Favourite Fictional Librarians

Everyone needs a hero, right? 

Librarians are generally well served within popular culture (albeit with one or two notable exceptions) as information specialists, champions of literacy and all round Good Guys. I love spotting libraries and librarians in popular culture, whether it’s film, television or books. Once you have started noticing, it can be surprising just how many library related characters and situations pop up, from Litchfield prison library as a setting for some of the scenes in TV series Orange is the New Black to the earnest Librarian/Witch Kasia in Netflix children’s show Hilda! 

It’s too hard to list all of my favourites so here are just a few: 

Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Does anyone else remember watching Buffy when it first aired on TV? I was hooked by the initial ‘monster of the week’ episodes and intrigued by an overarching narrative arc that grew more complex every season. Three cheers for Rupert Giles, Watcher and guardian of the Chosen One! He hung out almost exclusively in the library at Sunnydale High and was always on hand to rifle through his extensive collection of esoteric texts and find some vital information to help save the day.

Evelyn Carnahan from The Mummy 
Evelyn Carnahan is working in the library of the Cairo Museum of Antiquities when we see her first in the 1999 action/adventure film The Mummy. Her specialised skills include reading Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and fighting the living dead. 

Dr Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl
Head of the Gotham City Public Library, Dr Barbara Gordon has a doctorate in library science and first entered the DC universe in 1967 in issue #359 of Detective Comics. Managing a city’s information needs by day and capable crime fighter by night, the character was a fan favourite from the start. 

Lucien from The Sandman 
Neil Gaiman’s ground-breaking graphic novel series The Sandman contains multitudes of fascinating characters whose stories are linked and interwoven throughout each volume. Lucien is the steadfast custodian of the vast library in Dream’s castle that contains every and any book that could be dreamt or imagined. 

The Librarian from The Discworld Universe
A peripheral and much beloved character from the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, The Librarian of the Unseen University (human once but prefers life as an orangutan now) has his work cut out managing both bungling wizards and the unruly books in the University Library. “If someone ever reported that there was an orangutan in the Library, the wizards would probably go and ask the Librarian if he’d seen it.” - Night Watch (2002), Terry Pratchett

Okay.

A dishonourable mention also has to go to Tammy Swanson, manipulative head of Pawnee’s Library Department from TV show Parks & Recreation. She is an agent of chaos with all of the best lines. 

Submitted by Jessica from Ballyfermot library.  Photo by Angelina Yan on Unsplash.