“Against the hair of your professions”: Fictional librarians and hair buns

Often librarians are portrayed as quiet, bookish people, who shush those who are noisy, and act in a stereotypical manner. However, librarians come in many types and kinds, either with an MLIS/MLS or not, and those stereotypes can be disrupted when a librarian changes professions as it changes audience expectations. Even so, librarians aren’t united on what the image of librarians should be changed into in order to counter the stereotypes. Through all of this, many librarians are portrayed with hair buns, part of the oft-stereotype. [2] Today, I’ll explore that, determining why this is the case, its significance in librarian portrayals, and what it means overall. As Swallow said in Act I of William Shakespeare’s classic comedy play, The Mary Wives of Windsor, “if you should fight, you go against the hair of your professions,” meaning that you are going against the grain.

Fictional librarians are often shown with so-called “traditional” outfits, looks, and hairstyles, including hair buns, which are symbolic in research around stereotypes themselves. This has even cropped up in webcomics. This is in part because styling one’s hair can be “highly politicized” and complicated, especially for people of color, who experience microaggressions when people want to “touch” their hair or question it entirely. Some have even argued that different hair styles can be empowering and resist stereotypes, even as a library can be a “very conservative” place to work, although this may not be as strict in university library environments. Hair can also be an opportunity to communicate change, while serving as an intricate part of the identity and responsibility of the profession itself, with different hair styles having the potential to dispel stereotypes. [3]

In Western animation, this is clear as librarians of color, like Clara Rhone in Welcome to the Wayne, and Mira in Mira, Royal Detective episode (“The Case of the Missing Library Book”) don’t wear hair buns. Neither does Ms. Herrera in a Archie’s Weird Mysteries episode (“The Haunting of Riverdale”). However, the unnamed librarian in a We Bare Bears episode (“The Library”) prominently wears a hair bun, and serves as the only librarian of color that I know of, in Western animation, that does so. This could be a function of her role in the library and set rules which may establish that she dresses to “impress” in a semi-formal outfit. So, it could be a consequence of that, as other librarians I’ve mentioned may work in environments which are more open with their rules around self-expression or care little about how people look.

When it comes to White female librarians in animation, it is a different story. Apart from Kaisa in Hilda, the unnamed librarian in a Steven Universe episode (“Buddy’s Book”), the librarian in the first Zevo-3 episode, Mrs. Higgins in a Sofia the First episode (“The Princess Test”), and Amity Blight in The Owl House, who briefly wears her hair in a pony trail, which became a sensation among fans of the series, to give a few examples, many of the other librarians wear hair buns. [4] This includes the librarian characters, who are effectively one-episode-wonders or only appear very briefly, in episodes of Futurama, DC Super Hero Girls, Rugrats, Kim Possible, Timon & Pumbaa, Dexter’s Laboratory, Totally Spies, Phineas & Ferb, and The Simpsons, to name a few shows.

Also, Francis Clara Censorsdoll in Moral Orel wears a hair bun. Even, the blue-glasses wearing librarian in The Flintstones episode “The Hit Songwriter” wears a hair bun. At times, it appears that librarians with hair buns are meant to symbolize social conservative and prudish people, like the librarian in an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head (“Cyber-Butt”), who faints when she sees a nude image on a computer screen. Although she doesn’t wear a hair bun, what she symbolizes is similar to how some librarians are portrayed in Western animation.

Others have declared that the perception of librarians with hair buns or lace collars should be discarded, as librarians are highly active and high tech now. While someone can easily agree with this, it is harder to push away the image of a spinster librarian with a hair bun, with some wearing buns and braids while working in the library. There is the further point that many librarians may not have enough hair to put into a bun in the first place. At one point, librarians adopted the hair bun style at one time, giving life to what became the stereotype and cliche. However, nowadays many younger librarians have different hair styles, and some might even have better eyesight than anyone else as they don’t need glasses! [5] Still, tropes like the”Prim and Proper Bun” remain, with those with this hairstyle said to be in charge or be respected. This is somewhat countered with the “Loony Librarian” trope, which is said to describe a librarian who’s let “their profession mess with their mind a little.”

Top row, from left to right: Violet Stanhope in Archie’s Weird Mysteries, Miss Dickens in Carl Squared, Sara in Too Loud, Sarah in Too Loud, and Mrs. Shusher in The Replacements. Bottom row, from left to right, Marion the librarian in Hanny Manny, Millie in Madagascar: A Little Wild, unnamed librarian in Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, unnamed librarian in Martin Mystery, unnamed librarian in Martin Mystery, and unnamed librarian in Uncle Grandpa.

The stern librarian with hair tied tightly behind their head, peering at patrons from behind their glasses, still remains a go-to-stereotype for too many, even perpetrated by journalists who should know better. Some even try and make it sexy, serious, while others highlight other hairstyles or fashions instead. [6] The shushing librarian remains, despite the fact it doesn’t reflect reality, with uptight librarians fading from existence except in pop culture, where they remain a negative stereotype. They appear as early as a 1921 silent film, with hair buns becoming an “occupational indicator” of librarians over time, even as there is no single image of a librarian. [7] Instead, actual librarians are different, and have varying styles. Jennifer Snoek-Brown, who runs Reel Librarians, has recognized this with posts about librarian style, like a librarian-themed clothing collection she posted about in May 2022.

Of course, there are actual librarians out there, like the elderly White woman with grey hair in a bun shown at the beginning of Ghostbusters, and others who embody the stereotype or wear librarian costumes for Halloween. However, there are just as many who run afoul of that stereotype, either by not shushing any patrons. The stereotype itself has its roots in gender with the profession dominated by White woman, although it is not accurate in the slightest. [8] There is supposed “greying” of the profession which only reinforces the images of frumpy stereotypical librarians, an image with unknown origins. The latter image is something which has become a signifier of the profession, for better or worse, despite efforts to counter it. The fight to counter such images continues, with some showing they are more than a librarian, like those who also bellydance, and others who thrive on change and want to dispel of the bun entirely. [9]

There are various librarians in Western animations who don’t wear hair buns. Apart from Amity, who I mentioned earlier, there’s Violet Stanhope in an episode of Archie’s Weird Mysteries (“The Haunting of Riverdale”), Miss Dickens in Carl Squared episode (“Carl’s Techno-Jinx”), Sara and Sarah in Too Loud, Mrs. Shusher in The Replacements episode (“Quiet Riot”), Millie in Madagascar: A Little Wild episode (“Melman at the Movies”), and Marion the Librarian in Hanny Manny. There are additional unnamed librarians in Martin Mystery, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Uncle Grandpa, Phineas and Ferb, and Amphibia, none of whom wear hair buns either.

But there is something more to the bun hairstyle. In some ways, it can be practical, despite being a stereotype for librarians, and is claimed to add “glam” or “chic” to any outfit, with no “right or wrong way to wear a bun” as one site declared. This can also be pushed away by people of color who want to move away from being called a “bun lady”. At the same time, apart from the types of buns, some of which are said to show that a person is “sophisticated.”

Ancient Chinese, Koreans, Polynesians, and Greeks, often women, all wore hair buns. The hair style was popular in Korea and Japan among men, for one reason or another. It became popular beginning in the 1800s, as styles from ancient Greeks and Romans entering into high society, and again in the 1870s, during the Victorian period. [10]

This isn’t the case for all librarians, however. The above librarian, Nagisa Yasaka (voiced by Hisako Tōjō), appears in one episode of My Roommate is a Cat, “Ones Who Can’t Be Controlled”, and is overjoyed when the protagonist gives her a book, thinking she’d be interested in it, after struggling to decide what to give her, not knowing her interests. She tells him that she is a school librarian. Unfortunately, we only see her in this one episode and never again, so it isn’t known whether she wears a hair bun while working in the library or not.

She is not alone in this. Hair buns are somewhat rare for the librarians I’ve seen in anime to-date, with even Fumio Murakumi in Girl Friend Beta having her hair braided into tails, but not tied up in a hair bun. The same is the case for Hasegawa Sumika in Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, while Himeko Agari in Komi Can’t Communicate has hair too short to put into a hair bun. Even the two librarians briefly shown in the first episode of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai don’t have a hair bun, as one as her hair in a ponytail and the other doesn’t have her hair tied up. The unnamed and uncredited librarian shown in an episode of Kin-iro Mosaic aka Kinmoza (“The Girl on My Mind”) doesn’t have her hair in a hair bun either. Instead, its just in a pony tail

However, there are a couple librarians in anime who have a hair buns. Take for example, the unnamed librarian in an episode of Akebi’s Sailor Uniform episode (“There’s No School Tomorrow, Right?”). More prominently, there’s Rin Shima in Laid-Back Camp. Apart from her sleeping at the information desk, from time to time, as I described in a post back in January, she seems comfortable with a hair bun. It allows her to keep her hair tied up while she works, and doesn’t serve as a distraction. She might be the most prominent Japanese fictional librarian who wears a hair bun.

This difference in fictional librarians is one of the many aspects which sets apart librarians in anime from those in Western animation. If the photographs on Wikimedia and scattered images online are any indication, Japanese female librarians often don’t often wear hair buns. So, in this sense, the anime may be reflecting reality. The same may be the case for Western animation, to an extent, except that there has been a strong resistance to the “bun lady” perception in Western countries, especially by librarians of color, who don’t want to tie up their hair in buns. Hopefully, Western animation, in coming years, features more librarians without hair buns, and guts the stereotype entirely, even if it is too easy to rely on old cliches of librarians (often White) who are strict, curmudgeonly, and have hair buns.

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Notes

[1] Top row, from left to right: unnamed librarian in Futurama, unnamed librarian in DC Super Hero Girls, Ms. Hatchet in Kim Possible, Rita Book in Timon & Pumbaa, unnamed librarian in Rugrats. Bottom row, from left to right: Mrs. L in Dexter’s Laboratory, unnamed librarian in Totally Spies!, unnamed librarian in We Bare Bears, Eztli in Victor and Valentino, Francis Clara Censordoll in Moral Orel, unnamed librarian in Big City Greens, Arlene in Phineas and Ferb, and Censordoll again.

[2] Matthew Wood. “10 Most Awesome Librarians in Pop Culture,” Comic Book Resources, Aug. 22, 2019; Stephen Walker, V. Lonnie Lawson. “The Librarian Stereotype and the Movies,” MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship, 1, no. 1 (1993): 16-28; Dana Vinke. “Unconventional Librarians,” Image of Libraries in Popular Culture, Fall 2001, accessed May 27, 2022; Sadie Trombetta. “11 Of The Coolest Librarians From Pop Culture,” Bustle, Mar. 2, 2015. For additional resources, see Ashanti White’s Not Your Ordinary Librarian: Debunking the Popular Perceptions of Librarians, Nicole Pagowsky’s The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Perceptions and Presentations of Information Work, to mention two books. There are librarians like Lani in Diner Dash and Myrna Bookbottom in Freaky Flyers who both embody librarian stereotypes, but there are others that buck these stereotypes.

[3] Raymond Pun and Jesus Lau, “Hair and Hairstyles as Metaphors for Librarians,” IFLA WLIC 2018, pp. 1-5.

[4] Amity is beloved by fans since she is a somewhat prominent recurring character and she is a lesbian who is in a romantic relationship with the show’s protagonist, Luz Noceda.

