Attack of the 50-foot Librarian!

So, I watched and loved Monsters University.  As a side note, that has nothing to do with the below post, this is a funny, charming, and thoughtful movie and does justice as a prequel to a very beloved movie from the childhood of the 20-somethings who will now watch it.  I recommend it!

But the movie itself is not what I am actually going to blog about here, it is a short scene about half-way through the movie that takes place in a library.  Yeah!  Represent!

The scene is part of the “Scare Games” challenge in which the monsters must sneak around to retrieve their team flag and not be caught by the Librarian – this is representative of a monster not being caught by a child’s parents.  The Librarian is a comparatively terrifying, literally throwing students out of the window when they make too much noise and glaring at everyone over her opera glasses when she is not reading.  She is The Librarian from the Black Lagoon times 50 and that’s not just in height!

At first, I was taken aback.  How dare Pixar represent librarians in such a negative and traditional manner?  This will surely set the image back yet again.

But as I watched I laughed at the absurdity of the character and the stereotypes she embodied.  It was a cute scene that utilized a certain view of an age-old profession to get laughs.  While I do not support the idea of the Shhh-ing librarian or the like to encourage people to think of librarians as mean old ladies with hair buns, I loved this scene!  It certainly got me thinking – are these stereotypes so outdated that they have become more like satire than peoples’ actual perceptions?

As a bit of back-story, I thoroughly researched the representations of librarians in media and pop culture in my undergrad career.  More and more often, we see librarians like Flynn Carsen or the many examples in Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein, but there are still plenty of examples where librarians are negatively portrayed.  Do non-librarians realize that we are more than shushing and shelving?  We are 21^st century superheroes who research, blog, tweet, fix computers, buy video games for the library, do storytime with iPads, and a whole lot more!

This will still go on a case-by-case basis.  Some may still only think of librarians and libraries as forbidding, quiet places more like a tomb than anything.  Others will know the library can be fun, interesting, and noisy!  So we can spread the word and make sure everyone giggles at library scenes like the one in Monsters University because it is so weird that librarians used to be thought of as mean and bent on destroying noisy patrons, not because they think this is just like their own local librarian.

What do you think of when someone mentions “librarians?”

If you want to see more examples of modern, 21^st century librarians, try out Librarian Wardrobe or Warrior Librarian.  Or visit your local library!