Happy National Library Week! To help celebrate, I’m going to organize information in a logical, easy to understand way. And oh yeah, present to you, PopWatchers, some awesome pop references to libraries and librarians. Sssshhh!
Could I start anywhere but Marian?
I could not.
More after the jump….
The Breakfast Club, obvs.
Ghostbusters
Party Girl
"Astrophysics" and "Camp Directing" getting their own sections at the library in Wet Hot American Summer [Clip has some naughty language], Holly learning how to use the library in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Rene Russo’s character in Major League…the list goes on.
What librarians get your card catalog in a bunch, PopWatchers?
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Thanks for recognizing National Library Week!!! The clip from Party Girl is awesome – now if only Hollywood would do something awesome with us lowly, behind-the-scenes catalogers.
Where is Giles from Buffy? Not to mention Mr. Atoz from Trek. LOL
How can you not have the library in Buffy!?!?!
Conan the Librarian from UHF.
BTW, I am a childrens librarian, and I remember when my brother and I saw Juno in the East Village. When Juno says, “The funny thing is that Steve Rendazo secretly wants me. Jocks like him always want freaky girls. Girls with horn-rimmed glasses and vegan footwear and Goth makeup. Girls who play the cello and wear Converse All-Stars and want to be children’s librarians when they grow up. Oh yeah, jocks eat that **** up.”, my younger brother looked at me and laughed. Oi. lol!
What about Rupert Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? The best – and hottest – librarian ever. Sunnydale High had a great library – beautiful with a full occult and supernatural section to boot.
I just watched Noah Wyle in “The Librarian: Quest for the Spear” in honor of National Library Week. Although his job is nothing like mine. And I have to agree with Giles from “Buffy.” I became a librarian for the same reason as him–I didn’t want to interact with the students that much. Just kidding. Kind of.
How can you forget Giles and Sunnydale High’s library. Shame on you!
Giles, indeed.
And what about Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl?
Sorry, must totally be redundant with–GILES!
Lori Beth Denberg as Ms. Hushbaum on “All That”(THIS IS A LIBRARY!!!).
And I want to give a shout out to that scene in “The Office” where Pam is wearing her glasses, and Kevin tells her how he’s into librarians.
“Can you just say, ‘These are due back Thursday?”
I think it would be more “gets your OPAC in a bunch” these days. Giles is a great example not here, although his philosophy of avoiding students is the antithesis of what they teach us at library school! Also, you stole my idea, Margaret! Maybe next year.
Giles is the be-all-and-end-all of librarians. Glasses? Check. Tweet jacket? Check. He was everything a librarian should be…and as the show went on he shattered all those stereotypes. Sure he still read a lot of books, but he sang! He wore leather! What would Sunnydale High have been without him?
All the President’s Men!
Giles, Giles, absolutely Giles.
The other thing that sprang to mind was, for some reason, the scene from Bones where Booth asks Brennan to take off her glasses, shake down her hair, and ask him if he knows what the fine for an overdue book is. Sexy librarian fantasies. Hee.
I agree with everyone saying Giles! He’s my favorite librarian ever. Also, I hate to be nitpicky, but technically Parker Posey’s character in Party Girl is not a librarian.
Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl AKA Oracle.
Marian the Librarian is my favorite part of the whole musical.
Love Story – Jennifer (Ali MacGraw) worked at the Radcliffe library when she meets Oliver (Ryan O’Neal).
Katherine Hepburn in The Desk Set..
Evie from The Mummy movies (or at least Rachel Weisz’s version from the first two):
“Look, I… 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.”
“And what is that?”
“I… am a librarian!”
The Paper Chase, when the Harvard students- led by Timothy Bottoms- break into to the Archives to read Professor Kingsfield’s old undergrad thesis. It’s like a Mission Impossible segment, complete with screwdrivers, flashlights, and black outfits.
Someone made a documentary called “Hollywood Librarian” about how librarians are portrayed a few years ago. Still isn’t out on DVD according to its website. Anyway, archivists are the ones who bring the party.
Oh, I love Giles! Still want to be him when I grow up (though he wasn’t why I became a librarian–Buffy was after grad school, alas). And while Ghostbusters was waaaay before grad school, I was freaked out by that scene even then. Not because of the ghosts, no. The fact that someone would have to refile all of those cards had me running for the hills!
How about the librarian in Seinfeld, when Jerry had a book from gradeschool that was overdue and he brought it back and it was the same librarian. Classic.
What about the librarian scene from, The Mummy” where Rachel Weisz is drunk and tells Brendon Fraser that she’s a librarian. Classic!
Remember the scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life” where Clarence shows James Stewart what Mary would be doing if they’d never met? Clarence haltingly tells him, “She’s…she’s…a librarian.”
Hollywood Librarian is available on DVD.
http://www.hollywoodlibrarian.com/
I recall that it was Al Bundy in “Married With Children” who had a run-in with the same librarian as a little boy and then later as a middle-aged adult. She hated him so much that she told him she delayed her retirement so that she’d be able to confront him again.
And then there’s George on Seinfield with his overdue book, “Tropic of Cancer”. He couldn’t return it because the gym teacher stole it.
I love the scenes in the Berlin public library in “Wings of Desire”.
I’m an academic librarian and have enjoyed many library “moments” over the years. The Simpsons, where Lisa explains what the library is to Bart, Scooby Doo, when the gang went to the library to learn what those special eyeglasses were for, Buffy’s Giles, of course, and the Harry Potter library with the flying books that shelve themselves. Look forward to more “positive” library images.