[5] Christine Sharbrough, “What Does a Librarian Do All Day?,” BellaOnline, 2013; DarLynn Nemitz, “Male Librarians: Stereotypes and Role Models,” Image of Librarians in Popular Culture, Fall 2001; Amy P., “Librarian Who Hadn’t Updated Her Look In 8 Years Underwent An Extreme Head-To-Toe Makeover,” LittleThings, May 12, 2022; “So, what does a librarian do all day?,” Iowa State University University Library, Apr. 11, 2007; UNH Library, “The Top 10 Misconceptions about Libraries and Librarians,” The Charger Bulletin, Nov. 14, 2012; David Levy, “Reel Librarians: Images and Stereotypes of Librarians and Libraries in film and literature,” Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries (Boston, MA – June 18-20, 2018), pp, 1-3; “How to Style Your Hair Into an Upside Down Bun,” StepByStep, accessed May 27, 2022; “More Librarian Misconceptions,” Bound: A Blog About Books & Libraries, Apr. 1, 2014; Glenn A. Hascall, “Larry & The Librarian,” accessed May 27, 2022; Megan Halsband, “Let’s Talk Comics: Librarians,” Headlines & Heroes, Library of Congress, Jul. 3, 2019; Jodi McFarland, “Saginaw Valley librarians ride Internet age forward,” mlive, Jul. 7, 2008;Michelle Reilly, “Librarians,” It’s a Dog’s Life, Jul. 10, 2008.

[6] Jesse Chadderdon, “Video: Librarians shake their book carts in national dance competition,” The Bulletin, Jul. 13, 2009; Eric, “One of the Wonders,” It’s all good, Jul. 8, 2007; Roger Ebert, “Party Girl,” Roger Ebert website, Jul. 7, 1995; Phyllis Korkki, “Spare a Hair Band? A Man Bun to Go,” New York Times, Jan. 26, 2012; “Hair Dos: 10 Beautiful Buns & Tucks,” The Frisky, Oct. 8, 2019; Lawrence Feldman, “The librarian’s bun — A ‘tail’ for the High Holy Days,” Times of Israel, Sept. 24, 2017; Emma Smart and Sarah Currant, “The 10 best librarians on screen,” BFI, Feb. 5, 2016; Ruth A. Kneale, “Librarians’ views of public perception in the Internet age,” You Don’t Look Like a Librarian!, Jun. 2002; Deliala Yasin, “Sexy Librarian Stereotypes,” Oct. 7, 2010; Kelly Jensen, “Queer Phobia and The Public Library,” Book Riot, Oct. 13, 2016; “Marian the Librarian – Pop! Profile,” Pop! Goes the Librarian, Jun. 7, 2012; “Image of Librarians,” LISWiki, Feb. 1, 2016; Caroline Murray, “What Do Men Think Of Buns?,” Stylecaster, Jun. 9, 2012; Heather, “Welcome to the Librarian Fashion blog!,” Librarian Fashion, Mar. 22, 2011.

[7] Pam Hayes Bohanan, “Librarians in Pop Culture,” Bridgewater State University, Sept. 12, 2013; “Librarian Stereotypes,” Life is Just a Bowl Full of Queries, Sept. 28, 2008; Jed Lipinski, “‘This Book Is Overdue!’: Hot for librarian,” Salon, Feb. 21, 2010; Joe Hardenbrook, “28 Lego Librarians (PHOTOS),” HuffPost, Oct. 5, 2013; Marcia J. Myers, “Images of Librarians in Science Fiction and Fantasy: Including An Annotated List,” Jun 1998, p. 3, 6, 8-9; “When it rains it pours… and other cliches,” lclibraries, May 28, 2013; Antoinette G. Graham, “Sign of the Librarian in the Cinema of Horror: An Exploration of Filmic Function,” Florida State University Libraries, 2010, pp. v, 12, 21, 23, 28, 47, 54; Carly Bedford and Chelsea Misquith, “Old Maid, Old Maid, How Librarians are Portrayed,” University of Toronto, 2015. Also see Kathleen Low’s book, Casanova Was a Librarian: A Light-Hearted Look at the Profession and another book by Ray Tevis and
Brenda Tevis entitled The Image of Librarians in Cinema, 1917–1999.

[8] Julie Manser, “Shushing the Librarian Stereotype,” Zócalo Magazine, Mar. 5, 2015; Monique L. Threatt, “Bad to the Bone, Librarians in Motion Pictures: Is It An Accurate Portrayal,” Indiana Libraries, The Image of Librarians, p. 7; Eric Sherman, “Librarians Confess Their Naughtiest On-the-Job Moments,” AOL, Oct. 8, 2013; Aaron Gouveia, “Librarians show off their moves,” Cape Cod Times, May 9, 2008; Arianna Rebolini, “Here’s What It’s Actually Like To Be A Librarian,” BuzzFeed News, Nov. 17, 2018; ““When they take of their glasses and put down their hair”: Defogging the Glasses Girl Stereotypes,” Things He Says, Feb. 17, 2016; Jenni Bean, “Teens rebel…. Library closes. WHAT?!?!,” My Life as a Married Super Librarian!, Jan. 2, 2007; Gabrielle Barone, “‘I don’t shush’: Local Librarians share their thoughts stereotypes rooted in their profession,” Daily Collegian, Penn State University, Nov. 15, 2017; Jeff Voyt, “Librarian Stereotypes,” A Year in the Life, Apr. 24, 2014; Macy Haford, “The New Sexy Librarian,” The New Yorker, Oct. 2, 2011;

[9] “On the Great Myth of the Librarian Grays,” Guardienne of the Tomes, Sept. 3, 2010; Jessamyn West, December 2002 entries, librarian.net, Dec. 2002; “Katharine L. Kan, MLS,” Librarian to Librarian, accessed May 27, 2022; Bari L. Helms, “Reel Librarians: The Stereotype and Technology,” Masters Thesis, Apr. 2006, pp. 3, 5, 9-10, 256; David James Brier and Vickery Kaye Lebbin, “Learning Information Literacy through Drawing,” Hawaii University, accessed May 27, 2022; Katy Shaw, “Buns on the Run: Changing the Stereotype of the Female Librarian,” University of Washington, October 2003; Chelsea Fregis, “Quick & Easy Curly Hair Styles for Finals Week,” NaturallyCurly, Nov. 7, 2011; Scholastica A.J. Chukwu, Nkeiru Emezie, Ngozi Maria Nwaohiri, and Ngozi Chima-James, “The Librarian in the Digital Age: A Preferred Nomenclature, Perceptions of Academic Librarians in Imo State Nigeria,” Library Philosophy and Practice, Dec. 2018, p. 5; Aja Carmichael, “The Changing Role of Librarians,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 5, 2007; Ana Tintocalis, “Young, Hip Librarians Take Over,” KPBS, Jan. 10, 2011; “Hairstyle with Pins for Parties : Pinned to Perfection,” fashioncentrel, 2011; “Black History Month: Plainfield librarian challenged segregation, created literacy programs,” nj.com, Feb. 12, 2010; Eris, “The Bellydancing Librarian,” Nov. 21, 2013;Kay Oddone, “Change in the Library,” National Education Summit, Jan. 26, 2022; Genevieve Zook, “Technology and the Generation Gap,” LLRX, Aug. 27, 2007; Amanda Thomas, “Some minority librarians seeking to update image of white ‘bun lady’,” The Decatur Daily, Associated Press, Dec. 17, 2006. Also see the article entitled “The Graying of Academic Librarians: Crisis or Revolution?“, and many others, like: “Why I suck at blogging,” You have to go to college for that?!, Sept. 12, 2006; “Easy does it.,” You have to go to college for that?!, Jun. 24, 2006; Erin, “Gallery of Bellydancing Librarians,” The Bellydancing Librarian, Jul. 27, 2002; Dan Evon, “Tattooed Librarians Of The Ocean State Calendar Goes On Sale,” Inquisitr, Oct. 28, 2016; Kristy Gross, “Testing, Testing…,” Not Your Typical Librarian, Dec. 26, 2011; Jess Carter-Morley, “The updo is back,” The Guardian, Aug. 10, 2010; Regina Sierra Carter, “Librarians: Do Any Look Like Me?,” Inside Higher Ed, Mar. 29, 2017; Jack Broom, “Toymaker finds librarian who’s a real doll,” Seattle Times, Jul. 10, 2003; Leslie A. Pultroak, “The Image of Librarians in Poetry, 1958-1993,” MLS Research Paper, Kent State University, Aug. 1993; “Wend of the Webolution,” Anne of Green Labels, Mar. 12, 2009; Cynthia L. Shamel, “Building a Brand: Got Librarian?,” Searcher, Vol. 10, No. 7, Jul./Aug. 2002; Steven M. Bergson, “Librarians in Comics: Sources,” Aug. 17, 2002; Aimee Graham, “Debunking 10 Librarian Misconceptions,” INALJ, Jan. 12, 2015; Eliza, “7 Beautiful and Stylish Hair Dos to Give You a Whole New Look …,” All Women’s Talk, accessed May 27, 2022; Marcus, “Google Book Search and the Psychology of Librarians,” Marcus’ World, Apr. 28, 2007; Gabriel Spitzer, “Librarians Go Wild For Gold Book Cart,” All Things Considered, NPR, Jul. 13, 2009; Emelie Svensson and Evelina Magnusson, “Books, libraries and beige” [Abstract], Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper, Dec. 31, 2012; Julie, “[Untitled],” A day in the library…, Jan. 24, 2010; Ruth Kneale, “Librarian Image Study,” Marketing Library Service Vol. 16, No. 8, Nov/Dec. 2002; Rachel Sawaya, “Ideas for a Librarian Costume,” eHow, accessed May 28, 2022; Sarika Sawant, “Women librarians in traditional and modern attires in India: Nationwide scenario,” IFLA WLIC 2018, pp. 1-17; Angeline Evans, “The librarian ‘do [outfit],” The New Professional, Jun. 2, 2011; Ted Menten, “The Naughty Librarian,” Sasha Street, Feb. 27, 2010; Manda Sexton, Samantha Reardon, Jennifer Carter, and Matthew Foley, “The Inked Experience: Professionalism and Body Modifications in Libraries,” Georgia Library Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 4, Fall 2021, p. 1-2; Melissa Wooton, “Warrior Librarian: How Our Image is Changing (A Personal Look),” Indiana Libraries, c. 2003, p. 24; Catherine Butler, “[Review of] Margaret Mahy: Librarian of Babel,”Online Research @ Cardiff, Cardiff University, 2015, p. 3, reprinted from article of same name in Lion and the Unicorn, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 129-145; Miss Cellania, “Tattooed Librarians,” Neatorama, Aug. 3, 2009; Ellie D., “Bunning Without Breakage — The 5 Rules of Bunning Natural Hair,” BGLH Marketplace, Feb. 3, 2015; Adriane Alan, “Librarians in Children’s and Teen Literature,” Image of Libraries in Popular Culture, c. 2000, authorship shown here.

[10] “23 Types of Women’s Hairstyles – Do You Know them All?,” Headcurve, accessed May 27, 2022; Fiorella Valdesolo, “Why the Bun Is the Power Hairstyle of Our Multi-Tasking Age,” Vanity Fair, Apr. 4, 2019; Melanie Green, “Why Black people (including me) are cutting our own hair in Vancouver — and what that says about our city,” Toronto Star, Nov. 10, 2019; Amanda Thomas, “Some minority librarians seeking to update image of white ‘bun lady’,” The Decatur Daily, Associated Press, Dec. 17, 2006; “Hair Buns,” Black Hairspray, accessed May 27, 2022; “Is Fall Here, Yet?,” The Designer Librarian, Aug. 13, 2013; “Five-Minute Braided Bun,” A Beautiful Mess, accessed May 27, 2022; “Popular Ladies’ Hairstyles of the 1870’s,” Poughkeepsie Public Library District, accessed May 27, 2022; Tori, “12 Easy Messy Buns You Can Do in Under 5 Minutes,” TerrificTresses, accessed May 27, 2022; “How to Create Space Buns for a Fun, Effortless Look,”  Beauty Magazine, L’Oreal Paris, Mar. 21, 2022; Christine George, “How to Do a Quick and Easy Hair Bun,” WikiHow, Sept. 15, 2021; “How To Create A Messy Bun In 3 Just Steps,” Beauty Magazine, L’Oreal Paris, May 27, 2022; Andrea Haba, “40 Easy & Cute Bun Hairstyles Trending in 2022,” Hairtyle Camp, Jun. 1, 2020; “The History of the Hair Bun,” Vieda, 2017; Wes, “Hair History: Topknots & Buns,” Hairstory, Sept. 12, 2017; Ellie Crystal, “Hairstyles Through the Ages,” Crystalinks, accessed May 27, 2022; “The allure of the bun,” The Australian Ballet, Jan. 3, 2012; “Buns & Braids,” History & Culture of Chinese Women’s Hair, Apr. 28, 2019.

