A Salute To Fictional Librarians...

Starting with Unseen University's "The Librarian", who is an orangutan...

Although I don't have a picture yet...

Giles always saves the day with his books.

I love Giles.

I suppose the Chesire Cat in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books is a librarian...

Don't forget Barbara Gordon (a.k.a. Batgirl)!

Offred in The Handmaid's Tale was a librarian.

Wonderlake-I was just about to hop on and post about this one, too. LOL. In the movie version, she was a librarian. In the book, she worked in a library (digitizing the collection) but wasn't a librarian.

Paghababian-I thought about putting up a Cheshire Cat in my office, but I realized no one would get that I have him up because he's a librarian and not because of my love for all things Alice.

Let us not forget Dewey from Unshelved...the constant reminder to me that I should never be a children's librarian and that academic librarians get paid less than public librarians for a reason!

Israel Armstrong, the librarian/detective in Ian Sansom's books is becoming a favourite. He was promised his own library but was given a broken down van with no books (The case of the missing books.) He is now appearing in The Delegates Choice where he is sent to England for a mobile librarians convention (this is a real convention) to choose a new van.

Evelyn from the movie "The Mummy" was a librarian. Also for anyone who read the webcomic Wapsi Square (http://www.wapsisquare.com/) there is a sphinx named Phix who is a librarian and sometimes appears.

don't forget parker posey as mary in "party girl"!

#7 - I really enjoy Israel's character too. The whole cast is great, from the farmers to the council boss lady.
Are there any more than 3?

Rex Libris (also available here as a preview)

How about "Daisy Minor" in Open Season by Linda Howard... A Librarian on a mission....

As an antithesis, does anyone else get the feeling that The historian priviledges academics over librarians?? Academic researchers find all the information themselves without any help - in fact, the librarians are so busy being in thrall to dracula that there's no time for decent information retrieval assistance! Hmmph.

Wow, now I'm doubly glad I didn't read the rest of that novel-it was too much of a bore for me. From the few chapters I did read, I noticed very little interaction with librarians when dealing with clearly archival materials, which seemed very odd to me.

Yes very academic researcher based with little thought for the people who create the paths to that information.
Still, I really enjoyed the novel despite that flaw.

Some misc. fictional librarians:

1) Nell Stapleton in Ian Rankin's Hide and Seek; a girlfriend of a colleague of John Rebus, gets beat up.
2) Gordon Reeve (?) in Ian Rankin's Knots and Crosses; a children's librarian and ....
3) An unnamed white librarian in the deep south who breaks the book loving heart of Paris Minton, the narrator in Walter Mosley's Fearless Jones. Not a flattering portrayal. But an unnamed librarian who helps Minton establish his bookstore stock maybe balances the picture.

One of my favorites is the "library lady" in The All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor. She's portrayed as a really supportive, positive librarian who really cares about the kids. Part of the plot is what happens when one of the little girls loses her library book and how the librarian handles it is practical and thoughtful.

More misc. fictional librarians:

1) Nell Stapleton also appears in Ian Rankin's Strip Jack.
2) Grace Hepworth Minor, the mother of Mary Minor Herristeen (Harry), the main character in Rita Mae Brown's Rest in Pieces. She was the town librarian and gets a mention expressing the idea that there is renewal in destruction.

Master Ultan, the head of the guild of librarians in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, is supposedly based on Borges. Some readers have speculated that his assistant, Cyby, is a projection of the author into the story.

Rex Libris rocks!!! My personal favorite.

I could be wrong on this one, but I think one of the characters in The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough is a librarian....

I am reading "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks at the moment which has a librarian as one of the characters: Serif effendi Kamal, who hides a valuable medieval manuscript, the Sarajevo Haggadah, from the Nazi's in WW2 in Bosnia. He is based on a real life person which is truly inspirational!

Good Heavens! Almost two dozen posts, and no one has menioned Marion, from The Music Man. I swoon!

My favourite fictional librarian is Miss Zukas in the mystery series by Jo Dereske.

>23 WholeHouseLibrary:

I think that's because there seem to be a lot of people who are strangely hostile towards Marian. Personally, I've always liked her. I suspect they're just sick of hearing the song.

