What Popular Culture is Telling Us About Libraries and Why We Should Listen
I jumped at the chance to read What Popular Culture is Telling Us About Libraries and Why We Should Listen on the Library Journal website when it appeared in my newsfeed. Like many of us, I’ve always been fascinated by the depiction of libraries and librarians in literature, film and song. Because we are blessed with – depending on how you look at it – an enduring archetype to represent our profession (female, bun, horn-rimmed glasses, finger permanently attached to lips) artists and writers can have a lot of fun either reinforcing that archetype or surprising us with a reinvention. So when Karen Glover proposed to tell us what pop culture is saying about libraries, I was anxious to dive in.
While I like her premise, unfortunately Glover misses the mark with some unconvincing arguments. She groups her findings into three categories: Libraries are mysterious; they hold dangerous treasures; they are the place to be. Under the mysterious category she cites libraries from two comics and from the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer to illustrate her contention that these libraries are used by dedicated patrons who have learned of the mysteries to be solved in libraries and she challenges libraries to remove the mystery from the stacks and let everyone know “what is contained in a library.”
In the second passage on dangerous treasures her argument is derailed by a discussion of two shows centered around artifacts found in archives: Warehouse 13 and the National Treasure. Glover makes a faint attempt at arching the premise that in real-life libraries the ideas contained in the materials are dangerous just as the artifacts in these archives are in their fictional settings. By describing the post-apocalyptic, post-electric world of The Walking Dead she believes our archives are the most important way to preserve our knowledge, and maybe our humanity as well.
The third premise is that the library is the place to be because it represents information and tranquility, neutrality, and a common ground. This point is illustrated by a song from The Backyardigans and references to the use of libraries as settings in The Breakfast Club and Glee among others. She believes neutrality is the best thing we can offer society.
I would encourage everyone to read the article, fluffy as it is, because even a negative reaction to it can create positive contemplation. I thought about the images of libraries and librarians that have impacted me over the years and I realized that Ms. Glover misses the mark by ignoring the one thing that makes a library so much more than a place to store artifacts or a place that is hopefully resistant to nuclear or biological warfare. Us. She doesn’t realize that in the best representations of libraries, the librarian is the central focus of the scene.
Of course the paragon of all librarian depictions is Katherine Hepburn’s Bunny Watson in Desk Set (1957). She works tirelessly to deliver the information her clients need quickly and accurately while managing and mentoring her staff, all the while confidently defeating the room-sized computer brought in to replace her.
In 2002’s The Time Machine, the time traveler traverses a million years of human existence in a non-linear fashion but routinely visits the librarian for assistance in understanding the world – whichever world he may currently reside in. Vox, as he is called, is part of a bio-mechanical race of librarians. He is extremely knowledgeable – he literally knows everything – and is impeccably mannered. When asked who he is in the year 800,000 AD he replies, “I’m the librarian. I’ve always been the librarian. Vox is here to help. To serve. How may I serve you?” In 2005 Vox is asked why the moon is breaking apart. After explaining the reason for the disaster, he calmly anticipates his customer’s needs by offering to direct the time traveler to the nearest evacuation shelter.
Also in 2002, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones features two librarians of a sort who illustrate our best and worst traits. When Obi-Wan begins his quest for the clone army he learns of the planet Kamino and goes to the Jedi library to learn where it’s located. It’s not on any charts nor does he find it while searching the computers himself. He asks Jocasta Nu, the human librarian, for help but she haughtily replies, “The archives are comprehensive and totally secure, my young Jedi. One thing you may be absolutely sure of - if an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist!” Obi-wan then turns to the crusty old diner cook named – appropriately – Dex who, when he learns the librarian couldn’t help him, tells Obi-Wan, “I should think you Jedi would have more respect for the difference between knowledge and wisdom.”
What I think “Popular Culture is Telling Us about Libraries” through depictions of our profession is that our public wants us to be there for them. Always and forever. I think the writers of these scenes are saying that no matter how far into the future we go and no matter how much technology we have available, they don’t necessarily care what form the library takes or what form the information takes. “And Why We Should Listen?” They want human interaction. They put their faith and trust in us to know the difference between knowledge and wisdom. They trust us more than Desk Set’s EMERAC and they expect us to last well into the year 800,000 (although the world was pretty much destroyed by then). But we can’t rest on that. We’ve got to be as wise as Bunny Watson and as eternally helpful as Vox without the hubris of Jocasta Nu.