Examining and analyzing the librarians in The Simpsons

An elderly librarian asks Homer Simpson to leave the library in “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace”, questioning whether he is a “valid” patron

As I wrote about back February 2021, libraries appear repeatedly in The Simpsons, time and again. Instead of covering the episodes I mentioned in that post, [1] I’d like to focus on the librarians within the series, then later about the libraries in the series. There are at least fourteen librarians shown in the course of the series, and even more if some librarians are counted as different characters.

In “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace”, Homer reads about Thomas Edison at the Springfield Elementary School library because they won’t let him in the “big people library” in downtown Springfield because of some “unpleasantness.” The school librarian, an elderly White lady, asks him if he is a student at the school, and he says yes. She undoubtedly kicks him out after that. She questions whether he is a valid patron, which is understandable, but it would have made more sense to have him go about his business in the library instead.

The same librarian appears again in “Brother’s Little Helper”, where she almost gets run over by Bart’s tank. In another episode, “Sweets and Sour Marge” there is a book sale at the Old Springfield Library, the main library in Springfield which apparently has a “serious bat problem in the filing cabinets,” and has old books like calendars and diaries. It is often visited by Lisa. In that episode, Homer mocks the library selling books, asking why he would want to buy books from the library. Comic Book Guy buys books on Spock and Scotty, Nick Rivera reads a book about human anatomy entitled Grey’s Anatomy, and Lisa buys a cart full of books, saying she has to “save” them after Marge tells her she can’t buy more than her weight in books. There is even a scene after this of the aforementioned librarian feeding chopping up books and feeding them to pigs, ha. No books are sacred here.

The episode also features another unnamed librarian who is working at the cash register and looks much more formal and proper than the above librarian. Marge convinces Homer to get a book entitled the Duff Book of World Records which has photographs of deformities, making him laugh. After Lisa says tavern, he drives to Moe’s because she said the word, with Marge yelling she never agreed to that rule. He later uses the book throughout the episode.

In another episode, “Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe”, Moe tells the story of surfing the web at the local public library with occasional drinking fountain breaks, where he is going back and forth with another woman, Maya. He then calls the “Crazy Cat Lady” a man, and she throws cats on him. He says he would do anything to chat with Maya apart from buying an actual computer. Maya calls him cute and he dances a little with the elderly librarian, who is confused by the whole ordeal, before he leaves the library.

She finally appears in “No Good Read Goes Unpunished”. In that episode, in which she closes the library with reduced hours of operation, because after a certain point in the day the silverfish take over the library. Milhouse is trapped inside while covered with silverfish, just wanting to renew his library card. After that, the Simpsons family goes to a book-themed department store, then a bookstore with old books, some of which Bart is interested in. Unlike her other episodes, she is voiced by Tress MacNeille rather than Maggie Roswell, who had voiced her in previous episodes.

The librarian says that the library has reduced hours because of the silverfish

Apart from her, there is another librarian (voiced by Tress MacNeille) who briefly appears in the episode “Bart the Mother”. She looks even more of a spinster librarian than any of the others shown so far. This is after Bart watches a film about taking care of birds from Troy McClure (voiced by Phil Hartman). This episode marks Hartman’s last speaking appearance. This librarian tells Reverend Lovejoy that he has checked out the bible every weekend for the last nine years and asks him if it would be easier to just buy a Bible instead. He says he could do that on a “librarian’s salary,” implying that librarians make a lot of money, even though they do not. Although BLS statistics say that Librarians and Library Media Specialists earn an average of $60,820 per year, equivalent to $29.24 per hour, the more common Library Technicians and Assistants only earn, on average, $31,840 per year, equivalent to $15.31 per hour. That’s barely living wage! Disgusting if you ask me. That pay should definitely be higher, without a doubt.

There are two librarians that appear in the season 6 episode “Lisa’s Wedding”: a human librarian and a robot librarian. Lisa, in this future vision, goes to the reference desk where the librarian is and she types on her calculator and says that the book she needs was checked out by Hugh Parkfield. They both try to compete with each other in reading the book, then end up kissing one another. The one librarian quips that at one point Hugh and Lisa hated each other, then love each other, with the other librarian saying it doesn’t make sense to her because she is a robot, then her head melts. The voice actors of both librarians are sadly not known at this current time.

We also see other librarians in the series. This includes the library clerk in “Bart’s Girlfriend” voiced by Hank Azaria. He runs the young adult section at a library in Springfield and Lisa has a crush on him, while he also dates Jessica Lovejoy at one point. Lisa thinks she can “tame” him, even though she calls him “well-read and just a little wild.” There’s is, additionally, an unnamed prison librarian (voiced by Tress MacNeille)  in “Dial “N” for Nerder”. Lisa imagines herself as an older prisoner, with this librarian passing her jail cell with a trolley of books, asking whether she had Joyce Carol Oates. The librarian said she only had Danielle Steel, causing Lisa to scream in terror. This is significant because this librarian is perhaps the only prison librarian that I’ve ever seen in animation. Hopefully I see more in the future.

Prison libraries can be restricted, even though what they do can lead to empowerment of inmates. Such libraries, situated within prisons, can arguably be described as what Jeff Hirschy calls prison institutions, or those institutions in which a librarian or archivist “serves an oppressive higher power.” There is also an endless information void in prisons. In addition, grim prison life can eclipse the potential of prison library, and the service provided is not even. Some prison libraries are better than others. Furthermore, the case of Lisa, she is in a prison, rather than a jail, as a prison is operated at the state or federal level, housing inmates with long-term convictions while jails are run by a county or city, housing inmates who are awaiting trial or with short-term convictions. It makes sense there are library services in the prison she is in, because longer conviction terms of prisoners means that it is more likely there would be a library, while in jails, such libraries are less common. [2]

Lisa reacts in terror when she realizes that the prison librarian doesn’t have the book she wanted to read.

There are three other librarians I’d like to mention. The first two, an unnamed librarian voiced by Pamela Hayden and another named Martha voiced by Tress MacNeille are in the episode “The Color Yellow” and are hinted as lesbians, working at the Old Springfield Library. Martha tells Lisa that there are no books about Eliza Simpson, but she did find a cookbook by Eliza’s mother.

She calls Martha “the best” for finding this as Lisa and Marge read the book with a story about one of Lisa’s ancestors. Later, Lisa returns to the library and tells her about the film vault, giving her the key to it. The unnamed librarian asks Martha about the film vault and says that they hooked up there during the Christmas Party. Lisa then watched a documentary which interviews Eliza Simpson and continues to be disappointed. The unnamed librarian appears in the episode “Grift of the Magi” as well. In that episode, she is teaching a class in which they are trying to come with a name for a toy and Lisa gets in trouble for doing math in class, having to write on a chalkboard.

Then there’s Ms. Norton (voiced by Maggie Roswell), a librarian at Springfield Public Library, who “is on friendly terms with Lisa.” In the episode “Dead Putting Society”, Lisa says hello to her, as does a man named Ralph and a group of old men and women reading books. She helps Bart by showing him the card catalogs, finding him a book on golf putting. Bart is shown next carrying a stack of books, including a book by Lao-Tzu, The Tao-Te Ching. She even tells Bart they are borrowing the books, after he wonders if they can afford them.

Homer and the unnamed librarian in the Springfield University Library

Then in “Lisa the Greek”, Lisa goes to the very quiet public library, which has some new signs and banners up. Ms. Norton claims it has been a “madhouse” after Lisa says the signs are working, with Lisa then checking the card catalog, looking for books on football. Following this, in the episode “Homer Goes to College”, presumably the same librarian is shown with dark skin and hair. Homer, in one scene, wheels a stack of books out of the Springfield University Library, as she looks in, part of his cramming for a college test. Even in that episode, Maggie Roswell appears, although the librarian has no lines. [3]

Other than this, there is a brief scene in “Sideshow Bob Roberts” where Lisa and Bart go into the Old Springfield Library and bats come flying out of the card catalog. Then, in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge”, Marge sneaks into the public library to find out about who Becky really is, and comes across a stories, while looking through the microfilm, which she thinks prove Becky as a bad person, but believes she has been unfair to Becky.

Then, in “Margical History Tour”, Lisa talks to an elderly librarian who says they don’t have books, but they are a multimedia learning center for those of all ages, but mostly bums. Lisa complains that there are hardly any books at all. Marge agrees to help them, saying she knows a little about history. Nelson later trips Milhouse and takes his book, hilariously declaring “the library, really is a great resource!,” adding that he only came in to trip nerds. Lisa later complains she can’t find anything on Sacagawea, beginning another story from Marge. She later tells Bart another story, this one about Mozart. Liza later criticizes Marge’s story, saying it sounds a lot like the movie Amadeus.

In many ways, this episode connects with technocratic themes which I wrote about this past August, noting an article about the technocratic library “of the future.” Such a library is possible with all the data collection today, even with datasets of certain people not collected at all, a date divide between those who are data-rich and data-poor. Some have argued that libraries need to encourage and help library patrons analyze and contribute knowledge which is created with this data, and called on libraries to create an inclusive climate so patrons can engage with this data. However, there continue to be data quality issues which plague researchers, even as there is push for open data, data literacy, critical skills by librarians despite the limits of data. [4]

An unnamed librarian dressed formally in a blazer and tie shown in the episode “Sweets and Sour Marge”, shown here operating a cash register

The main library in Springfield is more than than the one-story building which comprises the Springfield Public Library. [5] This library make an appearance in the episode “Like Father, Like Clown” when Lisa looks through the card catalog, looking for books on Judaism and takes notes on what she found. Bart comes with her and looks at pop-up books. He attempts to convince Krusty’s father to make up with him, using the knowledge that Lisa is finding. His attempts fail and Lisa gives him one last paper, hoping it will work, even though she calls it a long-shot to convince him, apart from learning Ancient Hebrew. At long last, they get through to him after Bart quotes from a book by Sammy Davis, Jr.

Then in the episode in “HOMЯ”, after the crayon is taken out of Homer’s brain, he becomes smart, and reading lots of books, just like Lisa. This also ends up changing his personality too. This is followed by a flashback in the episode “The Kids Are All Fight” in which six years prior, after a librarian read a book during storytime, Bart and Lisa fought, hitting each other with books, while Marge looks on, worried. Following this, A security guard then escorts them out, telling them in a quiet voice to leave, shouting as he opens the door to let them outside, not wanting such violence in the library. Finally, in “Looking for Mr. Goodbart”, Bart goes to the library to ask the librarian, possibly voiced by Valerie Harper who has voiced various characters over the years, how he looks up a word. He hands her his phone and asks how much he owes her. At first she hesitates, then asks him for five dollars, and pockets the money. BOO! Bad librarian!

