Last week I delivered an adaptation of the presentation from the recent Hollywood Librarian: Take II event held in the library to members of the Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage quarterly staff forum. In this presentation I used examples from film, television, and literature to analyse public perceptions of librarians.
One of the most interesting aspects of this presentation is the focus on the many ways in which librarians are reclaiming and appropriating traditional librarian stereotypes, and subverting these misconceptions using humour and a playful self awareness to target new library users. Unfortunately at the time of writing this presentation I did not have access to this particular clip...
Just one of the many examples illustrating some of the more fun and inventive ways in which librarians promote their services and profession.
Hopefully these representations and changing roles of librarians can be discussed at the future Hollywood Librarian III event, coming soon...
Showing posts with label Hollywood Librarian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hollywood Librarian. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Monday, 4 January 2010
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!
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
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.
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.
Monday, 7 December 2009
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.
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.
Monday, 12 October 2009
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
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
Friday, 9 October 2009
It's all about the image
I came across this article today : The Anti-stereotype Sterotype which looks at the image of librarians in the media with a twist. In a bid for libraries to seem cool, hip, and exciting, institutions often go out of their way to shine a spotlight on the more unusual subgenres of librarians: tatooed libraians, punk rock librarians, lipstick librarians etc. The old librarian stereotype is dead, long live the new stereotype.
In hindsight I would have liked to address this issue at Hollywood Librarian, and hopefully with Hollywood Librarian II planned for Spring 2010 we can discuss the dangers of the new stereotype. But first of all do we even agree there is a new stereotpye?
In hindsight I would have liked to address this issue at Hollywood Librarian, and hopefully with Hollywood Librarian II planned for Spring 2010 we can discuss the dangers of the new stereotype. But first of all do we even agree there is a new stereotpye?
Monday, 7 September 2009
Suggested reading
In preparation of the Hollywood Librarian event next Monday we have compiled a related bibliography covering aspects of the library profession, professional stereotypes, cultural perceptions, media representations, and examples of films and texts that perpetuate this stereotype. This list is not exhaustive and we are welcoming all suggestions for additional academic texts/articles/films/literature/websites
Please use the comments for this post to let us know about anything we may have missed.
Please also continue to check the blog this week as we will be adding additional information about the event such as the itinerary and discussion points. See you next week!
Hollywood Librarian Bibliography
Books
De Rosa, C. (2005) Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. OCLC
Dyer, R. (1993) The Matter of Images: Essays on Representations. Routledge
Kneale, R. (2009) You Don’t Look Like a Librarian: Shattering Stereotypes and Creative Positive New Images in the Internet Age. Information Today
Roberto, K. (2003) Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out. McFarland
Slater, M. (1980) Career Patterns and Occupational Image. Aslib.
Tevis, R. (2005) The Image of Librarians in Cinema 1917-1999. McFarland.
Wilson, P. (1982) Stereotypes and Status: Librarians in the United States. Greenwood Press
Articles
Adams, K. (2000) ‘Loveless Frump as Hip and Sexy Party Girl: A Re-evaluation of the Old Maid Stereotype.’ In Library Quarterly. Vol 70, No 3
Balling, G; Skouvig, L. (2008) ‘Digital Reading Groups: Renewing the Librarian Image.’ In New Library World. Vol 109, Iss 1/2, pp.56-64
Bobrovitz, J. (2001) ‘If the (Sensible) Shoe Fits: The Image of the Librarian.’ In Wired West. July 17th www.sla.org/chapter/cwcn/wwest/v4n4/jbimage.htm
Foster, W.E. (1890) ‘Being a Librarian.’ In The Library Journal. October, pp.294-296
Hamilton, V. (2004) ‘The Image and Role of the Librarian’ in Library Review. October, Vol 53, Iss 8, pp.416-418
Luthmann, A. (2007) ‘Librarians, Professionalism and Image: Stereotype and Reality.’ In Library Review. Vol 56 Iss 9 pp.773-780
Parham, N. (1923) ‘As Others See Us.’ In Illinois Libraries. July pp. 44-51
Radford, M; Radford, G. (1997) ‘Power, Knowledge, and Fear: Feminism, Foucault, and the Stereotype of the Female Librarian.’ In Library Quarterly. July, pp.250-263
