ‘Shhhhh!’ The second is a victim on the ‘visitation’ when the card catalogue is attacked. She is portrayed as a mousy neurotic who, when asked if there was any family history of insanity, matter-of-factly states that she had an uncle who thought he was St. Jerome.

Goodbye Colombus (1969)
Richard Benjamin, Ali McGraw. Benjamin, a library assistant, pursues McGraw, a country club heiress. A thoughtful scene at the beginning of the story shows him helping a small boy find a book. This is a good antithesis to the terrible reference interview seen in Sophie’s Choice.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Harrison Ford, Sean Connery. The world renowned Dr Henry Jones states that ‘half of anthropology is done in the library.’ Also, Jones finds the final clue to the location of the lost chalice in a library in Venice. A library is positively portrayed as an important part of the research process.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers. Stewart is given an opportunity to see what his life would have been like had he never been born. His wife is beautiful in their real life, but when he sees her as a single woman she is a librarian with glasses and a bun, and quite shy.

Katie Did It (1951)
Ann Blythe, Mark Stevens. Blythe, the librarian in a small New England town, shocks everyone by posing in scanty attire for New York commercial artist Stevens.

Logan’s Run (1976)
Michael York, Peter Ustinov, Jenny Agutter, Farah Fawcett-Majors. Futuristic film where no on is allowed to live beyond 30. York et al. escape to a city above ground that happens to be Washington D, and come to the Library of Congress where they meet Ustinov, who explains what a library is.


Music Man (1962)
Robert Preston, Shirley Jones. Marian the librarian makes available scandalous materials such as the works of Balzac and Chaucer, and sings while she stamps book slips! Later she looks up the fact that Preston could not have graduated from the Gary, Indiana school in the year that he claims because it didn’t exist at the time. An interesting blend of a stereotypical librarian with not-so-usual youth and energy.

Only Two Can Play (1962)
Peter Sellers, Mai Zetterling. Sellers in an ambitions (and lecherous) assistant librarian, in a small Welsh town who is in competition with another librarian for promotion. Zetterling is the wife of a prominent member of the Library Board who can influence the promotion decision. Funny scenes with Sellers providing books for a sleazy patron.

Personal Ads (1990)
Jennifer O’Neill is a quiet, bespectacled librarian by day and a knife-wielding slash of errant husbands by night. [Made-for-tv]

Scandal Street (1938)
Louise Campbell, Roscoe Karns, Lew Ayres. This strange B-movie is a blend of soap opera, slapstick comedy, and murder mystery, centred on Campbell as a stereotypical librarian in a nice, small town.

So Well Remembered (1947)
John Mills, Martha Scott. The film opens with a public hearing on whether Scott should be appointed as town librarian, since she is the daughter of an ex-convict. Mills defends her, and after a scene where she breaks down in the stacks, he eventually marries her. Only later does he discovere that she is an aggressive and ruthless woman, not the meek librarian he knew before.



Soylent Green (1973)
Charleton Heston, Edward G Robinson. In 2022 the librarians have all the power as they are the only ones who information or know how to get it.

Wings of Desire (1988)
Bruno Gaz and Peter Falk appear in this story of an angel who longs to be mortal. A large library in Berlin is the setting for an early scene in which angels are at work comforting people. Because we, like the angels, can hear the often despairing thoughts of the patrons as they sit alone in their carrels, we realise that the crowded library is the noisiest place in the city.



3. PASSING SCENES

Adventure (1945)
Clark Gable plays a seagoing roustabout who marries Greer Garson, a meek librarian.

All the President’s Men (1976)
A Librarian gives circulation records to the reporters Redford and Hoffman. Would this really happen in the Library of Congress?

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Shows lawyers actually using a library.


Baby Boom (1987)
Diane Keaton uses the small local library to research the market for her baby food. She asks for (and apparently finds!) titles such as ‘Progressive Grocer.’

Back to the Future (1985)
Note the copy of RQ on Michael J. Fox’s bedroom book shelves.

Beaches (1988)
Barbara Hershey goes to the library to find out more about her heart condition.

The Big Sleep (1946)
An excellent Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall mystery. A Librarian and an antiquarian bookseller figure in the convoluted plot. Remade in 1978.


Breakfast Club (1985)
Students serve detention time in the library. One kid switches around a bunch of cards in the card catalogue.

Bridge Across Time (1985)
Librarian Adrienne Barbeau helps solve the murders (caused by Jack the Ripper?) that result when the London Bridge is relocated to lake Havasu City Arizona. [Made for TV]

Bright Lights, Big City (1988)
Michael J. Fox is employed by a magazine to check the facts printed in their articles. Involves much work with reference books.

Cabaret (1972)
Liza Minelli meets Michael York in the library to announce that she’s pregnant.