What are some other meaningful depictions of libraries and librarians that have impacted you and your career? What other themes do you see in pop culture that say something about libraries?
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Comments
Your article is very well-written and your critical analysis is right on point. However, when contemplating the meaningful depictions of librarians, only one image comes to my mind, and it's neither insightful or significantly important.
That image is the librarian in "Ghostbusters", stereotypical gray bun and sensible shoes in place, fleeing from a scary unknown presence. The library presented is scary and imposing. I love that image.
Buddy’s analysis of the Library Journal article on librarians in pop culture is well-reasoned and as nicely written as his monthly contributions to info magazine always are. Not having read the original article, I’m probably at too great a disadvantage when it comes to having an opinion, but I’ve never let not knowing what I’m talking about stop me in the past and I have no intention of doing so now.
It does seem that Karen Glover’s ideas are based on too narrow an acquaintance with librarians in pop culture, or perhaps merely limited to those representations that tend to prove her points. Linda Hyams’ response is right on the money—how can this topic be addressed without the most common version of the female librarian, as seen in Ghostbusters? Not only does she shh-h-h noisy customers, she also appears willing to rip them to shreds, a sort of Marian the Librarian (as seen in The Music Man) on crack.
Another obvious omission is Evelyn Carnahan in The Mummy. One of the biggest laughs in the film comes when she drunkenly crows, “I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am. I... am a librarian!” The joke is, of course, that no librarian would ever drink intoxicating liquors and then get so sloshed she would actually boast in public about having such a wimpy job. It’s a scene that plays on a stereotype and the audience, let’s hope, is in on the joke.
I also suggest that sometimes a library and librarian may be used in a script for reasons of dramatic convenience. Why is Giles in Buffy a librarian? Is it, as Glover suggests, just because libraries contain esoteric knowledge and librarians are supposed to know a lot of stuff, or is it because a librarian doesn’t teach regularly scheduled classes and is thereby available for adventures at times an English teacher would be stuck in the classroom? The use of the library as a scene for slaughter in American Horror Story is more likely a darkly humorous parody of The Breakfast Club, a film Glover mentions without recognizing the possible connection.
And given this venue, I won’t even go into the “naughty librarian” fantasy that is more common than you might think. Unless, like me, you use the Internet the way it should be used.
Please don’t think I’m in favor of continuing the stereotype of librarians, but I have after 45 years in the trade gotten used to it. I’m also aware that other jobs have stigmas, real or imagined, attached to them. Perhaps it’s an oddball sign that we’ve arrived and should be grateful that the public has any idea of us at all. Teachers, morticians, used car salesmen, doctors, lawyers, even Indian chiefs all have to put up with the jokes they’ve heard a million times that are aimed at their professions. Although the used car salesmen I’ve known deserved it.
Reading Doug's fabulous observations made me think about all the wonderful ways librarian are depicted and I also feel they were short-changed in the original article. Clearly, the author needed Buddy and Doug's wisdom, wit, and infinite knowledge to write a much more dynamic piece of literature.
However, I can't help but note that it isn't just the movies or television that librarians are leaving their mark. In the current K-Mart advertisement, it features Sofia Vegara in a library with the "naughty librarian". Librarians are here to stay and are integral to pop culture.
Speaking of naughty librarians, I'd like to see a session at FOCUS on how to whip off my glasses and shake my hair out of its confining bun without looking like i'm trying too hard...
Great, how can I possibly add anything to this conversation after Doug's highly readable and entertaining comment?
"Hear hear" to embracing the fact that the librarian's stereotype will always be with us. We need to be able to laugh at that stereotype while continually "being there" for the customer and going above in delivering information to our customers. It's easy to get angry when we hear: "You must love working at the library. All you have to do is read all day." But better than getting angry is to deliver an anecdote that emphasize what we really do. Like the other day, when a kid wanted information on who set the record for reaching the highest altitude. I got him the Guinness Book of World Records, we looked it up together. Then, I showed him how to verify it with two additional sources so what he could really "wow" his teacher. I may have overdid it, because when I approached him with a third possibility for really impressing his teacher, he said, "I think I've got enough."