On the whole, the librarians in The Simpsons episodes all have different styles. Some have a more relaxed style, while others are more formal. The episodes themselves consistently show libraries as places of information, learning, and knowledge, used especially by Lisa. The episodes also highlight information deficits. This includes silverfish causing a library to be closed certain hours, or another when a library is extremely scaled back (having no books on the shelves), justified by turning it into a multimedia center. The latter could almost be considered a criticism of efforts to undermine librarians and libraries across the U.S. It is equivalent to Philip J. Fry’s speech at the end of a Futurama episode which talks about the value of local libraries.

At the same time, some of the librarians can fall into existing stereotypes with spinster librarians, although others easily buck that, like the two lesbian librarians in “The Color Yellow.” Sadly, the librarians in the series are not very diverse. They are almost all White except for the one in “Homer Goes to College” and she is only shown briefly. Other series, like We Bare Bears, Welcome to the Wayne, What If…?, Elena of Avalor, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, to name a few, have done better than The Simpsons when it comes to showing librarians who are not White. Hopefully, this changes in future episodes as the show goes forward, but I’m not going to hold my breath for that, as the show has become a bit of a zombie series.

The two lesbian librarians making eyes at one another at one point during the episode “The Color Yellow”

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Notes

[1] I’m talking about “Bart the General,” and “Cape Feare,” or the library jokes in “Marge the Lam” and “Last Tap Dance in Springfield” or the mentions in “Much Apu About Nothing,” “Bart After Dark,” “I Love Lisa,” “Lisa’s Substitute,” “Lady Bouvier’s Lover,” “Homerpalooza,” “One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish,” “Homer vs. Patty and Selma,” “You Only Move Twice,” “Treehouse of Horror VI,” “Krusty Gets Busted,” and “Some Enchanted Evening.”

[2] Jeff Hirschy, “Social Justice and Birmingham Collecting Institutions: Education, Research, and Reference Librarianship” in Reference Librarianship & Justice: History, Practice & Praxis (ed. Kate Adler, Ian Beilin, & Eamon Tewell, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA: 2018), p. 90 and also discussed briefly on page 91; Kate Adler, “Towards a Critical (Affective) Reference Practice: Emotional, Intellectual and Social Justice” in Reference Librarianship & Justice: History, Practice & Praxis (ed. Kate Adler, Ian Beilin, & Eamon Tewell, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA: 2018), p. 107; Emily Jacobson, “Reference by Mail to Incarcerated People” in Reference Librarianship & Justice: History, Practice & Praxis (ed. Kate Adler, Ian Beilin, & Eamon Tewell, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA: 2018), p. 157; Erin Rivero, Marisa Hernandez, Stephanie Osorio, and Vanessa Villareal,  “Dispatches from the Field of Prison Librarianship” in Reference Librarianship & Justice: History, Practice & Praxis (ed. Kate Adler, Ian Beilin, & Eamon Tewell, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA: 2018), p. 165, 167; Joshua Finnell, “2596 Girl School Road: The Indiana Women’s Prison Far-Away Reference Desk” in Reference Librarianship & Justice: History, Practice & Praxis (ed. Kate Adler, Ian Beilin, & Eamon Tewell, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA: 2018), p. 114.

[3] She also appears in “Marge On The Lam” with brown hair, at the very beginning of the episode, sitting at a table, as part of a pledge drive, by a phone. She is not shown in a library during the episode.

[4] Julia Marden, “The Case for Critical Data Reference in Public Libraries” in Reference Librarianship & Justice: History, Practice & Praxis (ed. Kate Adler, Ian Beilin, & Eamon Tewell, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA: 2018), p. 189-193, 195-7.

[5] The Springfield Public Library is also mentioned in the episode “Much Apu About Nothing”. It also apparently appears in The Simpsons Movie, the comic book “A Chair of One’s Own” and the video games Virtual Springfield, and The Simpsons: Hit and Run. The library is also shown briefly in the beginning of the episode “Lost Verizon” when Nelson is holding Martin Prince. As for the Old Springfield Library  also appears in The Simpsons: Tapped Out and is pictured in “Separate Vocations”. I believe the same is the case in the episodes “Dog of Death”, and “In Marge We Trust”.

School idol or librarian?: Examining Hanamaru Kunikida in “Love Live! Sunshine!!”

Hanamaru behind the library desk, smiling after the school idol group comes to the library to drop off some books. Ruby stands behind her.

When I began watching Love Live! Sunshine!!, an anime about girls who try to become school idols and is filled with music, I didn’t expect to come across a character who is a librarian, who is relatively popular among fans of the show. For this post, and on my blog in general, I use librarian broadly to mean anyone who works in a library, specifically those who care for the contents of the library, selecting and processing materials, engaging in information delivery, library instruction, or loaning out materials to meet user needs. Librarians may have a MLIS or MLS, but not having a professional degree does not disqualify someone from being a librarian despite what some snobbish people in the library field say. [1] This definition is apt for Hanamaru Kunikida, whose journey from being a librarian to a school idol fits into existing stereotypes in some ways, as I’ll explain.

Hanamaru is a first-year student who lives in a temple with her her family, as noted on the Wikipedia page for the series, voiced by Kanako Takatsuki in Japanese and Megan Shipman voices her in the English dub. She refers to herself as “ora” or “Mura” and ends many sentences with “Zur” due to her specific dialect. She is more than an “avid reader” at the library at Uranohoshi Girls’ Academy or a person who “loves to read” as a press release for the series put it. [2] Instead, she is a student assistant who volunteers at the school library as she is shown behind the information desk during the fourth episode, “Their Feelings”. In that episode, in a narration, she describes that the library has become her quiet place, her retreat, and that Ruby Kurosawa is her dear friend, who she says she will marry one day, [3] coming to the library with her often to read idol magazines.

In that episode, she returns to her world of books, as a librarian, rather than become a school idol, after she feels that her “trial” as a school idol was a “failure.” Later Ruby and the other school idol members, Chika Takami (who created the group), You Watanabe, and Riko Sakurauchi (a transfer student), convince her to join a group they call Aqours. She becomes a liberated female librarian in some ways as a result. Even though she is not a trapped or naïve woman who discovers who she is and what she is capable of with the help of a man, as Jennifer Snoek-Brown defines as a “liberated librarian” on her Reel Librarians blog, she is pushed by her friend Ruby and the other members of the school idol club to realize her passion to become a school idol. This “liberation” is a net positive for her as she is no longer suppressing a part of herself. On the other hand, this “liberation” is not part of the plot.

Like other “liberated” librarians she is young but isn’t wearing conservative or reserved clothing. When she practices as an idol her appearance does change but into clothes that are more casual. As such she doesn’t become attractive or more feminine but not less attractive. She is just as attractive as before. She is undoubtedly intelligent and seems committed to libraries in terms of it being an escape for her, and seems to stop volunteering as a librarian. She also has a lack of exposure to modern technology, whether it comes to laptops, hair dryers, or motion-activated water fountains. [4] In some ways she is similar to Swampy in Phineas and Ferb as I’ll explain later.

Hanamaru bucks the librarian stereotype, as she is on screen more than a “short period of time” in order to advance the story, and is not a stock character in the slightest. Although librarians may not need to take these stereotypes completely “to heart,” such stereotypes can be damaging if it is the main plot of an episode, as is the case in many animated series. Her fashion goes against the “common” style of librarians which cab be shown in “dowdy suits in muted tones,” and is completely blown out of the water as the series continues.

As the series goes forward, her talent for singing, as a member of the local choir, shines through. This is especially the case when she works alongside Chika Takami and many other friends as part of a school idol group called Aqours which tries to prevent her school from shutting down. Basically, she goes from “a shy and un-athletic bookworm” [5] to a school idol after Ruby tells her of Rin’s journey to self-confidence. In becoming a school idol, she is not a librarian as failure, nor a spinster, spirited young girl, naughty librarian, comic relief, or information provider. In later episodes of the series, as now a school idol, she remains “fascinated by the modernity” in a larger city, comes dressed in a silly outfit, id distracted by candy and sweets, works on songs with her fellow school idols, and puts together a fortune-telling booth with another group member. [6]

Hanamaru looking sad, while she looks up, taking a break before she reads more in the school library during the episode “Their Feelings”

Unlike Swampy, Hanamaru is not a failure and her presence in the library is not “suggestive of flaws in library” although she can be “uncomfortable in social/outside world situations.” Like him, she does not return to the library and her portrayal is not completely stereotypical as she never shushes anyone. Rather, the library is an escape of sorts for her, a refuge. It is a safe place for her, a places of calmness which seems removed from the pressures of the outside world, although she isn’t escaping any evil spirits like those in other series who flee to libraries for safety. In this way, the school library is doing exactly what physical library spaces often do, according to librarian Fobazi Ettarh, serving as sacred spaces, while being treated as sanctuaries by keeping people and sacred things, and becoming places of refuge or shelter. [7] This is true even though, apart from her saying that books dropped off by the school idol club will be shelved, she is never shown engaging in any typical librarian tasks.

While becoming a school idol allowed Hanamaru to not suppress a part of herself which and to not remove herself from everything else, quietly reading, and staying in her own world of sorts, the series series seems to be saying that you shouldn’t hold back yourself and that you can do anything. In the process, it gives the perception that quietly reading, and being a librarian who oversees a librarian by extension, is “bad” while becoming a school idol is “good.” This is just as problematic as Phineas and Ferb basically saying that libraries are outdated and outmoded, especially through Swampy going being a rockstar to a librarian, then back to a rockstar again, when pushed by the show’s two persistent protagonists. It is never answered what happens to the library after she leaves. The series portrays her time in the library as depressing and drab, apart from her interactions with her friend Ruby. However, after she becomes a school idol she is shown as happy and joyful. Does this mean that libraries can’t be joyful or happy places? I sure hope not, because that is definitely not true.

It is a big change for Hanamaru, a Brazilian-raised do-gooder and classic country girl, to go from being a librarian in her quiet place, the seaside Uranohoshi Girls’ Academy, to Tokyo and the back to Uchiura, Numazu, Shizuoka when they are not successful the first time when entering the Love Live! competition. [8] This setting has reportedly led tourists to come to Numazu, while various things in the city have special Love Live! designs. Currently, Uchiura is a village within Numazu. According to official websites, there are libraries in the area, like the Heda, Numazu City, and Shiritsu (Municipal) libraries. [9] In that way, while it could be a loss for students for her no longer to be a librarian, there would likely be someone who would take her place, perhaps another student, and anyone at the school could still go to local libraries as well, if they needed additional information.