No one has mentioned Mrs. Brown from The Hours yet. She runs away from home to become a librarian.

Henry in The Time Traveler's Wife though I did wonder how he made it through school with his condition.

Rupert Giles is the man though!

In Ratking by Michael Dibdin, there is a brief mention of an unnamed librarian that puts all sorts of obstacles in the way of Zen and the information he needs. I love these incidental characters that illustrate the stereotyped, but unfortunately sometimes too accurate, image of the librarian. I think they should serve as cautionary tales.

In Home School by Charles Webb, it turns out that post-The Graduate, Benjamin winds up in acquisitions and cataloging at a small public library.

The Librarian in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash

In Garth Nyx's Lirael, the title character is an assistant librarian.

My favorite is Aurora Teagarden from the Charlaine Harris's series. And Jacqueline Kirby.

And, of course, The Name of the Rose.

In Carol O'Connell's Stone Angel, there is Milton Hamlin, retired librarian, who dismisses Ira (the autistic savant)'s observation about the disappearing star. Another not so positive vignette about librarians.

In The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach, there are two librarian characters that come into play late in the book, rather importantly, in my opinion.

However, a word of warning: this is a very strange science fiction novel translated from its original German. It's really odd, and depressing in places. But I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

The very supportive and understanding librarian in Roald Dahls Matilda!

The norwegian author Jon Bing has written four young adult books ("Azur", "Zalt", "Mizt" and "Tanz") about the spaceship Alexandria which is a library that flies between planets with information and support to diverse cultures in a galaxy where there is no faster than light travel. The librarians hibernate between planets and the ship is powered by solar sails. (These books inspired me to become a librarian).

^34

Oh, I would love to read those books! I don't suppose they've been translated to English? Or I could probably manage in German in a pinch since they're YA. But oh! they sound like a science fiction fan/librarian's dream!

I second that! Unfortunately I can't find any reference to translations into English. :c(

>34 miromurr:: How could I have forgotten the librarian in Matilda! I give that book to all of my godkids and neices (no nephews old enough for it yet) because of how much of a role reading plays in it, and yet I completely forgot the librarian who helps Matilda find all those great books. Thanks for the reminder.

I'm partial to Lena, from the Liaden Universe (she's in Conflict of Honors and also I Dare, at the very least). In addition to being a great librarian who puts her collection to good use (she learned a very useful language, since the tapes were there), she's also psychic.

I'll have to do some reading to get specifics, but I remember Rufus M. practicing and practicing his name so he could please the librarian in Eleanor Estes' classic.

Last year at the American Library Association conference (in DC), they showed a movie called "The Hollywood Librarian", which was a a study on the way librarians are shown in movies. For me, it was a montage of awesomeness.

Katherine Hepburn in "Desk Set" was in there, although I've never seen it.

Is "Hollywood Librarian" around anywhere for regular humans to watch?

Alas, it's not out on DVD, according to IMDb.

Hey don't forget Stephen King's Short Story The Library Policeman. It's what happens to you when you have Overdue books at the Library.I would hate to say I lost a book at that Library. That was my favorite story from Four Past Midnight but I think that's because I work in a Library and can relate to Overdue books even though we can't charge our Patrons for them. Sometimes we have to send out several reminders to them in order for us to get the books returned. And if they lose the book their Office has to pay the cost so we can buy a replacement copy. If the Patron loses a copy of an InterLibrary Loan book {ILL} comes out of our budget.

beatles1964

There have been times in the past when the book has been long Overdue and by this I mean several years Overdue. Sometimes we are lucky enough to get our books back when someone Retires from an Office and they are cleaning up or it someone Passes Away in an Office they'll go through their stuff and occasionally they'll find one and then send it along to us. Since I have been working in the Library here my Personal Record for seeing the longest Overdue Book is 30 years. The book was originally checked out in the 1960s and wasn't returned until the 90s.

beatles1964

In the movie Sleeping With The Enemy Julia Roberts character Laura Birney goes to work in a College Libary on Campus after she faked her own death and escaped her abusive husband until he caught up with her and found her again.

