RobertR writes “Here’s a campy 1947 vocational guidance film on what it takes to be a librarian (Do you love books? People? Good.). Found at The Web Archive.“
Man: “I’m looking for a book on Television
Librarian: “Do you know the name of it?”
Man: “I Forget. i know it’s a blue book, and it’s on television.”
Librarian: “I think I can help you!”
Great Time Capsule – worth checking out
This was quite the interesting 10 minute film. Some random observations (keep in mind the 1947 part!):
– Only two male librarians in the whole film. One was a ref librarian, the other the only library director portrayed.
– “Modern Libraries” keep phonograph records.
– Academic librarians appeared to be lumped in with school librarians.
– To be a librarian, you need a BACHELOR of Library Science.
– Librarianship is a field with high job security(!)
These observations aren’t meant to be criticisms, just descriptive. In some ways, the film made it sound like more fun to be a librarian back then it is now. Unless you were in a rural area, which apparently had to make do with one room shacks and book mobiles.
Definitely worth watching.
Step into the wayback machine…
I actually got to see the clip played as part of my introduction to the profession class last semester. It is a good blast from the past to see what librarianship used to be like.
The bad part is that there are places in rural Pennsylvania that I have heard of that are still frozen at that time though. Such clips are not necessarily always views solely of “the past” but also in some cases “the present”.