Chances Are (1989)
Robert Downey meets the girl of his dreams in the Yale University Library when she is pleading with an old fashioned librarian for relief from a fine. He hells the librarian that someone is fondling the folios, sending her in a tizzy in search of the offender. He then erases the bill from the computer and sends the girl on her way with a smile.

Chinatown (1974)
Jack Nicholson uses the county archives.

The Chosen (1981)
Has several scenes in a library with lots of dark wooden shelves and individual study desks by the windows.


Cleopatra (1963)
Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor) is learning about epilepsy from her tutor when they are informed that the library of Alexandria is on fire. She fights her way into Caesar’s chambers where she delivers the wonderfully sarcastic line ‘do you smell smoke?’ He (Rex Harrison) politely apologises for burning the library and explains that it was the unfortunate result of burning the Egyptian fleet, to which she responds, ‘when last seen the ships were in the harbour. Did you find it necessary to burn them in the streets?’ Accusations then fly about who is the real barbarian, and soon enough Caesar has his way with Cleo. How quickly she forgot about the library!

Day of the Jackal (1973)
The would-be assassin of Charles de Gaule goes to the Reading Room of the British Museum to study old newspaper accounts of World war II. The information he retrieves drives the rest of the plot.

Debbie Does Dallas (1976)
Bambi Woods’ friends help her raise money to go to Dallas and become a cheerleader by getting odd jobs. The ‘plot’ includes sex in the stacks of the local library run by a stodgy old man named Mr Biddle.

The Deep (1977)
A Library is used to find information about sunken treasure found while diving.

Dr Zhivago (1965)
Uri and Lara meet by chance in a library and begin their love affair.

Educating Rita (1983)
Rita browses for books in the library during her summer session.

The Electronic Horseman (1979)
Robert Redford doesn’t particularly like the ‘interview’ that Jane Fonda is trying to get, so he walks away and tells her ‘if you want information go to the library!’

The FBI Story (1959)
Jimmy Stewart kisses the librarian in the stacks where murder stories are shelved.

Field of Dreams (1989)
Kevin Costner spends quite a bit of time in a library researching a 1960s radical writer. Also parents try to remove books from the school reading list.

The Golden Child (1986)
‘Dragon Lady’ is known as intelligent because she was a librarian.

Good News (1947)
June Allyson and Peter Lawford sing ‘The French Lesson’ in the college library.

The Graduate (1967)
Dustin Hoffman hangs out in the UC Berkeley reference room.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1990)
In her pre-handmaid life the main character was a librarian. This comes to light when her general asks her to play Scrabble and she beats him. He says ‘I knew that you would be good at this. You used to be a librarian.’

Happy Together (1989)
A College mistakenly places a serious-minded male student and an unhibited female student as roommates because both have male-sounding names. In one the scene the young man is studying in the library when his roommate enters on her roller skates. She skates around the card catalogue/reference area, leading to the inevitable shushes from the librarians.

Horror of Dracula (1958)
An investigator is sent to dracula’s castle on the pretext of cataloguing the Count’s rare books and journals.

The Human Comedy (1943)
The Librarian, a bookish older woman, says ‘I’ve been reading books for seventy years.’


Imitation of Life (1934)
Fredi Washington’s mother asks why she is working as a dancer in a club when she had told Mom that she had a ‘respectable job at the library.’

Imitation of Life (1959)
Susan Kohner tells her mother that she has a job cataloguing books at night in the public library. Her mother calls the library, apparently fully staffed at midnight, to talk to her daughter. She subsequently learns that her daughter has really been singing and dancing in a strip joint and is deeply dismayed by the situation.

It (1990)
Includes a lead character who is the town librarian. He stays behind in the small town while all the others go off to become rich and famous. ‘It’ comes and makes all the books fly off the shelves in the library. [Made for TV]

It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Dick Powell is a cub reporter who is befriended by the paper’s veteran librarian. After the librarian dies, his ghost returns to give Powell copies of the next day’s paper for three successive days.

Love Story (1970)
Ryan O’Neal falls in love with Ali MacGraw, a student assistant in the Radcliffe College Library.

Major League (1989)
Librarian Rene Russo disturbs patrons by shouting to her ex-lover, Tom Berenger, that she has a better body than Miss Fuel Injection of Detroit.

Marathon Man (1976)
Dustin Hoffman hangs out in the Harvard Library.

Maxie (1985)
A flapper from the 1920s inhabits the body of a 1980s woman. Two librarians help resolve the plot.

Misery (1990)
The local sheriff uses the library.

Miss Marple movies (1962 – 1965)
Starring Margaret Rutherford. Her side kick, Mr Stringer (played by Stringer Davis) is the village librarian. He is her faithful partner in solving many crimes (who else is more qualified than they who have read so many murder mysteries) and also holds the latest volume of new mystery fiction for her under his desk at the library.