beatles1964

Also The Librarian Quest For The Spear with Bob Newhart Kelly Hu and Noah Wylie and they made a Sequel Librarian Return To King Solomon's Mine with Bob Newhart and Noah Wylie again and also Gabrielle Anwar. That is an exciting kind of Librarian to be where you are the Librarian version of Indiana Jones going to far off exotic places and retrieving ancient artifacts and relics. I think they are pretty good movies. Maybe I'll start a video collection all about Librarians and see how many I can come up with.

beatles1964

In Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles books there is the Talmasca Library where they have a real large collection of books on the Occult and Supernatural. David used to work there before Lestat made him into a Vampire. TNT made a third Librarian movie called The Librarian The Curse of the Judas Chalice. I don't know when it's supposed to air on tv. In Stephen King's Mini-Series IT Tim Reid plays Michael Hanlon a Librarian who stayed behind in Derry, Maine. He is the only one of the seven kids that stayed behind in Derry and because of this he never forgot about the killings and disappearances of the children and what actually happened 25 years ago when they first fought IT and almost killed it.

beatles1964

40&41> Talk about coincidence - I just got a message on the local library email discussion list that the local film society, Metro Cinema, is going to be showing Hollywood Librarian for three days (5 showings) June 10-12. Am I going? You bet!

Goldie Hawn was in Foul Play; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has that great scene with the Librarian stamping books wihen Harrison Ford was breaking through the floor of the Library in Venice.

I think Tank Girl has a Librarian in it too. Doctor Who has an episode called Silence in the Library, I have a PS2 Video Game called Freaky Flyers and one of the main characters is an English Librarian called Myrna BookBottom who has an alter ego Basher Margaret who would like nothing better than to be rid of Myrna BookBottom once and for all.

Myrna is my favourite character in the game and whenever I play the game I always play as her. From time to time I'll play as one of the other characters but the majority of the time it's Myrna BookBottom.

beatles1964

Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose

Yea I had meant to mention The Name of the Rose. The movie version has Sean Connery in it.There was also the ghostly Librarian in Ghost Busters.

beatles1964

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20190897,00.html
This was in Entertainment Weekly during National Library Week. It's their tribute to what I believe they called "sexy trips to the stacks".

Hollywood Librarian Redux (for Toronto area LT-ers):
The Ontario College and University Library Association and the Ryerson University Library are pleased to present a screening of "The Hollywood LibrarianCheck out the film website at: www.hollywoodlibrarian.com and the film trailer at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=A8kd4fC1bwo

When: Wednesday, June 4 at 7:30 pm
Where: Ryerson University, Lecture Hall LIB 72 (Library Building)
Campus Map: http://www.ryerson.ca/maps/
Admission: $8.00 Buy tickets online at:
www.accessola2.com/ocula/wordpress/2008/04/30/the-hollywood-librarian-june-4/

50> oooh, and Ghostbusters had my favourite thing - the cards from the card catalogue spraying all over. My goodness, I hated our old card catalogue. It was a red-letter day when I was able to upend each drawer over the recycle bin and surplus that cabinet.

How about the scene where they found the books stacked up high on the floor and the books floating from one stack to another on the other side? And the cards from the card catalog got slimed too.

beatles1964

For all you ghostbusters out there: the Willard Library, claiming to be a haunted library, has installed two webcams with the purpose of capturing their 'ghost'. Go see it here:
http://www.willardghost.com/?content=ghostcams+

Has anyone mentioned The Librarian from the Unseen University in the Discworld books?

Impressive 2 year necro that totally missed the first post that listed The Librarian. :D

Miss Marcy, librarian friend of the family in "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith

Jennifer Maloy, aka "Wraith" from the Wild Cards universe; first appeared in Jokers Wild, the third book in the George R. R. Martin edited series.

From Wikipedia article, "Wraith (Wild Cards)":

"Jennifer Maloy was an attractive but introverted librarian until the day she discovered she was an Ace, gifted with the ability to become insubstantial. She used this power to emulate the romantic heroes of her favorite stories as the Wraith, robbing from the rich (and corrupt) and giving to the poor (mostly charities benefiting battered women and pets). However, the limitations of her powers—that she could only "ghost" items of low mass and density—determined not only that her "work clothes" would consist only of a mask and a bikini, it also limited what she could steal to small, mostly paper goods."

