Ryan Schultz sends along another piece about librarians being about the only saving grace of the new disastrous disaster flick “The Day after Tomorrow.”
“Finally, a Hollywood movie where librarians are portrayed the heroes they really are….
“I’m of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.” —Barbara Kingsolver”
hugs from random people
Random hugs would just about make up for the amount of sarcasm and nastiness you get for trying to make the library usable for people who don’t want to have to listen to others-
1) Shouting into their phones
2) Shouting at their mates
3) Pouring coffee over books and computers
4) Leaving random foodstuffs around which get smeared all over everything
5) Putting chewing gum under the tables
6) I can go on all day, and I’m sure you can too….
Librarians as heroes
The media has always portrayed librarians as either losers, socially inept, or obsolete. On rare occasions the true nature of our profession, providing information and materials for those who want to learn more about the world. In today’s world we are more like information brokers which entails dealing with print and non-print materials. It would seem that in a movie produced in 2004 the librarians should have been part of the crew finding information for the scientists and government people. There might have been some database searching as well. There is an old debate about libraries if they are living bibliographic databases or museums preserving world heritage and culture. Merely having the librarians survive and clutching the Guttemberg Bible emphasizes the library as a museum preserving history. The librarians survive to remain the curators of history in a destroyed world. All Hollywood did was redirect stereotypes. It was good try by them but somehow we will always be Marian the Librarian.