Mr Sycamore (1973)
Jason Robards plays a mailman who has a crush on librarian Jean Simmons, as well as a strange desire to become a tree.



No Man Of Her Own (1932)
Clark Gable ogles Carole Lombard’s legs while she stands on a ladder shelving books in the Glendale public library.

Norman Conquests (1974)
A trilogy of plays portray the actions of the same weekend seen from different perspectives. The central character is a drunken librarian (Tom Conti) who spends his time trying to seduce his wife and his sisters in law.

Off Beat (1986)
Judge Reinhold and Meg Tilly appear in an awful movie about a library page who masquerades as a cop.


Philadelphia Story (1940)
James Stewart asks the Quaker librarian if they have local history materials and she replies that he should check with her colleague in another room. He replies ‘Thank thee’ and then asks the perennial library questions, ‘dost thou have a washroom?’ The librarian, engaged in the popular movie past time of placing handfuls of books onto empty shelves without consulting the call numbers on the spines, continues her work while pursing her lips and pointing to the restroom door. A few minutes later he encounters Katherine Hepburn and they are shushed by the librarian while discussing his poetic writings.

Ragtime (1981)
The film concludes with a takeover of the JP Morgan Library in NYC and features the director of the library as a bombastic, yet cowardly, curator.

Rome Adventure (1962)
Suzanne Pleshette, a pretty librarian in an American girls’ school, goes to Rome to learn about love.

The Seven Faces of Dr Lao (1964)
Barbara Eden in a librarian.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Terese Wright researches a murder in the Santa Rosa public library.

Sleeping with the Enemy (1990)
Julia Roberts works in a library, although the movies doesn’t actually show her there. She gets in a fight with her husband over her job, leaves him, then takes a job in another library.


Somewhere in Time (1980)
Christopher Reeve falls in love with a girl in a photograph. Librarian helps him find information about her.

Spellbound (1945)
A very nervous psychiatrist (Ingrid Bergman) waits for Gregory Peck in the lobby of a hotel. The hotel detectives see her, comments on her nervousness, and volunteers his guess that the big city has unnerved her because she is probably a librarian or a schoolteacher.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)
Richard Burton, a disgraced spy turned counter-agent, works as a clerk in a library devoted to the occult.

Stanley and Iris (1989)
Jane Fonda and Robert DeNiro are blue collar workers who lean on each other for support. Fonda, a recent widow, helps DeNiro learn to read. Near the end of the movie DeNiro parades through the public library picking up every book he sees and proudly reading aloud passages from each. The librarian, as stereotypical as they come (old, spinsterish, with grey hair pulled tightly back) scolds him with ‘Shhh, this is a library,’ to which DeNiro responds ‘Yes! This is my library!’

That Touch of Mink (1962)
Cary grant is rich and unscrupulous, a ‘ladies’ man. Doris day is poor and Doris. She tries to make him jealous by going to a hotel with another man. He follows them but breaks into the wrong room where a mousey middle-aged man is about to consummate an illicit assignation with a librarian.

The Thief (1952)
An odd sort of spy movie that has no dialog. Ray Milland looks for microfilmhidden in a card catalogue drawer in the Library of Congress.


A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)


Peggy Ann Garner goes to the library where she is involved in a project to read all the books in order of the card catalogue.

The Two Jakes (1990)
A Librarian gives Jack Nicholson a hard time.

Violent Saturday (1955)
One character is a stereotypical female librarian, but she is also a purse-snatcher.


War Games (1983)
Matthew Broderick goes to the library to find information about the computer programmer. Filmed in the library at California State University at Long Beach.

War of the Worlds (1953)
Ann Robinson is a library science teachers, although this serves only to establish her as educated but not aggressive.

The Way We Were (1973)
Barbara Streissand pretends to study in the college library, but uses the opportunity to sneak peeks at gorgeous Robert Redford.

Web of Evidence (1959)
A librarian (Vera Miles) assists a young man who is trying to prove his deceased father innocent of murder.

Wicker Man (1973)
An investigator researching the disappearance of a young girls in sent to a Scottish island where he discovers a society that is deeply involved in pagan rituals. Near the end of the film he foes to the local public library to research some specifics of pagan religions, and while there discovers information that leads to the film’s surprise ending.

Wonder Man (1945)
Danny Kaye is a bookish researcher who spends a lot of his time in the library. There he meets and falls in love with the librarian Virginia Mayo.

You Can’t Get Away With Murder (1939)
When young Billy Halop is sent to prison he is befriended by the old timer who runs the prison library, and who teaches him the trade, trying to rescue him from the clutches of hardened criminal Humphrey Bogart.


Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
Holmes and Watson meet as teenage students. Several scenes are set in the library