Of course I would. *sheepish grin* Yup, I would just skip over the first one. Thank you for pointing that out. :)

Not that it's not understandable - by the time you get to the end of the thread, the topic has shifted multiple times and all :P

But, on topic! Remember the shushing librarian in the Ramona Quimby book? I think it was Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - that librarian character made me think that I might like to be a librarian one day. I think there must have been one in either Ellen Tebbits or Emily's Runaway Imagination that made it even more appealing. Ellen and Emily were two of my all-time favorite books in elementary school, especially when I got the really pretty '70s copies from the library, instead of having to borrow the worn out paperback editions.

^61, I don't believe either Ellen Tebbits or Emily's Runaway Imagination has a librarian per se -- although Emily's mother acts as the town librarian since she is the one who gets the little library started in Pitchfork, Oregon. I adore those books!

There are two librarians in Beezus and Ramona, one who isn't the nice one, and one who is very understanding when Beezus brings back the library book that Ramona scribbled in. ;-)

Madam Pince in Harry Potter--not a very positive depiction, but I'm fond of her anyway.
The librarian in Beautiful Creatures (who I believe is named Marian) is pretty cool.
And the title story of Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners has has a story-within-a-story featuring a strange and wondrous pirated tv show called "The Library."

62> Is it awful that it was the mean librarian in the Ramona book that I liked? :D

Has anyone read Libyrinth by Pearl North? Recent young adult fantasy/sci-fi in which literacy is outlawed, although one remaining library is barely tolerated. The main character is a clerk in the library to whom the books actually speak aloud, which she must keep secret for fear of being accused of witchcraft. The quotes throughout the book are identified in an appendix at the end. It's quite delightful.

#65--I have that checked out from the library right now, I'm really looking forward to it.

While not a librarian, Margot Harrington from The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga is a US book conservator who goes to Florence after teh flood in 1966. Wonderful book.

Well I think someone ought to mention Janet, Librarian by Raphael Mello. Although not to everyone's taste - and please take that as a warning - its three principal characters, Janet Westwood, Diane Essex and Bob Lehmann are all librarians. Not that what they get up to has much to do with books ...

I seem to remember the role of female librarian as a male fantasy figure has been mentioned elsewhere in this forum.

I just recalled another great librarian/library story. It's included in the Faery Reel and is titled "CATNYP" (by Delia Sherman). I bought the book because of that story, actually. It's about a young changeling in magical NYC who is searching for information about love and, naturally, goes to the NYPL to learn about it. The typical elements of the library are given a fantasy treatment, so you have a genius loci, guardian of the library place who embodies all the information within the books the library contains. There's a lion who is called CATNYP, who provides catalogue search functions - each query result is in the form of a tiny mouse, who can then run through special chutes in the stacks to bring back the appropriate book.

I guess, on description of it, there isn't really a librarian per se. Everything is fantasyland, so it's more like the NYPL is its own librarian, as each of the fantasy critters performs some aspect of the librarian job.

At any rate, it's a cute little story about a cool library. :)

The Library Ninjas from Jacob Two-Two, a Canadian cartoon I see on Qubo.

Top five favorite fictional librarians:

5. Jocasta Nu
4. Rex Libris
3. Rupert Giles
2. Lucien, librarian of the Dreaming
1. Batgirl/The Oracle

Our profession is the awesomest in fiction.

Does Conan the Librarian count? (Can't find that motivational poster currently, but I used it in our library book sale last year).

Ellen Klages has a great short story titled ""In the House of the Seven Librarians".

No one here has yet mentioned the film "Storm center" (1956) in which Betty Davis plays a very tough librarian indeed.

Does anyone remember "Conan the Librarian" story from the TV show Reading Rainbow? I caught that episode one day when I was going to Library School and I thought it was hilarious! Its the tale of a boy who must prove his worthiness to get a library card to Conan the Librarian! I don't remember if it was based on a book like the other stories were, or if it was done just for the show.

I am trying to read a YA graphic novel called library wars. I say trying because i find graphic novels hard to follow, but who can resist the Library Defense Force, complete with drill instructor. "winning the war on information one book at a time".