The idol industry in Japan has horrific working conditions. There are strict rules imposed on Japanese and South Korean pop stars known as “idols” including bans on dating and getting married requiring permission, with such idols having little control over their personal lives. Some have described them as “corporate slaves” who cannot disobey their employers, with the industry pulling in 60 billion yen annually. Even those as young as two are billed as “junior idols,” with people interested in underage girls, with the innocence they have being sold as a “major commodity.” At the same time, there is a trend of preteen girls “striking provocative poses in slinky bathing suits” which has become big business. All the while idols are assaulted, bullied, intimidated, and harassed, even as they have the legal right to “happiness” and dates not under the control of managers, although it is not known how much this is enforced, as there have been strict measure imposed on idols in the past. After all, as one critic put it, “idols are universally acknowledged as manufactured—even by their fans,” meant to provide a “vision of accessible femininity to girls” and a celebrity girlfriend for boys. Another person argued that in Japan, an idol is in “the business of selling dreams…[an] illusion of a cute, slightly idealized person who is there for…the fan” while music is secondary since many idols can barely sing, with producers not putting in work to making them look or sound perfect. At the same time, idols have been popular in Japanese anime, including franchises like Love Live! of which Love Live! Sunshine!! is a part of, as has their fictional music. [10]

Hanamaru (left) performing as a school idol, with her friend Ruby (right)

As for this anime, Hanamaru is a school idol. While there are idol anime about male idols, like Starmyu, Uta no Prince Sama, and B-Project, with a focus on the idea of performance, Love Live! is unique in that it seems to exist in a world without men, even though it is, like other idol shows, targeted at men. The idea is to “emphasize the female characters’ relationships and moe appeal,” with everyone on screen seen as a “potential object of desire” whether through romantic yearning, a yearning for that character to have romance with their friends, or anything in-between. There is some evidence of the school idol trope, as TV Tropes calls it, in reality, with some idols who are high school classmates, and variations of these schools existing, but not many of them, with such schools having strict dating, personal presentation, and uniform rules. This is bolstered by the fact that some idols wear school uniforms during their performances. [11]

Despite all their efforts, Aquors is unsuccessful in saving their school, as shown in the season 2 episode “The Time Left.” In that episode, in fact, we see Hanamaru in the library, working as a library assistant. This is short lived se agrees with the leader of Aquors, Chika, and the other group members that they can perform and win at the Love Live! contest in order to immortalize the school’s name. All the while, she tries to make sure the group stays inspired. This is significant for her because she reveals on another episode, “Awaken the power”, that she doesn’t like to be other people (i.e. she is socially awkward) and before she joined Aquors she enjoyed her time in the library with her friend Ruby, something which their fellow school idol, Leah, sympathizes with. In episodes that follow, she works together with her friends Yohane, Ruby, and Leah on a song, and participates in a closing ceremony for the Uranohoshi Girls’ High School, in the episode of the same name, even helping Yohane draw a summoning circle.

In the show’s final episode, “Our Own Shine,” she works with Ruby to pack up everything in the library, with the books read at a new school. She admits that she is afraid of going to a new school, something which Ruby agrees with. She, Yohane and Ruby, touch the library door together and close it, symbolically closing a chapter of their lives. Later in the episode, Chika visits the empty library in the now-abandoned school building. As one reviewer put it, it is hard watching these girls say goodbye to their school, especially affected by the scene when Hanamaru, Ruby, and Yohane closed the door to the library. [12]

By the end of the series, there are open questions about the future of Aquors with the departure of Kanan, Dia, and Mari, and whether their efforts were worthwhile since the school would be closed anyway. In some ways, Hanamaru somewhat addresses that in the episode “Sea of Light. She notes that while reading books in the library with her friend Ruby was “always enough” to make her happy, that her time in Aquors allowed her to venture into the world outside of the library, and realize things about herself. Basically, she gained self-confidence from the experience and became a better person.

In the series proper she is clearly identifiable, but is not stereotypical, nor does she wear frumpy clothes. She does not have her hair in a bun, and she does not have glasses in a chain around her neck. She is, arguably, a regular person who happens to be a librarian, specifically a student library assistant who is likely volunteering at the school library. She is arguably “sexy” but likely not in the way that straight men tend to see librarians as noted by David Austin who notes the stereotype of librarians as “sexually repressed.” At the same time, she is not, in any way, a person whose primary job is to keep “order and quiet.” Rather, the library itself is a sanctuary for her, a place away from the outside world, a place where she can access its “storehouse of knowledge.”

Hanamaru packing up the library’s books in boxes in the show’s final episode, asssited by her friend, Ruby

This is self-confidence is further bolstered in the Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow film, which serves as the series capstone. She sings and dances in the film and trains for live shows, but also comforts her friends. She even travels to Italy with them to find Kanan, Dia, and Mari, the former three members of Aquors. She later assists Mari in her desire to have independence from her seemingly strict mother and cajoles Yohane to connect with the members of their new school. During the film, she also assists Ruby in choosing outfits for their performance, and is part of a performance win a mock Love Live! competition meant to buoy the spirits of one member of Saint Snow, a fellow school idol group.

Unlike in the series, she is shown wearing glasses multiple times in the film, alluding to a “shy bookworm” stereotype often associated with librarians, who are shown wearing glasses. Famously this was used for the alternative Mary Bailey in the film It’s a Wonderful Life. As Marie wrote, people who wear corrective glasses are “often stereotyped as bookish, intelligent, and socially inept” with those glasses as a barrier or shield, but can also be removed to “let a dormant attractiveness and sensuality shine through.” And there is no doubt that many librarians are well-educated and smart, and many undoubtedly wear eyeglasses. It is a symbol, a stereotype, that Marie says should would fully embody, while rejecting the trope that librarians are smart, but weird and unapproachable. For Hanamaru, she is similar in some ways to Kanon Shibuya, the protagonist of Love Live! Superstar who ties up her hair and wears glasses at home but in public does not wear glasses. Kanon fulfills what Marie wrote about librarians. Unlike her, Hanamaru doesn’t mind wearing glasses in public. It fits with her warm personality, including a love of chocolate and eating a lot, and support for her friends. She could care less whether she is “attractive.”

Toward the end of the film she performs a song and dance number together as a part of Aquors. The school library is also shown, in a short scene, empty in the still-standing school, which Chika declares will stay. This is despite the fact that is seems strange that a school building would be left abandoned with no apparent use and not be torn down a la the Gama Gama Aquarium in The Aquatope on the White Sand. Perhaps they wanted to keep the show upbeat so a similar scene was not included in the film.

The film serves as an end to Hanamaru’s story within the franchise. However, her future beyond the film is uncertain. Will her future include her pushing her friend Ruby on a book cart, working in a library, study Japanese language, operate a library, and be a writer as some fan art and fans have guessed? [13] Or will it be a combination of all of the above or none of these? Its hard to know. It is likely she will continue to be a school idol, which puts into question if she would still work within the library as she might be too busy.

No matter whether she returns to the library or not, there is no doubt that her experience in the library shaped her as a person. If she does return to being a library assistant, or pursues being a librarian, the self-confidence she gained from being a school idol could bolster her ability to help patrons and be a great person. She could even put on shows either by herself or with her friends to promote the library. The possibilities ahead for her are endless. She is not someone who neatly falls into a librarian character type, but is a fully-fledged character who is unique in her own way, with her own hopes and desires.

Hanamaru perks up in the film when Chika mentions that the library of their former school will still be there.

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Notes

[1] For this I am using definitions from Merriam-Webster, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the now-defunct LISWiki, and Librarian Avengers. More specific terms include reference librarian, bibliographers, reader’s advisors, interns, library technicians (formerly a BLS category), and those with a practicum. It is different from other roles  such as, archivists, scribes (defunct profession), and superintendents of documents. Some of these librarians may be what some call “paraprofessionals“. Another example of a librarian like Hanamaru, who is a school assistant, is Rin Shima in Laid-Back Camp, who appears to work in the library. Like Hanamaru, she appears to be a student assistant, and is also not shown doing any actual library tasks (although Hanamaru does accept books), and is shown reading in the library. However, the number of scenes and times in the library are so short, and the library is just another place she hangs out, reading, relaxing as she camps during the winter, sometimes with Nadeshiko. In another episode, however, she kicks Nadeshiko, to wake her up when she is sleeping on the floor of the library, and shelves books in the library.

[2] Crystalyn Hodgkins, “Love Live! Sunshine!! Idol Group’s Name, 1st Single Date Revealed,” Anime News Network, Jun. 27, 2015. A fandom page also describes her as a “fan of reading” who has “a deep fondness for Japanese literature” or another image which describes her as lover of books.

[3] Apart from RubyMaru (a ship of Ruby and Hanamaru), there is YoshiMaru (a ship of Yoshiko Tsushima and Hanamaru), ChikaMaru (Chika Takami and Hanamaru), DiaMaru (Dia Kurosawa and Hanamaru), LeahMaru (Leah Kazuno and Hanamaru), RinMaru (Rin Hoshizora and Hanamaru), YouMaru (You Watanabe and Hanamaru), AZALEA  (Kanan Matsuura, Dia Kurosawa, and Hanamaru), and ChikaMariMaru (Chika Takami, Mari Ohara, and Hanamaru). The same page also notes Chika Takami, You Watanabe, Riko Sakurauchi, Ruby Kurosawa, Yoshiko Tsushima, Hanamura, Mari Ohara, Kanan Matsuura, and Dia Kurosawa as Aqours [friends]. There is a lot of wonderful yuri fan art of Hanamuru on /r/wholesomeyuri and a few on /r/lovelivefanart, along with fan art, fan videos, cosplays, news, and more about Hanamaru on /r/lovelive, along with other posts on /r/SIFallstars.

[4] “Kunikida Hanamaru,” Fandom of Pretty Cure Wiki, Feb. 11, 2020. As one reviewer put it, she somehow has “never seen a computer before” which seems strange, leading to a “couple of great scenes” like seeing windows for the first time, accidentally turning off a laptop, and recognizing Yoshiko’s chuuni tendencies in order to “distinguish herself” so she isn’t just “normal.” One post on /r/lovelive pointed out that in “Their Feelings” she is “seated at the librarian’s desk and there was a very clear computer monitor on the desk.” Some commenters responded that the library computer doesn’t have internet access or is “locked to some library system,” said the computer is small and “made specifically for a library management system,” common for rural Japan. Others theorized that the “librarian taught Hanamaru how to use the computer and how to do her work” and since Hanamaru doesn’t know about the internet, she “doesn’t venture far and only goes on whatever program the librarian told her to” or that she was confused when she saw the laptop in the next episode. Some said the scene in that next episode is “explaining Hanamaru’s fascination with technology” more than anything else, said that the computer in the library could be “strictly for books,” that the writing might be sloppy, or that there are “tiny plotholes and inconsistencies” in the series.

[5] Bamboo Dong, “Love Live! Sunshine!!: Episode 4 [Review],” Anime News Network, Jul. 23, 2016. Another WordPress site also noted that she “helps out at the school library, and her ambition is to become a writer some day,” one of the first places calling her a librarian. A page for the doll of her calls her a “daughter of a temple and a freshman of the library committee.”

[6] Bamboo Dong, “Love Live! Sunshine!!: Episode 6 [Review],” Anime News Network, Aug. 7, 2016; Bamboo Dong, “Love Live! Sunshine!!: Episode 7 [Review],” Anime News Network, Aug. 14, 2016; Bamboo Dong, “Love Live! Sunshine!!: Episode 15 [Review],” Anime News Network, Oct. 15, 2017; Bamboo Dong, “Love Live! Sunshine!!: Episode 22 [Review],” Anime News Network, Dec. 3, 2017; Bamboo Dong, “Love Live! Sunshine!!: Episode 24 [Review],” Anime News Network, Dec. 18, 2017.

[7] Fobazi Ettarh, “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves,” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, Jan. 20, 2018. This similar to one of the one of the seven reasons that libraries are essential according to freelance writer and book reviewer Sadie Trombetta: “Libraries are safe refuges for the homeless and underserved populations.” Her other other reasons are self-explanatory and seem like non-brainers, although they can have political implications: “[Libraries] offer free educational resources to everyone…help boost local economies…play an important role in English language learning…make communities healthier…preserve history, and more importantly, truth…[and] help connect communities.”

[8] “ABOUT Love Live! Project,” PROJECT Lovelive! Sunshine!!, 2017; “Hanamaru Kunikida,” Bleach: The King of Fighters Wiki, 2022; “Hanamaru Kunikida,” Heroes Wiki, 2021; “Hanamaru Kunikida,” Love Live! School Festival Wiki, Aug. 10, 2020;

[9] “Temporary Closure of Libraries,” Numazu Newsletter [English Edition], Koho Numazu, Mar. 2018, p. 1; “City Library’s Summer Program,” Numazu Newsletter [English Edition], No. 330, Koho Numazu, Jul. 15, 2016, p. 2-3; Various articles, Numazu Newsletter [English Edition], No. 319, Koho Numazu, Feb. 1, 2016, p. 2;“Japanese Classes for Foreign Residents,” Numazu City Official Website, Apr. 1, 2020; Various articles, Numazu Newsletter [English Edition], No. 335, Koho Numazu, Oct. 1, 2016, p. 1-3.

