thoughtcrumbs

Librarians on film

In her upcoming documentary, The Hollywood Librarian, filmmaker and librarian Ann Seidl seeks to dispel stereotypes about bun-wearing, sexually repressed bookworms milling about uselessly in libraries. Remarking on one character's experience in Sophie's Choice, Seidl said:

If your patron faints and then vomits, it's a sign of a bad reference interview.

Interspersing interviews with clips from such movies as Party Girl, Mathilda, and Desk Set, Seidl hopes to sex up this underlauded profession. Or at least to prevent people from treating it with undue reverence and fear. She says:

When I tell people I'm a librarian, they always say, "You don't look like a librarian." And then they act as if I were a priest or a nun—that "librarian" is some quasi-religious profession. They get all confessional, saying "You know, I haven't been to a library in years. . . . Um, I don't think I have any fines."