Sable, A. (1969) ‘The Sexuality of the Library Profession: The Male and Female Librarian.’ In Wilson Library Bulletin. April pp.748-751
Seale, M. (2008) ‘Old Maids, Policeman, and Social Rejects: Mass Media Representation and Public Perceptions of Librarians.’ In Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship. Vol 9 No 1 http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v09n01/seale_m01.html
Walker, S. (1993) ‘The Librarian Stereotype and the Movies.’ In MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship. Vol 1, No 1, pp.16-18
Wiebe, T. (2004) ‘Issues Faced by Male Librarians: Stereotypes, Perceptions, and Career Ramifications.’ In Colorado Libraries. September, pp.11-13
Weblinks
21st Century Librarians
ALA http://archive.ala.org/diversity/student.html
Cool Librarians
http://valinor.ca/waycool.html
Internet Archive : Program Details for The Librarian http://www.archive.org/movies/details=00526
Librarian Action Figure (Archie McPhee)
www.librarianactionfigure.com
Librarian Avengers
http://www.librarianavengers.org
Librarian.net
http://librarian.net
Librarians in Comics
www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2161/combks/combks.htm
Librarians in Fiction
http://valinor.ca/el3.htm
Librarians in the Movies
www.byui.edu/Ricks/employee/raishm/films/introduction.html
Library Stuff
http://www.librarystuff.net
Library Underground
http://www.libraryunderground.org/
Library-usability
http://library-usability.org
The Lipstick Librarian
http://www.lipsticklibrarian.com
LISnews.com
http://lisnews.com
New Breed Librarian
http://www.newbreedlibrarian.org
Stereotype Librarian
http://stereotype-librarian.blogspot.com/
Warrior Librarian
http://www.warriorlibrarian.com
You don't look like a librarian
http://atst.nso.edu/library/perception
Filmography
Chainsaw Sally
Burril, Jimmyo (dir)
United States: Redfield Arts
2004
Desk Set
Lang, Walter (dir)
United States: 20th Century Fox
1957
Goodbye Columbus
Peerce, Larry (dir)
United States: Willow Tree
1969
The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag
Moyle, Allan (dir)
United States: Touchstone Pictures
1992
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
Winther, Peter (dir)
United States: Electric Entertainment
2004
The Mummy
Sommers, Stephen (dir)
United States: Universal Pictures
1999
The Music Man
DaCosta, Morton (dir)
United States: Warner Bros
1962
The Pagemaster
Hunt, Maurice & Johnstone, Joe (dir)
United States: 20th Century Fox
1994
Party Girl
Mayer, Daisy Von Scherler (dir)
United States: Party Productions
1995
Storm Center
Taradash, Daniel
United States: Columbia Pictures
1956
Strike up the Band
Berkeley, Busby (dir)
United States: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
1940
Please use the comments for this post to let us know about anything we may have missed.
Please also continue to check the blog this week as we will be adding additional information about the event such as the itinerary and discussion points. See you next week!
Hollywood Librarian Bibliography
Books
De Rosa, C. (2005) Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. OCLC
Dyer, R. (1993) The Matter of Images: Essays on Representations. Routledge
Kneale, R. (2009) You Don’t Look Like a Librarian: Shattering Stereotypes and Creative Positive New Images in the Internet Age. Information Today
Roberto, K. (2003) Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out. McFarland
Slater, M. (1980) Career Patterns and Occupational Image. Aslib.
Tevis, R. (2005) The Image of Librarians in Cinema 1917-1999. McFarland.
Wilson, P. (1982) Stereotypes and Status: Librarians in the United States. Greenwood Press
Articles
Adams, K. (2000) ‘Loveless Frump as Hip and Sexy Party Girl: A Re-evaluation of the Old Maid Stereotype.’ In Library Quarterly. Vol 70, No 3
Balling, G; Skouvig, L. (2008) ‘Digital Reading Groups: Renewing the Librarian Image.’ In New Library World. Vol 109, Iss 1/2, pp.56-64
Bobrovitz, J. (2001) ‘If the (Sensible) Shoe Fits: The Image of the Librarian.’ In Wired West. July 17th www.sla.org/chapter/cwcn/wwest/v4n4/jbimage.htm
Foster, W.E. (1890) ‘Being a Librarian.’ In The Library Journal. October, pp.294-296
Hamilton, V. (2004) ‘The Image and Role of the Librarian’ in Library Review. October, Vol 53, Iss 8, pp.416-418
Luthmann, A. (2007) ‘Librarians, Professionalism and Image: Stereotype and Reality.’ In Library Review. Vol 56 Iss 9 pp.773-780
Parham, N. (1923) ‘As Others See Us.’ In Illinois Libraries. July pp. 44-51
Radford, M; Radford, G. (1997) ‘Power, Knowledge, and Fear: Feminism, Foucault, and the Stereotype of the Female Librarian.’ In Library Quarterly. July, pp.250-263
Sable, A. (1969) ‘The Sexuality of the Library Profession: The Male and Female Librarian.’ In Wilson Library Bulletin. April pp.748-751
Seale, M. (2008) ‘Old Maids, Policeman, and Social Rejects: Mass Media Representation and Public Perceptions of Librarians.’ In Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship. Vol 9 No 1 http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v09n01/seale_m01.html