[10] Mariko Oi, “The dark side of Asia’s pop music industry,” BBC News, Jan. 26, 2016; Patrick W. Galbraith, “Innocence lost: the dark side of Akihabara,” Japan Today, Jul. 8, 2009; Jun Hongo, “Photos of preteen girls in thongs now big business,” Japan Times, May 3, 2007; Emiko Jozuka and Yoko Wakatsuki, “Why a pop idol’s stand against her assault sparked outrage in Japan,” CNN, Jan. 16, 2019; “Court rules pop idol has right to pursue happiness, can date,” Japan Times, Jan. 19, 2016; Eric Stimson, “Idol Fined 650,000 Yen for Dating Contract Violation,” Anime News Network, Sept. 20, 2015; Catherine Komuro, “Sacrificial idols: In J-pop, Teen Dreams Become Nightmares,” Bitch media, Jan. 9, 2018; Patrick St. Michael, “Rino Sashihara: Can one ‘idol’ beat the system?,” Japan Times, May 30, 2019; Patrick St. Michael, “For Japan’s Justin Biebers, No Selena Gomezes Allowed,” The Atlantic, Aug. 15, 2012; “Japanese pop star sacked over sex scandal,” AsiaOne, Aug. 9, 2011; “Ex-Morning Musume star Ai Kago blazing a trail back to top (using a cigarette lighter),” Mainchi Daily News, 2008; Jason Sevakis, “Why Can’t Idol Singers Have Lives Of Their Own?,” Anime News Network, Jul. 24, 2015; Rafael Antonio Pineda, “pixiv Representative Director Resigns From Company Amidst Lawsuits,” Anime News Network, Jun. 6, 2018; Karen Ressler, “Former Niji No Conquistador Idol Sues pixiv Representative Director for Sexual Harassment,” Anime News Network, Jun. 1, 2018; Brian Ashcraft, “After Idol’s Death, Bullying And Intimidation Allegations Surface,” Kotaku, Oct. 15, 2018; “Suicide of teen draws attention to poor working conditions, harassment of idols,” The Mainichi, Nov. 18, 2018; Misa Hirabayashi, “The dark side of Japan’s underground idols: Little pay, long hours and unbreakable contracts,” Japan Times, Dec. 21, 2018; Mari Yamamoto and Jake Adelstein, “Inside the Weird, Dangerous World of Japan’s Girl ‘Idols’,” The Daily Beast, Jan. 21, 2019; Satetsu Takeda, “No More Objectification of Me!” [in Japanese], GQ Japan, Mar. 5, 2019; “AKB48 member’s ‘penance’ shows flaws in idol culture,” Japan Times, Mar. 1, 2013; Fraser McAlpine, “The Japanese obsession with girl bands – explained,” BBC News, Jun. 30, 2017; Kara Dennison, “Creamy Mami Character Goods Prove Showa Idols Are Forever,” Crunchyroll, Jul. 11, 2019; Richard Eisenbeis, “The Fictional (Yet Amazingly Popular) Singers of Japan,” Kotaku, Sept. 7, 2012; “Animated pop star Hatsune Miku is only 10, but she has had a huge impact on music,” Japan Times, Aug. 24, 2017; “New Market Scale Estimation for Otaku: Population of 1.72 Million with Market Scale of ¥411 Billion— NRI classifies 5 types of otaku group, proposing a “New 3Cs” marketing frame —,” Nomura Research Institute, Ltd., Oct. 6, 2005. The latter article says “The archetype for the “takes it seriously otaku” is the “single male in his 20s and 30s with an interest in mechanical and idol fields.”

[11] Lauren Orsini, “What is a Fujoshi?,” Anime News Network, Dec. 21, 2016; Jordan, “The Idol Phenomenon in Japan and Anime,” The Artifice, Dec. 30, 2015; Guest mihsayam, “Horikoshi High School (a Real-life High School For Idols),” soompi, Feb. 20, 2009; “So “school idols” do they actually exist?,” Gamefaqs, Jan. 2000, also see page 2;     “アイドルの衣装のスタンダード“制服ふう”衣装、いつから始まった！?” [Translation: When did the standard “uniform fuu” costumes for idols begin! ??], VIP Times, Aug. 8, 2017; “AKB48 (pictured 2010) popularized stylized school uniforms as costumes,” Wikimedia, 2010. This is also the case in South Korea, per an article entitled “Idols who were high school classmates.” In Catherine Komuro’s article, “Sacrificial idols: In J-pop, Teen Dreams Become Nightmares” in Bitch media, she says that “due to the manufactured nature of idols, their image of accessibility may do more harm than good” with fans often unable to “respect boundaries between an idol’s public character and private life.” This is manifested in the 2020 anime series If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die, where the protagonist in some ways did not respect the boundaries between the idol’s public and private life.

[12] Bamboo Dong, “Love Live! Sunshine!!: Episode 26 [Review],” Anime News Network, Dec. 31, 2017. . Closing doors happens a lot in episode, equivalent of closing chapters in their life and moving on. She later stands with her fellow students as they say one last goodbye to the school, then closing the school gate with them. Hanamaru is part of those who greet Chika for one last song together. Chika realizes she has been searching for her own shine the whole time.

[13] Baserdc, “What jobs do you think μ’s is doing and the future jobs the girls of Aqours would go for?,” /r/LoveLive, Dec. 27, 2017; isaactanyien1234, “Happy Birthday Hanamaru,” /r/LoveLive, Mar. 4, 2020; Offlinelol, “Librarian Hanamaru ~,” /r/LoveLive, Dec. 6, 2017. There are also a few fan fics which seem to have Hanamaru as a librarian. There is even a cargo ship, in which fans jokily ship a character with an inanimate object, or crack! ship of Hanamaru×Books, i.e. “the ship between Hanamaru Kunikida and books” as this page explains.

Recently added titles (February 2023)

The Beyonder shapeshifts into the librarian and surprises Lunella who is trying to divide her project into pieces, so Eduardo doesn’t mess it up. His appearance embodies the stereotypical depiction of librarians.

Building upon the titles listed for July/August, September, October,  November, and December 2021, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2022, and January of this year this post notes recent titles with libraries or librarians in popular culture which I’ve come across in the past month. Each of these has been watched or read during the past month. Not as many animated series or anime with libraries this past month, but I did come across a good deal in comics, and hopefully there will be more that I find in the days, weeks, and months to come. That’s my hope at least.

Animated series recently added to this page

• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, “The Beyonder”

Anime series recently added to this page

• The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady aka Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei, “The Magic Lecture of the Founder and the Assistant”

Comics recently added to this page

• Daybreak, “Episode 46”
• Ice Cold, “Bonus Episode: Hard questions”
• I Seduced the Hero’s Mother, “Episode 10”
• The Vampire Librarian, “Part 36”
• Vixen: NYC, “Episode 40”
• Vixen: NYC, “Episode 40”
• WBM: Black Joy Anthology, “Bakery Man – 2”

Films recently added to this page

None of this month

Other entries recently added to this page

None of this month

 

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Thank you to all the people that regularly read my blog. As always, if you have any titles you’d like to suggest, let me know. Thanks!

Revisiting Clara Rhone: A fictional Black librarian who heads “The Stanza”

Clara talks to Ansi in a friendly manner in the first episode of Welcome to the Wayne, giving off a lasting impression.

In April 2021, I gushed about my guest post reviewing Welcome to the Wayne for the ALA’s side publication, I Love Libraries, to the then-Content Strategy Manager at the ALA, Lindsey Simon, saying it was amazing “how many times libraries appear in this series” and described the article as “really exciting and fun to write about.” Simon called the series “awesome.” It would be the last post I would ever write while she was there. And while I did, later, publish posts about Milo Murphy’s Law and The Owl House, it would not be the same. Since that time, I considered that I had closed a chapter after finishing Welcome to the Wayne and didn’t consider re-watching it, especially with all the anime I began watching. However, for this last post of Black History Month in 2023, I took a deep dive into the series once more. This post will connect Clara Rhone (voiced by Harriet D. Foy), the chief librarian of the secret (and magical) library, The Stanza, in the series, to issues that Black people, especially Black women, experience as librarians.

In my post earlier this month, I described her as an “oft supporting character who runs the Stanza,” which is hidden within the Wayne apartment building. I further noted that she doesn’t do the library work all by herself but is helped by non-human library workers and that she becomes a central part of the story. There’s a lot more going on than that. She is fundamentally different from the other Black librarians I have highlighted on this blog. She is not a historian like George and Lance in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Nor is she a sorcerer like Cagliostro in an episode of What If…?

All in all, there is no doubt that her character, as I described it in July of last year, steals the show. This is amazing considering that Clara’s voice actor, Foy, is well-known for film, TV, Broadway, and musical roles, but this is her first animated role! She does a great job in that respect. However, her character is likely “drawn and conceptualized by White people” as I theorized in a previous post. Even so, the library she manages is a place of knowledge, and is meticulously organized. She is more than a librarian too, meaning that her portrayal passes the Librarian Portrayal Test or LPT, and has a daughter, Goodness, who helps her, while she remains the chief librarian. She gets plaudits from me for not being a scary woman, which is too common in Western animation, sad to say. Her role gives me “hope yet for Western animation series” as I put it in March 2021.

This brings me to what I wrote about in April 2021. I noted that Clara is shown shelving books, encouraging the protagonist, Ansi, to become a member of the library, and giving them vital information for their adventures, all in the first episode! Then, in a later episode, episode 12, she even sends a library ninja, Goodness, to try and drive the protagonists from the library, with the role of role of librarians as gatekeepers is emphasized when she warns them that if the leave with the vampire they can never return. This threat is never fulfilled because in a later episode, episode 19, Goodness and Saraline break into the library, catch a creature, and spot Clara shelving books. Then, in the finale of season one, she offers her help to the protagonists.

She reappears in the seventh episode of the show’s second season, shushing her granddaughter, Goodness, telling her to use her “Stanza voice.” Although this corresponds to the stereotype of librarians shushing patrons, she makes up for it by showing the a book that shows them all that ever happened in the Wayne. Later, in the show’s final episode, she is briefly possessed by a weird gas and is shown, in the episode’s ending, doing exercises on her room’s balcony. She has all the time in the world, because the library is outside of time.

Clara motions to John Keats, a squidjit, while she holds Ansi there with her cane

Her fandom page, of a fandom site for the show that is barely updated, doesn’t provide much more information. It notes her appearance, wearing a pearl necklace, a brown blouse, and light red scarf, and describes her as “gentle and soothing, and is very kind to those who stumble upon the Stanza.” She only appears in one fan fic, where she doesn’t even appear to be mentioned by name! Even worse is the fact that in the reviews, apart from my own, she isn’t even mentioned, despite the fact that some mention the Stanza or just call her “the librarian”. [1] These reviewers and others erased her from existence, deeming her non-important. It is disgusting and disturbing, although not surprising considering that the show remains a bit obscure, despite the fact that it aired on Nickeloedon from 2017 to 2019 and was nominated for two Daytime Emmys in 2018 and 2019.

