2024 NATIONAL MEDAL
for Museum and Library Service Finalist

Sharing Libraries, Ep1: Librarians in Media

Sharing Libraries is an LMxAC podcast. LMxAC is the Libraries of Middlesex Automated Consortium, of which East Brunswick and 30+ other libraries share resources to make your library experience bigger and better!
 
Host Jonathan Upton sits down with Saleena Davidson (Teen Services Supervisor, South Brunswick PL) and Paul Kibala (Adult Services Librarian, East Brunswick PL) about the portrayals of librarians in media and peel back the curtain on what librarians do and how they think about what libraries now do.
Check out some recommendations to watch or read below, or click here for the full list.
 
Introduction
Favorite Portrayals
  • The Neverending Story (catalog: film & book)
  • Parks and Recreation, season two: "Ron & Tammy" (catalog)
  • The Parks department vs books (YouTube)
  • “Marian the Librarian” (YouTube)
  • Bob's Burgers: Mr. Ambrose (YouTube)
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Rupert Giles (catalog)
  • The Sandman: Lucienne (catalog)
Bonus:
Genre fiction
  • Harry Potter (catalog)  (YouTube)
  • Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic (catalog)  and The Light Fantastic (catalog)
  • "Discovering that being an orang-utan has certain advantages for a librarian (climbing the book shelves and using his hands and feet for sorting books being one such advantage), he refused to be transformed back into a human, and has remained an orang-utan ever since." (source: Wikipedia)
Stereotypes
  • The  rude or inattentive librarian: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (catalog)
  • The  spinster librarian: Mary from It's a Wonderful Life (catalog)
  • The  sexy librarian: Ms. Dewey (Wikipedia)
  • The  hoarder of all secret knowledge: Monsters University (catalog)
  • Actually an archivist: Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones (catalog)
  • Anybody can become a librarian: Party Girl (catalog)
  • Booked for Murder (catalog)
Accurate Stereotypes

New Takes on Librarians

  • The Library Book (catalog)
  • Archivists: NARA and reclaiming documents

Some Background Research