Librarians in media

January 20, 2013 4:26 PM

What are some films or TV shows about librarians, or that feature prominent/notable characters that are librarians?
posted by Bektashi to Media & Arts (32 answers total)

The Librarian! featuring Noah Wylie.
posted by xingcat at 4:27 PM on January 20, 2013

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her "watcher", who is supposedly a supervisor-type but becomes a father figure, is the school librarian.
posted by something something at 4:27 PM on January 20, 2013

Best answer: Buffy, The Music Man, It's a Wonderful Life, and even more here.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:28 PM on January 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Party Girl with Parker Posey.
posted by barnoley at 4:33 PM on January 20, 2013 [3 favorites]

Party Girl.
posted by Morrigan at 4:33 PM on January 20, 2013

There was an Australian TV show called The Librarians a few years back. I remember it being fairly amusing.
posted by retrograde at 4:37 PM on January 20, 2013

Book Lust
posted by valannc at 4:42 PM on January 20, 2013

Best answer: There's a site (run by a librarian) that compiled examples of Librarians In The Movies, although he indicates that he's retired as of 2011 so the site isn't being updated. It has an enormous and descriptive list, as well as a bibliography of some articles about depictions of librarians in the media.

And the indie documentary The Hollywood Librarian uses a number of clips from movies as it looks at the lives and work of actual librarians. I've heard that the DVD is sometimes available through local public libraries.
posted by theatro at 4:49 PM on January 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

...or, for that first one, what Ideefixe said. I really recommend that list--along with descriptions and categorization, it also includes a link to a screencap of a famous movie librarian: in It's a Wonderful Life, when George Bailey is shown how the town would be if he'd never been born, the woman who would have been his wife is now a meek, bespectacled spinster, who, worst of all, is...THE TOWN LIBRARIAN. Nooooooooo!
posted by theatro at 4:53 PM on January 20, 2013

Desk Set stars Katharine Hepburn as a librarian, in a movie that's over 50 years old and still surprisingly relevant.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 5:00 PM on January 20, 2013 [4 favorites]

The father in the film (of the Ray Bradbury book) Something Wicked This Way Comes is a librarian.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 5:06 PM on January 20, 2013

What about "The Librarian" (1&2), starring Noah Wiley!
posted by reddot at 5:19 PM on January 20, 2013

Ghostbusters
posted by kirkaracha at 5:36 PM on January 20, 2013

Parks and Recreation - one of Ron Swanson's ex wives (and a hilarious villain) is a librarian.
posted by hungrybruno at 5:44 PM on January 20, 2013 [3 favorites]

One of the main characters in The Music Man is Marian the Librarian

I'm also pretty sure Goldie Hawn's character in Foul Play works in a library, though I don't remember if she was a librarian or not.
posted by Mchelly at 5:52 PM on January 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Conan the Librarian.
posted by Tanizaki at 6:20 PM on January 20, 2013

The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag

Bitch Magazine had just such a list a number (between 10 and 15?) of years ago. It was in an issue about librarians, if I recall correctly. The link doesn't come up with a quick search of their website, unfortunately. Might need a librarian to help find it:P But there seem to be some more recent lists more easily available on the internet as well.
posted by eviemath at 6:44 PM on January 20, 2013

Seinfeld's Mr. Bookman works for the NYPL.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:15 PM on January 20, 2013

(And the above clip includes the scenes with the librarian, too.)
posted by Room 641-A at 7:17 PM on January 20, 2013

Dude. The Name of the Rose. By far my favourite librarian movie. Or book, even.
posted by the dief at 7:34 PM on January 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Evie is a librarian in The Mummy.
posted by katyggls at 7:41 PM on January 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

Michelle Williams' character in The Station Agent is a librarian.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 7:46 PM on January 20, 2013

The Simpsons episode In Marge We Trust had a pretty good library scene; "I'd like the phone book for Hokkaido, Japan, please."
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:13 PM on January 20, 2013

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HotLibrarian

see also Scary Librarian, etc.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:24 PM on January 20, 2013

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger.

The novel/manga/anime series Library War!

The Library, the story-within-a-story TV show in Kelly Link's short story Magic for Beginners. Much more awesome than it sounds.
posted by nicebookrack at 8:26 PM on January 20, 2013

Ack, just realized I linked to 2 books, not movies. Here's another one to compensate: the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Library", in which the librarian is a giant spirit owl. Includes my favorite quote ever from Sokka, the group's resident "meat & sarcasm & planning" guy.
posted by nicebookrack at 8:35 PM on January 20, 2013

Can't link easily from my phone, but the librarians who run the blog "Awful Library Books" love featuring awful books about librarians.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:44 AM on January 21, 2013

Batgirl.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:05 AM on January 21, 2013

Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony.
posted by ninjablob at 5:52 AM on January 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Mummy
posted by bq at 7:59 AM on January 21, 2013

The Time Traveler's Wife. I liked the book a lot; the movie not so much.
posted by Wordwoman at 11:52 AM on January 21, 2013

Some anime: Read or Die features the British Library and special ops agents (librarians et. al.). Sheska is a popular character and librarian/bookworm from Fullmetal Alchemist.
posted by methroach at 1:09 PM on January 21, 2013 [1 favorite]