This erasure is nothing new. There has been a long-standing erasure of Black history, including art history, and culture, in favor of White narratives. It is something, as Brittany Spranos, now a staff writer for Rolling Stone, described as something which oppression and systemic racism feed off, saying it is everywhere from the (in)justice system to “art and popular culture” where being a Black creator has meant you are “only valuable if appetizing to a white consumer market, and…able to be reimagined as a form of art without non-white origins.” [2]

When it comes to Black librarians, they face more challenges than just erasure. Across work environments, Black people engage in code-switching, meaning that they can’t be “themselves or express themselves freely without suffering severe repercussions,” keeping their personal and work lives separate.  They further have to deal with  the norm of the white dominant culture with silly questions about people’s weekends, not sharing anything too personal, and with the idea that any time a Black woman objects they are manifesting the angry Black woman stereotype, with their thoughts ignored. [3] Clara does not experience any of this in Welcome to the Wayne, as she is the head librarian and manager of the library. She doesn’t have to experience discrimination, microaggressions (either microassaults, microinsults, or microinvalidations), or stereotypical thoughts directed toward her. She just can do her job without being disturbed. All the show’s characters respect her for that, even if they have their own ideas for how librarians are “supposed” to behave. Sadly, due to the characters who come into the library, she doesn’t have the opportunity to connect to other Black people. That is something real-life Black librarians experience, even if they are not valued for their work and contributions, despite the fact they should be, but continue to keep trying no matter what. [4]

Due to the fact that she is the head of the Stanza, she likely has the power to collecting materials for and by Black people, like many other librarians out there. But, how many of her patrons are Black? If we base it on the characters in the show, very few of them would be Black, with Ansi Molina as mixed-race or the Arcsine. This is reflected in Ansi’s voice actor, Alanna Ubach, who is part Mexican and Puerto Rican, while Katie DiCicco, who voices the Arcsine appears to be a person of color and this is one of her only roles over the years. Even so, for Clara the job may be a “calling” to her, a form of vocational awe, like with some librarians, or realize what a vital role she plays as a librarian, like other Black people in the library profession. Clara may even know about other Black librarians in the past, who have paved the way for her to be in her role. [5] That’s all up to speculation at this point, unfortunately, due to a lack of reviews of the show.

Beyond this, I’d hope that Clara has used her clear dedication and persistence to make contributions to her library, and librarianship as a whole. If she did so, she would be following in the footsteps of many Black librarians before her. This includes those like librarian Dorothy B. Porter who smashes the racist and sexist Dewey Decimal System (DDC) to pieces and built her own cataloging system which actually helped people find what they were looking for rather than maintaining the White status quo that DDC keeps in place. She may even have the time to create research collections documenting people in the Wayne itself, like Miriam Matthews in Los Angeles where she began as a librarian in 1927, or the first Black librarian employed by New York City, Nella Larson Imes, among many others. [6]

In the beginning of the second episode of this series, Clara talks to Tony Stanza, keeper of the Stanza Archives, while she holds an information file on Ansi, saying she will try to retrieve him.

Much of what I am saying is supposition, however. In the series itself,  Clara only appears in eight episodes, seven of which she is voiced by Foy, who lists Clara in her resume along with other characters, and elsewhere as “Miss Clara.” [7] Some day, I’d love to interview her about the role, and if that comes to pass, then I’ll be sure to post about it here. That’s all for this post. Until next week!

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Notes

[1] See, for example, Walden, Jennifer. “Audio: Nick.com’s ‘Welcome to the Wayne’.” Post Magazine, Apr. 1, 2015; Ashby, Emily. “Welcome to the Wayne TV Review.” Common Sense Media, Apr. 1, 2022; Damon Cap. “Welcome To The Wayne Review.” BSCKids, Jun. 30, 2017; “Show of the week: Welcome to the Wayne.” Television Business International, accessed May 29, 2022; Jurado, Peter. “Why We Love Welcome To The Wayne.” ComicsVerse, Aug. 7, 2017.

[2] Wabi-Sabi, Mirna and Fabio Teixeira, “Erasure of Black History in Favor of White Narratives Isn’t Limited to the US.” Truthout, Aug. 23, 2020; Eye Candy. “addressing black erasure in the arts: artists fight back.” AfroPunk, Aug. 16, 2018; Enamorado, Gabriella. “Taking a Look at the Erasure of Black History.” PantherNow, Feb. 16, 2021; Saulson, Sumiko. “Diversity talk highlights anti-Blackness and Black erasure within the LGBTQIA+ community.” San Francisco Bay View, Nov. 7, 2019; Kelly, Kayla. “Black allyship or Black erasure?” The Eagle, Feb. 9, 2022; Sehgal, Parul. “Fighting ‘Erasure’.” New York Times Magazine, Feb. 7, 2016; Spanos, Brittney. “The Year in Black Erasure.” Pitchfork, Dec. 22, 2014.

[3] Konata, La Loria. “Looking Through a Colored Lens: A Black Librarian’s Narrative,” Georgia State University, 2017, pp. 116-121

[4] Ibid, 123-4, 126.

[5] Patrick, Diane. “Developing Collections ‘By Any Means Necessary’“. Publisher’s Weekly, Jun. 30, 2013; Parker, Haillie and Allie Barton. “Invisible Chapters: Writing Tucson’s Black community into the stories of libraries, bookstores and publishing.” Tuscon Weekly, Dec. 14, 2020, Keeton, kYmberly. “A Personal Assessment: The African-American Librarian in the 21st Century“. University of Houston African American Studies, accessed May 29, 2022; Cooke, Nicole A. “Black Librarians Project.” LHRT News and Notes, accessed May 29, 2022; “Augusta Baker, Librarian, and Educator born,” AAREG, 1993.

[6] Dawson, Alma. “Celebrating African-Americans and Librarianship.” Library Trends Vol. 49, No. 1, Summer 2000, pp. 49-87; Hunt, Rebecca D. “African American Leaders in the Library Profession: Little Known History.” Black History Bulletin Vol. 76, No. 1, pp. 14-19; Helton, Laura. “On Decimals, Catalogs, and Racial Imaginaries of Reading.” Humanities Commons, 2019; Kindig, Jessie. “Miriam Matthews (1905–2003).” BlackPast, Dec. 16, 2007; “Minnie Fisher (1896-1990), Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Interviewed by: Dorothy R. Robinson, December 29, 1979.” HOLLIS for Archival Discovery, Harvard University. Dec. 29, 1979; Johnson, Doris Richardson. “Nella Larsen (1891-1963).” BlackPast, Jan. 19, 2007; “Black Women Oral History Project Interviews, 1976–1981,” Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, accessed May 29, 2022; Reft, Ryan. “Fighting for Leisure: African Americans, Beaches, and Civil Rights in Early 20th Century L.A.” KCET, May 16, 2014; Hochman, Rebecca. “Investing in Literature: Ernestine Rose and the Harlem Branch Public Library of the 1920s“. Legacy, Vol. 31, No. 1 (2014), pp. 93.

[7] Foy, Harriet D. “Resume.” Accessed May 29, 2022; Foy, Harriet D. “Bio.” Accessed May 29, 2022. Foy’s IMDB page lists her as voicing Rhone in seven episodes: “Rise and Shine Sleepyhead” (s1ep1); “Like a Happy, Happy Bird” (s1ep2); “Wall-to-Wall Ping-Pong Ball” (s1ep12), “Keep an Eye on the Nose” (s1ep19), “So This is Glamsterdam” (s1ep20), “Wiles Styles Your Over” (s2ep7); “Some Sort of Bad Luck Curse” (s2ep9). She also appears briefly in  “Whoever Controls the Wayne, Controls the World” (s2ep10) but is not voiced.

Bellissime librerie!: Library tourism from Venezia to Burano

Buongiorno! After getting my degree from library school in December 2019, I’ve been occasionally going to libraries, sometimes as a patron, and other times as a tourist. The latter was the case in Italy, where I went on a vacation with my parents, in September 2022. I traveled there, in part, to visit a town called Casola, in the mountains above Parma, where my cousins own a trattoria. It’s also where my great-grandfather and his siblings were born, and lived, some of whom immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. In this post, I won’t focus on my expanded albero genealogico (family tree), but rather on my library tourism, as it could be called, during my trip in Italy.

For the first part of my trip, I stayed in an agritourismo in the suburbs of Firenze, often known as Florence, a beautiful city in Northern Italy. Multiple times I attempted to enter a biblioteca (library) in the center of the city, known as the Laurentian Medici Library. The first time I tried, I was told by the attendant that the library was only open to students. The second time, I was informed that the library was “permanently closed.” Whether that is still the case, I’m not sure, but I believe it probably is. Later on in the trip, I attempted to enter the Galileo Museum library, in downtown Firenze. Unfortunately, I was turned away, by a nice middle-aged Italian librarian who was working there, and told that the library was only for researchers. Through all of this, I somehow overlooked the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. That library, also known as the National Central Library of Florence, is located on the Arno River.

Image of one of the library rooms at the Correr Museum. Sorry for the blurriness. (Photograph by me)

It wasn’t until September 18 that I visited my first library of sorts, in Venezia (Venice), Italy. It was within the Correr Museum on St. Mark’s Square. There were various library rooms filled with books and collections for tourists to examine. Some were rooms filled with artifacts collected by Francesco Morosini, Bessarion, and Venezia itself, like globes, manuscripts, and other items.

The next day, with my mom and dad, I visited the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, also known as the Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark, which is inside the Correr Museum. Run by the Italian Ministry of Culture, it holds thousands of manuscripts, about one million post-16th century books, and many other artifacts, like globes, maps, and sculptures. While it is more of a museum than a library, it still has many library features. This includes pamphlets on a table which were labeled “for reference only” and beautiful paintings on the ceilings, in-keeping with Italian art. Some rooms were built by Joseph Sansovino, a famous Venetian architect.

A mangy library cat and the Venetian isle of Burano

On September 20, my next-to-last day in Italy, I traveled to Burano, an island near Venezia known for its colorful houses. It is a very tourist-centered island geared towards those who want to buy clothing, especially clothing with handmade lace, something the island is known for. A mangy, black cat guided me to a public library! It was almost like a dream. The library’s official website says the library, which is accessible to people with disabilities, has a “total of 5 rooms, 3 of which are reserved as reading rooms with 50 seats.” It is part of the Venice Library system.

Pamphlets on display inside the Burano library. (Photograph by me)

Not long after entering, my mom, dad, and I met an elderly Italian woman who was helpful, even though she knew very little English. She seemed to be the librarian on duty, helped by another Italian woman who was about the same age, sitting behind an information desk. On the wall in another room was an Italian-language version of the Dewey Decimal System. Both library workers were friendly and embodied an attitude of Italians I experienced throughout my vacation in Northern Italy: Italians want you to understand what they are saying, even if you speak very little Italian.

The librarian showed us around the small library, noting their collections, and what services they had to offer, such as a children’s corner. This even included a bathroom. While that might seem strange, elsewhere in Italy, you had to pay one Euro to use the bathroom, equivalent to about one U.S. dollar. In this library, the bathroom was open and could be used free-of-charge.

The library seemed like a place that Lady Elianna Bernstein or Myne, protagonists of Bibliophile Princess and Ascendance of a Bookworm respectfully, would be at home. However, both would probably complain that there weren’t enough books, even if they were enthralled with books about town’s history, teen fiction, or even children’s picture books. Myne would likely be overjoyed by the latter, since she tasked kids at a local orphanage with creating such books, in the anime series, in an attempt to make free books available. She did so despite pushback from her sponsor-of-sorts, a city merchant named Benno, who wanted to sell books rather than giving them out for free.

My parents and I were likely some of the only – or maybe even the first – tourists to enter the library in Burano. Many probably walk past it, as they’d rather shop or see the recommended sites. They might be thrown off by the mangy cat or the library itself. After all, black cats are, unfortunately, seen as bad luck, as witches in disguise, or many other silly superstitions. For me, the black cat was, in a sense, a form of good luck, as I wouldn’t have found the library if I hadn’t followed the cat! In order to respect the privacy of the librarians, I decided to not take their photographs. Instead, I only took photos of the library itself. In fact, I took all the photos displayed in this post.

