Film Checks Out Lives Of Librarians
Published: Jun 28, 2007
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WASHINGTON - Men in tuxes and women in gowns smartly walk the red carpet at the Washington Convention Center, to the "woo-hoo!" of adoring fans. A cameraman records the procession; photographers angle for close-ups. One carpet-walker, a woman in blue sequins, strikes a come-hither pose, and a security guard taps a female spectator on the shoulder.
"Are they famous?" he asks.
"No," she replies. "They're librarians."
Librarians, with the notable exception of Laura Bush, aren't often in the spotlight and publicly appreciated - which is exactly why Ann Seidl decided they deserved a movie.
Seidl, 43, a consultant, first became inspired to create a cinematic tribute in 1997 while pursuing her master's of library and information studies at the University of Denver. There, she realized that the sourpuss book-marms long depicted in film bore little resemblance to her passionate colleagues. Her decade-long campaign for librarian respect has culminated with "Hollywood Librarian."
On Friday, the first night of the 128th annual American Library Association convention here, Seidl premiered her $185,000 opus to an audience of 5,000 grateful colleagues.
"I hope this movie busts some myths," said Nathan Bomer, 29, a librarian from Tulsa, Okla. "Our profession is in need of a serious image change."
To illustrate his point, Bomer produced a souvenir just purchased at the convention's gift shop. It was an action figure. Of a librarian. Her weapons: a stack of books and Coke-bottle glasses. Her superpowers: "Amazing Shush-ing Action!"
"My life," Bomer said, "is nothing like that."
Precisely the problem, Seidl said. Today's librarian is less likely to be a mousy Marian than the highly trained captain of a one-stop community center, navigating everything from social services to fundraising socials - all on tightly bound budgets.
"Hollywood Librarian," one of 65 sessions or events during the six-day conference - intersperses clips of some of the silver screen's most celebrated book lovers (Katharine Hepburn in "Desk Set," Parker Posey's "Party Girl") with interviews with librarians nationwide. We meet the misunderstood cataloguer. The noble researcher. The director of the Houston Public Library, who, with 600 employees, sees herself first and foremost as a businesswoman. And a half-dozen small-town librarians, whose days are filled with tasks they never anticipated.
An Absurd Range Of Duties
Susan Turrell, a star of the film, is director of Tunkhannock Public Library, serving a community of 28,000 in rural Pennsylvania. At a reception, Turrell, 62, cited her absurdly broad range of duties:
Providing tech support, plunging toilets, changing light bulbs, spraying for ants, browsing My- Space, dressing as Winnie-the-Pooh, proofreading resumes for library patrons, safeguarding against online porn, providing pro bono therapy and coordinating endless fundraising efforts. All without even the benefit of office space, which was converted into community rooms.
"Some days," she said, "I don't even see a book."
Darby O'Brien, a silver-haired librarian in Utica, N.Y., can empathize.
"Public libraries are just about the last place that anyone can go. We serve the homeless and the mentally ill; we teach the disenfranchised how to use the Internet. We're also the last bastions of democracy and free speech, which is in short supply under this administration," she said, because of such legislation as the Patriot Act.
"DARBY!" a co-worker admonished.
"Well. It is."
Speaking of talking freely, watching a movie with several thousand librarians is surprisingly ... loud. There were cheers for clips from "Matilda," groans for "Zardoz" and guffaws for a "SHHHHHHHH!" montage featuring 70 years' worth of Hollywood librarians telling patrons to simmer down.
The biggest round of applause came during a scene from "Party Girl" in which a prim cataloguer interrogates her hapless trainee: "I assume you are familiar with the Dewey Decimal System?"
Heh heh heh. Librarian humor.
Laughing at themselves is something librarians are very good at. They have to be, they say, when the profession is so misunderstood. One recalled a friend asking - seriously - whether the master of library science degree took so long because librarians first had to read all the books. As in, all of them.
Young Blood In Demand
Real crises face the field. As experienced librarians retire, the profession lacks an infusion of young blood. Not that some public library systems could afford many new employees, anyway.
One of the film's recurring themes is lack of funding, illustrated with the story from Salinas, Calif.: John Steinbeck's hometown was forced in 2005 to shut its three branches for nearly a year after citizens voted down a tax increase to fund the libraries.
Primarily, the library association conference devoted itself to addressing serious issues such as these. The sessions covered topics from preserving intellectual freedom to recruiting black male librarians, who are in extremely short supply.
Seidl hopes the film will penetrate, grass-roots style, the consciousness of everyone who has ever loved a library.
"If everyone knew how smart and funny and dedicated librarians were," she says, "no library would ever be shut down again."
