Librarians in popular culture

This is a collection of descriptions of librarians in popular culture, i.e. literature, film, television, and games.

Literature

 * In the Discworld book series by Terry Pratchett there is a librarian who has been magically turned into an orangutan. In these stories, librarians frequently have supernatural powers related to books and library work, including access to a form of hyperspace known as L-Space.
 * In the comic book series Batman, Barbara Gordon is a computer-savvy librarian using the name Oracle. Before she was shot by the Joker, restricting the use of her legs, she was known as Batgirl.
 * Lucien, from Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman, tends to The Dreaming's library, where all the books that are dreamt of, but never written, are contained.
 * Jack and Annie in The Magic Treehouse series of children's books become "Master Librarians".
 * Irma Pince is the librarian in several of the Harry Potter novels. She is a minor character as a disciplinarian in the Hogwarts library.
 * Malachi is the scholarly librarian in Umberto Eco's medieval murder mystery The Name of the Rose who unlocks the secrets of a labyrinthine library to the novel's protagonists.
 * In Elizabeth Peters' mystery novels, Jacqueline Kirby of Coldwater College, Nebraska, has the unique ability to transform herself from a stereotypical librarian -- complete with glasses and sensible shoes -- to a glamorous knockout.
 * In Jo Dereske novels, Helma Zukas of Bellehaven, Washington (her way of swearing is "Oh, Faulkner!").
 * Laurali R. Wright has a series of crime novels set in British Columbia featuring Cassandra Mitchell, librarian and partner of a Royal Canadian Mountie
 * In "It" by Stephen King the central narrator is Mike Hanlon, a librarian in the small town of Derry, Maine. He is described as "the keeper of the lighthouse"
 * In Kingsley Amis' comic novel That Uncertain Feeling, a Welsh librarian bored with his marriage casts his eye upon a new girl in town. In the film version, Only Two Can Play, the librarian was played by Peter Sellers.

Television

 * In most animated cartoon series, like Baby Looney Tunes to Rugrats, and even Doug, the librarian is often shown silencing the main or pivotal characters, especially younger children, when they're in a library area. Some even ban the characters from the libraries for many rude or strange noises.
 * On the television series All That, there are several sketches that feature a silence-obsessed librarian (known as "The Loud Librarian" to some) that scolds someone for even making a coughing sound. She is eventually "fired" when Lori Beth Denberg leaves the cast in 1998.
 * In the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Anthony Stewart Head played the role of Rupert Giles, school librarian in earlier episodes and Buffy's watcher.
 * In a Star Trek episode All Our Yesterdays, Ian Wolfe plays librarian Mr. Atoz: "The library serves no purpose unless someone is using it."
 * In the 1967 episode of The Avengers (TV series), "Murdersville," a gun is used with a silencer after the librarian points to the SILENCE sign. Plot summary and images.
 * In an episode of Seinfeld, Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) dates a librarian from the New York Public Library, much to the chagrin of the "library cop."
 * In one episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus wild animals are interviewed for the position of librarian.

Film

 * A wretched alternate fate is revealed for Mary Hatch Bailey (played by Donna Reed) in the movie It's a Wonderful Life: "She's closing up the library!"
 * Vox (played by Orlando Jones), a holographic entity possessing a "compendium of all human knowledge," works at a futuristic New York Public Library in the movie The Time Machine (2002).
 * Mary (played by Parker Posey) is the ultimate Party Girl (movie) who discovers, "I want to be a librarian!"
 * Librarian Bunny Watson (played by Katharine Hepburn) teaches Richard Sumner (played by Spencer Tracy) a few things about modern research methods in the movie Desk Set.
 * Heather Stephens plays Jill, the awkward librarian (and closet dominatrix), in the movie Tomcats.
 * Shirley Jones stars as the no-nonsense "Marian the Librarian" in the movie The Music Man.
 * Jocasta Nu is an archivist in the film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
 * Evelyn Carnahan is proud to be a librarian in the movies The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.
 * Noah Wyle's character in the television movie The Librarian: Quest for The Spear. His mother: "Sixteen years of college and they've got you putting books on shelves?"
 * Jet Li's character in the movie Black Mask works as a librarian.
 * Last Life in the Universe is an intriguing tale about a male Japanese librarian.
 * Bette Davis, in Storm Center (1956), plays a librarian who refuses to remove a book on Communism from the public library and is thereafter ostracized.
 * In No Man of Her Own (1932), Clark Gable is a big city con man who falls for a local librarian (Carole Lombard) while on the lam.
 * Ingrid Pitt plays a "nymphomaniac librarian" (as she described it) in the classic British movie The Wicker Man, who is found naked by Edward Woodward's virginal Christian policeman.
 * Goldie Hawn dons cat-eyed glasses when she plays San Fransisco librarian Gloria Mundy who helps Chevy Chase solve an assassination plot in the comedy Foul Play (1978).

Games and toys

 * The "Librarian As Shusher" is a consistent cultural stereotype that can be seen in such products as the Librarian Action Figure, an action figure of the stereotypical librarian holding a finger up to her lips, indicating silence. (The figure is modeled after Nancy Pearl, librarian at the Seattle Public Library.


 * Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Librarians are superhuman fighters with potent psychic powers, rather than just being deskbound intellects. Wielding force staffs and psychic abilities, they are found on the battlefield battling alongside their non-psychic battle brothers delivering justice to the Emperor's enemies, while at the same time advising the Space Marine Commander.

Music

 * Sweet Librarian by Railroad Jerk, from The Third Rail album
 * The Librarian’s Nightmare by Phil Hammon from The Librarian’s Nightmare album
 * "Love in the Library" by Jimmy Buffett, from the Fruitcakes album
 * "Karen" by the Go-Betweens, from the Lee Remick/Karen 7" single

Comic strips

 * Unshelved is an online daily comic strip set in Mallville Public Library reflecting changes in the real world of libraries and with an eye for popular culture. See the latest comic strip or go to the Unshelved primer.