#74: "Weird Al" Yankovic used the same gag in his film UHF. His take was short, sweet, and gory.

Remember George's alternate reality in "It's a Wonderful Life"? If he hadn't been around, wife Mary would have become a bitter old maid librarian. The scene showed her locking up the library wearing a frown and thick glasses -- so insulting!

Anyone who thinks librarians are passionless creatures should read Lily Prior's "La Cucina"

I enjoyed The Giant's House: A Romance by Elizabeth McCracken. The main character is a librarian who develops a relationship with an 11 year old giant. Sounds bizarre, but it's a great read!

I really love the evil librarians in the Alcatraz series. I bought the first book b/c of the title alone! Take that! to those who think librarians are mousy introverts!

How about the father in Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. Liked how he was confronted by the devilish carnival owner for cataloging other people's lives instead of living his own.

20 heroic librarians who save the world http://io9.com/5671047/20-heroic-librarians-who-save-the-world. My favourite Lirael from Garth Nix's Abhorsen series

Just to add to the canon - Bellis Coldwine is press ganged as a cataloger in the library of the floating city of Armada in China Mieville's The Scar.

The Sword of Maiden's Tears by Rosemary Edghill doesn't have any actual librarians, but all the main characters are in library school.

Has anyone mentioned the librarian in some of Garrison Keillor's radio sketches?

Really! Does no one here read scifi? How about Adele Mundy( pretty sure that's her name) who is one of two main characters in a David Drake series. She's deadly and a librarian ( and who amongst us aren't)

The main character in Goodbye, Colombus, book and film. Not the most uplifting ending for a librarian.

And she's not fictional, but there's a really terrific librarian in Pat Conroy's new memoir My Reading Life. He's a kid in high school reading Victor Hugo, she's a former home ec teacher turned librarian recruit because there was no one else to do the job. Suspicious of his reading Les Miserables, she asks him if he likes football. He replies that he does, so she gives him Hugo's famous novel about football: The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Cracked me up.

There's a relatively new mystery series by R.T. Raichev featuring a librarian as the accidental detective. The first book in the series is The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette. Fans of female authors from the Golden Age of mystery writing will enjoy these.

In William Trevor's Death in Summer there's a decrepit librarian called Orpen Wren who lives in the past, and waits every day for a train on a line that no longer runs.

I found out the other day that Superman's biological mother was a librarian called Lara. Hehehehe

Marian the Librarian in The Music Man
Giles is a Librarian in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Ghostbusters
Foul Play
Forever Young
Desk Set
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The Gun In Betty Lou's Handbag
The Dresden Files
Down With Love
The Convent
Miranda
Noelle
Last Life in the Universe
Time Traveler's Wife
The Creeps
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mine
The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
Black Mask
IT
The Shawshank Redemption

Beatles1964

Name of the Rose

Beatles1964

There is an anime on Adult Swim called "Full Metal Alchemist/Brotherhood" that at one point of the story has a fired librarian helping out the heroes with her remarkable photographic memory. (She got fired for spending all her time reading!)

In Haruki Murakami's Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World there are two librarians. One lends skulls, the other is always hungry.

David Brin's The Uplift Saga series has The Library, but no librarian.
The Star Trek episode (from the original series) "All Our Yesterdays" had a librarian named Mr. Atoz.

"Paper Cuts Scissors" from Holly Black's short story collection, The Poison Eaters, features main characters who are in library school.

There's a blog (http://librariesatthemovies.blogspot.com/) dedicated exclusively to representations of librarians in cinema - many of these movies are based on novels.

Una: Missy's "guardian angel"

Sorry: previous post was for #21

Miss Minifred ("Wild Eunice") from Patricia MacLachlan's "Baby."

> 91 I'm gonna have to disagree with you on three of the things on your list:
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mine
The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice

They may be called 'The Librarian', but I've watched all of them (the Curse was my favorite, Stana Katic singing is nearly never bad), and at best he's an Archivist (which is always a good thing), but he's not really even that, he's more of an Archeologist/Indiana Jones Professor sort of really smart guy who has a key to a library.