The world's smallest library

A village in Somerset, England has converted an old phone booth into a functioning library. Over 100 books and a variety of CD's and DVD's are available to be borrowed from this tiny library.

Ghosts in the library

Some Libraries, like any other building that has seen years of human occupation, are allegedly haunted by the ghosts of former staff, patrons, or other residents. These spirits make themselves known by moving objects, making odd noises, creating cold spots. Occasionlay, a physical manifestation is reported.

Famous British libraries that are renowned for paranormal activity are The Royal Library at Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, which reportedly still has Elizabeth I and Charles I browsing the stacks. The library at Ravy Castle in Durham, UK is haunted by Sir Henry Vane the Younger, who was beheaded for treason in 1662. His headless torso has appeared to librarians on a library desk. In the 1950's, York Central Library, was disturbed by a series of paranormal incidents involving a book titled The Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church (1897). Every fourth Sunday at 8:40 p.m., an unseen the book would be removed from its shelf and dropped to the floor and once the caretaker reported seeing the apparition of an elderly man reaching for a book.

Australia's State Library of Victoria, in Melbourne, dates from 1856 and is the home of many hauntings, most regularly the ghost of a an elderly gentleman who actively protects the music stacks and piano. Security guards have reported poltergeist phenomena in the newspaper room and glowing balls of light appear on the stairs after the library is closed.

Art and toys in the library

I have been searching for some unusual artistic representations of librarians, and these are two examples of what I have found. This 'shushing' Librarian doll, (shown left) caused some serious controversy when first released and was based on a 'real' librarian named Nancy Pearl, (shown right) who was accused of setting the library profession back 30 years. Ms Pearl holds a Masters Degree in Library Sciences from the University of Michigan and supposedly decided to become a librarian at the age of 10. Each 12.7 cm tall, hard vinyl Librarian Action Figure was modeled on Nancy, and when you pulled the doll's arm down, and pressed the button on her back, the arm moved up to her lips in what the toy-creators called an “amazing shushing action!” Nancy seems quite fond of this action herself...

The Librarian, (shown right) is a 1556 painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, celebrated for depicting a librarian as a man made out of books. Known for several famous paintings of a man's face created out of plants and vegetables, Arcimboldo is believed to have painted The Librarian as an amusing caricature of the Hapsburg court historiographer Wolfgang Lazius...

Fame and the dead librarian

I found some surrealists, authors, alchemists and inventors to include in this distingushed list of [predominantly] dead, famous people who once worked as librarians :

• Georges Bataille (Surrealist author)



• Jorge Luis Borges (Argentinian novelist)



• Laura Bush (ex-US President's wife...)

• Lewis Carroll (novelist)
  
  
• John Dee (Renaissance magician/alchemist)
  
  
• Marcel Duchamp (influential artist and DADAIST)
  
  
• Benjamin Franklin (American scientist, inventor, statesman, and philosopher)
  
  
• Hypatia of Alexandria (Ancient Greek mathematician)
  
  
• Lao Tsu (Chinese philosopher and reputed founder of Taoism - Court librarian)
  
  
• Marcel Proust (French novelist, essayist and critic)

• Phillip Pullman (fantasy author)

and the notorious Casanova, infamous for many reasons, was also a librarian...

Cinematic Librarians

Here are some of my favourite classic, popular and cult films that feature librarians. Although some library characters are stereotypical, I have tried to find the most unconventional or positive portrayals of librarians/libraries in film:

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941). Features an infamous confrontation with a sterotypical librarian, a mean-spirited, spiteful archivist played by Georgia Backus. So bad, it is funny and has to be seen to be believed. But has possibly haunted our profession's image since.
2. THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER (1989). This arthouse favourite features 'the lover' as librarian.
3. GHOSTBUSTERS(1984), ghostly librarians stack shelves in the haunted New York Public Library.
4. THE WICKER MAN (1973), a classic film featuring arguably the sexiest librarian of all time embodied in the winsome Ingrid Pitt.
5. FOUL PLAY (1978), a classic comedy with Goldie Hawn playing a ditsy San Francisco librarian, seduced by Chevy Chase.
6. NO MAN OF HER OWN(1932), Carole Lombard plays the seductive local librarian who wins Clark Gables heart. A favourite of my Scottish grandmother, who was also a librarian.
7. THE MUMMY(1999) features a reference librarian who assists the scientists in research.
8. AGENT TROUBLE (1987). Catherine Deneuve is a chic librarian, using her research skills to solve a complicated crime.
9. ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979). A classic image of tough guy Clint Eastwood as a librarian, working in the prison library and wheeling the prison library cart.
10. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976). A reference librarian assists reporters working on the Watergate story.
11. BLACK MASK (1996). Jet Li plays a mild-mannered librarian by day, who transforms into the superhero, Black Mask, by night.
12. INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989). Indiana Jones uses a magnificent library in Venice to find the key to the location of the lost chalice.
13. THE MATRIX (1999). The character of Tank, although never named as a 'librarian' is arguably the geek pin-up, most idealised digital librarian icon in contemporary cinema (at least amongst my friends). Sits night and day in front of a huge bank of interconnected computer monitors researching multiple documents/images/files used to save the world.

Singing in the library

I have found so many songs about libraries and longing or wishful thinking about librarians in music, that it makes me feel like there is a soundtrack for libraries everywhere.
My favourite library lyrics of all time:

"I know this girl/This very special girl/And she works in a library, yeah/Standing there behind the counter/Willing to help/With all the problems that I encounter/Helps me find Hemingway/Helps me find Genet/Helps me find Brecht/Helps me find Chandler/Helps me find James Joyce/She always makes the right choice/She's my god, she's my god/She's my g-o-d, she's my god, yeah, yeah/She's my g-o-d, yeah/Oh, she's my god now Yeah!"

from The Go-Betweens song 'Karen'

Some of the best songs about libraries and what 'songsters' think librarians are:

1. Karen - The Go-Betweens
2. At the library - Green Day
3. Library Boy - Urban Tapestry
4. Queens of the circulating library - Coil
5. Sweet Librarian - Railroad Jerk
6. Lines from the library - Shriekback
7. Love in the library - Jimmy Buffet
8. Universal Hall - The Waterboys
9. A design for life - The Manic Street Preachers

Literary Librarians

Some of my favourite imaginative books feature librarians and although stereotypical portrayals sadly still occur, with timid, meek, bespectled female librarians a mainstay, I have found some of the most interesting and unconventional literary library characters as inspirational, intriguing and thought provoking reading as semi-role models. Here are a few of my favourite literary librarians:

1. In Umberto Eco's extraordinary medieval epic, The Name of the Rose, Malachi is the brilliant librarian pivotal to the plot, revealing craven mysteries of the library.
2. In the delicate novel, That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis, a bored, Welsh librarian has unsatisfying adventures outside his stale marriage. In the film version of the novel, the librarian was played with a light, manic energy by Peter Sellers.
3. In Stephen Kings horror novel, It, the main narrator is a librarian (Mike Hanlon), known as the 'keeper of the lighthouse' - a beautiful metaphor for a library.
4. In Garth Nix's lyrically imaginative Lirael (2001), the title character is a curious, nimble minded assistant librarian.
5. In Neil Gaiman's graphic novel series, The Sandman, the guardian librarian of the 'The Dreamings' library is Lucien, who guards all the books that are dreamt, but never written.
6. Read or Die (aka R.O.D.) a futuristic, violent manga series, the librarian/researcher Yomiko Readman, works for the famous Library of England as an eminent bibliophile and researcher of rare literary works.
7. In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, supernatural, hyper-space travelling librarians feature frequently, most notably one who transforms into an Orangutan. Who hasn't had that feeling?
8. And who can forget Batgirl, the original cool librarian, who transforms into Oracle (Barbara Gordon) after she is shot by the fantastical Joker, becoming a computer literate, modern librarian, in the Batman comic series.
9. And in the ever reliable Harry Potter series, Irma Pince is a minor character, and bossy, intellectual librarian in the Hogwarts library.