Walker, S. (1993) ‘The Librarian Stereotype and the Movies.’ In MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship. Vol 1, No 1, pp.16-18
Wiebe, T. (2004) ‘Issues Faced by Male Librarians: Stereotypes, Perceptions, and Career Ramifications.’ In Colorado Libraries. September, pp.11-13
Weblinks
21st Century Librarians
ALA http://archive.ala.org/diversity/student.html
Cool Librarians
http://valinor.ca/waycool.html
Internet Archive : Program Details for The Librarian http://www.archive.org/movies/details=00526
Librarian Action Figure (Archie McPhee)
www.librarianactionfigure.com
Librarian Avengers
http://www.librarianavengers.org
Librarian.net
http://librarian.net
Librarians in Comics
www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2161/combks/combks.htm
Librarians in Fiction
http://valinor.ca/el3.htm
Librarians in the Movies
www.byui.edu/Ricks/employee/raishm/films/introduction.html
Library Stuff
http://www.librarystuff.net
Library Underground
http://www.libraryunderground.org/
Library-usability
http://library-usability.org
The Lipstick Librarian
http://www.lipsticklibrarian.com
LISnews.com
http://lisnews.com
New Breed Librarian
http://www.newbreedlibrarian.org
Stereotype Librarian
http://stereotype-librarian.blogspot.com/
Warrior Librarian
http://www.warriorlibrarian.com
You don't look like a librarian
http://atst.nso.edu/library/perception
Filmography
Chainsaw Sally
Burril, Jimmyo (dir)
United States: Redfield Arts
2004
Desk Set
Lang, Walter (dir)
United States: 20th Century Fox
1957
Goodbye Columbus
Peerce, Larry (dir)
United States: Willow Tree
1969
The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag
Moyle, Allan (dir)
United States: Touchstone Pictures
1992
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
Winther, Peter (dir)
United States: Electric Entertainment
2004
The Mummy
Sommers, Stephen (dir)
United States: Universal Pictures
1999
The Music Man
DaCosta, Morton (dir)
United States: Warner Bros
1962
The Pagemaster
Hunt, Maurice & Johnstone, Joe (dir)
United States: 20th Century Fox
1994
Party Girl
Mayer, Daisy Von Scherler (dir)
United States: Party Productions
1995
Storm Center
Taradash, Daniel
United States: Columbia Pictures
1956
Strike up the Band
Berkeley, Busby (dir)
United States: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
1940
Thursday, 20 August 2009
From old maids to heroes
From old maids to fetishised pin-ups; power mad authority figures to heroes and revolutionaries; there are countless variations of 'The Librarian' available to us in popular culture and in our own imaginations.
What is the history of these stereotpyes and images? What is the true history of the librarian and the profession of library and information science? How does public perception affect/differ/engage with the real life responsibilities of the librarian? Are the true details of our roles invisible, overshadowed instead by lazy stereotypes?
Maura Seale's article Old Maids, Policeman, and Social Rejects: Mass Media Representations and Public Perceptions of Librarians serves as an introduction to this discussion and raises questions for self-reflecting librarians. In her essay Seale raises three vital questions:
1. How are librarians depicted by the mass media?
2. How does the public perceive librarians and how might these views relate to mass media representations?
3. What are the potential effects of these representations and perceptions?
Through a study of cinema, literature, comics, and real life librarians Seale outlines the five most recognised stereotypes of the librarian in the mass media:
The Old Maid Librarian
The Policeman Librarian
The Librarian as Parody
The Inept Librarian
The Hero/ine Librarian
While some of these images in popular culture are comical and appropriated as library heroes (i.e Batgirl, Rupert Giles etc), other images are not quite so simple, in fact many of these conjure negative and damaging aspects of the profession. The stereotypes outlined by Seale certainly warrant further investigation such as the view of gender in these representations in comparison to the profession.
In preparation for our upcoming event Hollywood Librarians, it's vital to raise these issues as points for discussion and debate. While stereotpes are essentially visual shortcuts in the media and popular culture, it is necessary for librarians to be aware of public perception. Whether it is to engage with public perceptions or whether we choose to appropriate and treat these visual shortcuts with a pinch of salt.
Steven J. Schmidt's Film Librarian is a comprehensive database of films featuring librarians and is an invaulable resource for researching all forms of representation of librarians in popular culture. Schmidt introduces his listings by stating that 'many of these films offer a negative image of our profession, but just as many show our strengths. They all just serve to remind us that sometimes we need to remember the way others see us, and laugh.'
