June 10, 2004
A short report about an upcoming film 'the Librarian'
Librarians are often quite touchy about stereotypes and the way that they are portrayed in popular culture. There was considerable debate over the 'shushing doll'or the Library Action Figure, which reflected the unease that at least some librarians feel about their collective image. Will this new film do anything to challenge Librarian stereotypes? How do people really see Librarians? Does anyone care as long as they can find 'that book with the red cover, you know, that one I was looking for yesterday'? In any case, doesn't this celluloid Librarian sound more like a curator....? ;)
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Shhhhhh! Be quiet or I'll revoke your library card!
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Didn't The Critic do a parody preview with Arnold Schwartzenegger as "The Librarian"? If they had, I'm pretty sure the synopsis would have been identical. I mean, it sounds like fun, but yeah, the popular culture stereotype runs strong. 'Course, that's just in public. You know what they say about the quiet ones.
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Is this a TV movie, or a series? It sounds like it would make for one hell of a fun TV series, a good fix for X-Files fans. If I actually thought cable was worth paying for, I'd watch it. And Sandspider brings up the greatest and most unsung of all librarian stereotypes, the brainy but naughty little minx.
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middleclasstool, as someone who acquired cable in this past year, allow me to assure you it is NOT worth paying for!! & yes, sandspider is right! as a "quiet, brainy type" girl-who-wears-glasses I have always liked the idea of the "naughty librarian", of course I am not acutally a librarian...nevermind!
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Check out renegade librarian for an alternative view of librarians.
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Both my Mom and oldest brother are librarians--MLSes and all. Don't know if that answers any of your questions, but it answers some for me.
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Conan the Librarian was part of the great Weird Al film, UHF. "Don't you know the dewey decimal system?!?"
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1) Quiet - as you, a reader delve into worlds and facts, and your senses drift elsewhere - surely there is need for isolation? - a noisy library could cost [a nation] millions of [dollars of] lost ideas 2) Mean or Stern - library fines 3) Single/Unmarried - I would actually assume libraries are rather social places, nonetheless, perhaps the quiet makes it difficult to meet people? Maybe there are librarians who prefer to defend a castle of literature rather than face the world that has thrown them aside? 4) Stuffy - sometimes we fear those who know more than we do - an ungrounded flaw - the flaw of the poor individual suffering from pre-enlightenment upbringing 5) In Glasses - for long distance sight: anyone who has read a great deal will have put great stress upon their eyes. Perhaps libraries have an antiquated image as they are not profitable and are therefore designed to protect the books rather than provide a means of encouraging dreams and ideas. Modern bookstores almost fill the role of an ideal library - they do provide more comfort - but recently the profit mongerors have moved in and the comfy chairs are slowly disappearing, one by one.
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Don't forget that the best librarians are orangutans.
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Librarians are pretty much my favourite people.
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Mine too, Wolof. Me mum's a librarian, and she's not hung up about librarian stereotypes. In fact, she thinks the whole debate is funny as hell. She has a Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure. And yes, we call her Conan. She would probably love this movie, especially because she thinks Noah Wyle is pretty cute. But I think she would be absolutely thrilled if The Librarian was instead played by one of the classy older women actors, like Angelica Houston, Olympia Dukakis, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, etc.
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I'm a librarian. Sort of. Apprenticed - like Rincewind. Some days I wish I could bring my 100 ton hammer to work. I do believe that the library exists to serve its users, but some of the antics that some of them get up to seriously damages the benefits that other users can get from the library. *Growl*