Schmidt, S.J (2006) 'Top Ten Films Featuring Librarians' [online] http://www.filmlibrarian.info/
Seale, M. (2008) 'Old Maids, Policeman, and Social Rejects : Mass Media Representations and Public Perceptions of Librarians' in Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship. Vol 9 No 1
What is the history of these stereotpyes and images? What is the true history of the librarian and the profession of library and information science? How does public perception affect/differ/engage with the real life responsibilities of the librarian? Are the true details of our roles invisible, overshadowed instead by lazy stereotypes?
Maura Seale's article Old Maids, Policeman, and Social Rejects: Mass Media Representations and Public Perceptions of Librarians serves as an introduction to this discussion and raises questions for self-reflecting librarians. In her essay Seale raises three vital questions:
1. How are librarians depicted by the mass media?
2. How does the public perceive librarians and how might these views relate to mass media representations?
3. What are the potential effects of these representations and perceptions?
Through a study of cinema, literature, comics, and real life librarians Seale outlines the five most recognised stereotypes of the librarian in the mass media:
The Old Maid Librarian 
The Policeman Librarian 
The Librarian as Parody 
The Inept Librarian
The Hero/ine Librarian While some of these images in popular culture are comical and appropriated as library heroes (i.e Batgirl, Rupert Giles etc), other images are not quite so simple, in fact many of these conjure negative and damaging aspects of the profession. The stereotypes outlined by Seale certainly warrant further investigation such as the view of gender in these representations in comparison to the profession.
In preparation for our upcoming event Hollywood Librarians, it's vital to raise these issues as points for discussion and debate. While stereotpes are essentially visual shortcuts in the media and popular culture, it is necessary for librarians to be aware of public perception. Whether it is to engage with public perceptions or whether we choose to appropriate and treat these visual shortcuts with a pinch of salt.
Steven J. Schmidt's Film Librarian is a comprehensive database of films featuring librarians and is an invaulable resource for researching all forms of representation of librarians in popular culture. Schmidt introduces his listings by stating that 'many of these films offer a negative image of our profession, but just as many show our strengths. They all just serve to remind us that sometimes we need to remember the way others see us, and laugh.'
Schmidt, S.J (2006) 'Top Ten Films Featuring Librarians' [online] http://www.filmlibrarian.info/
Seale, M. (2008) 'Old Maids, Policeman, and Social Rejects : Mass Media Representations and Public Perceptions of Librarians' in Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship. Vol 9 No 1
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
It's time to make some noise in the library...
In preparation of our first Spoken Skins event (news coming soon) we want to think about perceptions of the library and the librarian in popular culture.
Who we are and what we do differs greatly from popular perceptions. The world of libraries and information science are clouded in cultural stigmas and stereotpyes. Are librarian's really all obsessive compulsive asexual middle aged women? Do we really just stamp books all day? This stereotype is largely out of date and factually false, but still incredibly vivid and often quite fun to play with. Are libraries really just shelves of books, are they silent,are they still? We know these as myths and as library professionals we often spend our time radically transforming these perceptions of the physical library space.
Over the next few weeks in the lead up to our first Spoken Skins event we will be exploring libraries and librarians that are actively updating and transforming these popular misconceptions.
Our first Spoken Skins event will specifically focus on the representation of libraries and librarians in popular culture. This event features a screening of the documentary The Hollywood Librarian, discussion panel, and screening of the feature film Party Girl in the Stuart Hall Library. The Spoken Skins blog seeks to document the new series of activities and events taking place in the Stuart Hall Library while creating dialogues with library professionals, library users, and library lovers everywhere.
Is this why you became a librarian?
Which images of the library/librarian in popular culture stand out for you?
Who we are and what we do differs greatly from popular perceptions. The world of libraries and information science are clouded in cultural stigmas and stereotpyes. Are librarian's really all obsessive compulsive asexual middle aged women? Do we really just stamp books all day? This stereotype is largely out of date and factually false, but still incredibly vivid and often quite fun to play with. Are libraries really just shelves of books, are they silent,are they still? We know these as myths and as library professionals we often spend our time radically transforming these perceptions of the physical library space.
Over the next few weeks in the lead up to our first Spoken Skins event we will be exploring libraries and librarians that are actively updating and transforming these popular misconceptions.
Our first Spoken Skins event will specifically focus on the representation of libraries and librarians in popular culture. This event features a screening of the documentary The Hollywood Librarian, discussion panel, and screening of the feature film Party Girl in the Stuart Hall Library. The Spoken Skins blog seeks to document the new series of activities and events taking place in the Stuart Hall Library while creating dialogues with library professionals, library users, and library lovers everywhere.
Is this why you became a librarian?
Which images of the library/librarian in popular culture stand out for you?
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