Library entrance (left) and close-up of library sign (right). (Photographs by me)

There were no witchy librarians like Kaisa in Hilda, nor any like Clara Rhone in Welcome to the Wayne. That didn’t matter. What was important is the fact that the library was there with services to help the community. I remain optimistic that those in the community use the library to learn more about the island they live on, the world in-large, and themselves, becoming more informed citizens in the process.

Bibliotourism + its benefits

While visiting libraries in Italy did not give me culture shock, it gave me a glimpse into how libraries in Italy function and serve patrons. That is something I believe is valuable. Some have praised library tourism, also known as bibliotourism, or argued that “public libraries should be a tourist destination the way museums are” since libraries are a reflection of the community they serve. Others even created blogs about this form of tourism, like The Library Tourist, considered integrating libraries in “the tourism sector” ,or called bibliotourism the “next big trend”.

Whether any of that is the case, the fact is that library tourism must be done respectfully without imposing one’s culture and beliefs onto another. Although this doesn’t always happen, as the trend continues, as libraries become tourist attractions, and some tourists are downright snobbish. Ultimately, library tourism is inevitable since libraries play an important role in tourism. Some even believe that since libraries interconnect with tourism, they can promote sustainable development in countries such as China. In any case, visiting a library as a tourist, and even better, as a patron, can allow you to experience the space, the architecture, and understand the library’s role in the society in which it resides.

While I was a tourist in Italy, along with my parents, I was also a patron, as I used available library services. It is possible for someone to be a patron and a tourist. Doing so is more respectful than coming into a library on a whim, taking some photos and leaving, then going on your merry way, without a care in the world. Library tourism is possible despite the continually raging COVID-19 pandemic, causing library practices to change. The latter includes renewed efforts to serve those coming to a library as tourists, in addition to serving patrons from the local community.

In the end, as I continue through my career, I plan to visit libraries, not just as a tourist, but as a patron, understanding the role that the libraries I’m entering play in the local community, while respecting those who work at the libraries, and fellow patrons.

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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This is post is reprinted from my guest post on January 25 on Reel Librarians.

Sources used

• “Biblioteche,” Città di Venezia, 2022.
• “Biblioteca Burano,”Città di Venezia, 2022.
• “Bibliotourism: 7 reasons why tourists should visit the library.” Princh, 2022.
• Chin, Chester. “Library tourism: World’s most beautiful libraries to visit in your lifetime.” The Star, 5 Feb. 2022
• Criscione, Candice. “Bathrooms in Italy – Everything You Need to Know,” Moms in Italy, 13 May , 2022
• Donnelly, Christina. “5 Pawsitively Fascinating Facts About Black Cats.” The Spruce Pets, 4 Feb., 2022
• Hermann, Burkely. “Archivists on the Issues: Popular Culture and the Presence of Archival Limits.” Issues & Advocacy, 6 Dec. 2022
• Hermann, Burkely. “Behind the Screen: Black voice actors who bring fictional librarians to life!” Pop Culture Library Review, 26 Jul. 2022.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Guest post: Analyzing the witchy librarian in ‘Hilda’ TV series + new movie.” Reel Librarians, 9 Mar. 2022
• Hermann, Burkely. “Guest post: BIPOC librarians in animated series: ‘She-Ra’ to ‘Yamibou’.” Reel Librarians, 24 Mar. 2021
• “Home page,” Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, 2022
• “Home page.” The Library Tourist, 2022.
• “Jacopo Sansovino,” Venice Travel Guide, 2022
• Krueger, Alyson. “Where Libraries are the Tourist Attractions.” New York Times, 10 Aug. 2019
• “La Biblioteca,” Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 4 Oct. 2022
• Li, Yang and Xiaodong Liu. “‘Library + Tourism’： A New Direction for the Sustainable Development of Libraries.” 2019 IFLA WLIC, 13 Sept. 2019
• “Library Tourism Could Be The Next Big Travel Trend,” Turismo Global, 27 Jul. 2022
• “Mission and activities,” Museo Galileo, 2022
• Misra, Seema. “Library Tourism – An Unlikely Travel Trend Of Visiting Libraries In Today’s Digital World.” Banani Vista, 11 Sept. 2018
• Prokopenko, Liliia. “Library Tourism: To Define The Essence Of Concept.” ResearchGate, Jul. 2020
• “Risorse Online,” Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, 2022
• “Research Services: The Museo Correr Library,” Correr Museum, 2022
• Sherman, Jan. “Some Observations From Library Tourism.” Book Riot, 17 Oct. 2019
• Syufy, Franny. “Myths and Superstitions About Black Cats.” The Spruce Pets, 7 Mar. 2022
• “The Museo Correr Library: Information,” Correr Museum, 2022
• Tyna, Faustyna. “Communication Crisis for Librarians on Library Tourism: The Communication Crisis for Librarians on Library Tourism: The Effects of the Crisis Pandemic Covid-19Effects of the Crisis Pandemic Covid-19.” Library Philosophy and Practice, 4 Jul. 2022
• Waterman, Sue. “Library Tourism.” The Sheridan Libraries & University Museums Blog, 12 Jun. 2017

Real-life Black librarians who should also be in fiction

On the left is part of the cover of a current bestselling book, The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict (a White woman) and Victoria Christopher Murray (a Black woman) about a Black female librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, who passes as White. On the right is an actual image of Greene from Your Black World.]

Diversity has oft been a challenge in the library profession. It is even the subject of a little edited Wikipedia page entitled “Diversity in librarianship.” Currently, not even 6% of credentialed librarians are Black, with almost 16 times more White librarians having credentials than Black people. Even when other metrics are used, Black people are clearly under-represented, although there is a gap of U.S. between U.S.-born Latine people, Blacks, Whites, and immigrant Latines. Furthermore, there is a lack of Black librarians dating back to 1930s, with some arguing that Black people were relegated to inferior schools, and inadequate preparation for higher education. Others have stated that the library profession itself is racially constructed, with Black people having “perilous, uneven, or vulnerable education”. [1]

This reality is manifested in the various real-life Black librarians, like Clara Hayden, the current Librarian of Congress. However, too few of them are in popular culture. As such, there are a number of these librarians in real life who should also be in fiction. As I wrote in June of last year, there should be more librarians, especially Black librarians, who criticize DDC and LCCO for being racist, like Reanna Esmail, a outreach and engagement librarian at Olin Library at Cornell University. Itheorized that this could be the case because either many of the librarians are White or that the writers are White and “don’t think about these issues.” With that being said, this post focuses on eleven Black librarians which should be in pop culture, either comics, animation, films, or any other medium.

The first of those librarians is Belle da Costa Greene. She is known due to a historical fiction by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, entitled The Personal Librarian, which is about her professional and personal life as the librarian of J.P. Morgan. She has attracted some controversy, as she spent her professional career while passing as a White person. [2] Even so, considering that romantic drama films like Passing, centered on two Black women who pass as White, are popular, The Personal Librarian, or stories about other librarians who are Black but pass as White might move into another form in the future. After all, the 1929 book of the same name is by Nella Larsen. She was a Black woman who worked as a librarian at the New York Public Library (NYPL), from 1921 to 1925, at the Harlem branch, according to pages 8-9 of George Hutchinson’s 2006 biography, In Search of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line. There are many films, novels, music, and TV shows, which feature characters who are passing. [3] With growing interest and attention toward racial justice, racism, and Black nationalism, a White-passing character might fit with what some directors are going for. So, who knows, maybe there will be a White-passing librarian in animation in the future.

On the other hand, others may decide that instead of choosing a mixed-race character, they will chose someone different. That could lead to a focus on more prominent real-life librarians like the founder of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), E.J. Josey. He was even described as one of the “pioneering” Black librarians in the U.S., founding BCALA in 1970 around the same time that REFORMA, Asian American Library Caucus, and American Indian Library Association came into existence. [4] With characters like Mr. Anderson in The Public, it is just the right time to have a film, novel, or some other form of pop culture about him.

The same can be said for Clara Stanton Jones, the first Black president of the ALA. She was also key in pushing for segregation of libraries and improving library culture by pushing for the passage of an ALA “Resolution on Racism and Sexism Awareness.” [5] Clearly ahead of her time, especially in the latter. Relatively similar, in terms of her leadership role, was Effie Lee Morris (not to be confused with children’s librarian Effie Lee Newsome). She served as the first Black president of the Public Library Association, and is known for her role in helping library services for visually impaired people and people of color. During her career, she worked at Cleveland Public Library, New York Public Library, an San Francisco Public Library. [6]

Photographs of, from left to right, Edward C. Williams (via Case Western University), Jessie Carney Smith (via Fisk University), and Eliza Atkins Gleason (via UC Berkeley School of Information)

Surely there were record-setting librarians like Edward C. Williams, an early Black librarian, who joined the ALA in 1896, Fisk University librarian Jessie Carney Smith, who worked at the university beginning in 1965, or Eliza Atkins Gleason, the first Black person to earn a doctorate of library science from the University of Chicago in 1940. She is known for her 1941 book which pioneered Black library history, entitled The Southern Negro and the Public Library: A Study of the Government and Administration of Public Library Service to Negroes in the South. On a related noted were books by Josey, like his famous 1970 book, The Black Librarian in America, its 1994 follow-up, The Black Librarian in America Revisited, his 1972 book, What Black Librarians Have to Say, and the Handbook of Black Librarianship, a book he co-edited with Marva Deloch. This, and other books, like the 2012 book, The 21st-Century Black Librarian in America: Issues and Challenges (edited by Andrew P. Jackson, Julius Jefferson, Jr., and Akilah S. Nosakhere), Renate L. Chancellor’s 2019 book, E.J. Josey: Transformational Leader of the Modern Library, and the Aisha M. Johnson-Jones’ 2019 history, The African American Struggle for Library Equality were pointed out by BCALA in a 2018 call for abstracts. [7]

In addition to Williams, Smith, and Gleason, there’s Virginia Lacy Jones. She is said to be the second Black person to earn a library science doctorate, who went on to be dean of the Atlanta University School of Library Service from 1945 to 1982, overseeing the “training of approximately 1800 black librarians,” during her time at the university. Just as important is Catherine Latimer, the first Black librarian of the New York Public Library, who began working there in 1921, beginning at the Harlem branch. She was even defended by W.E.B. DuBois, when a supervisor tried to demote her.

Latimer would later describe, in letters to DuBois, the “acts of prejudice against her, specifically by white librarians”. Even so, she would still re-catalog items about the African diaspora so it was “actually accessible to researchers,” clip files on topics covering the Black experience and turn “those clipping files into scrapbooks.” She collected works of great Harlem Renaissance writers, oversaw the Division of Negro Literature and History, worked with researchers, and created a black poetry index with Dorothy B. Porter, a fellow Black librarian at Howard University. [8] She additionally was Instrumental in founding the NYPL Division of Negro History, Literature and Prints.

The latter brings me to Porter. I wrote about her briefly in June of last year, noting that she pushed aside the Dewey Decimal System by classifying works by author and genre to highlight the “foundational role of black people in all subject areas” which included religion, communications, art, economics, demography, music, political science, linguistics, and sociology. This was all part of a classification system which challenged racism on its head, centering works about and by Black people within scholarship.

Her work helped build the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, which is now one of the most comprehensive, and largest, collections of Black history in the world. She followed in the footsteps of Vivian Gordon Harsh, first Black librarian for the Chicago Public Library, beginning work there in 1909, a system she continued to work within until 1958. Harsh passionately collected works by Black people, setting the precedent for others to follow. [9]

Porter at work at her desk in the Moorland Room in the 1940s (image via page 4 of the article “Scarupa: The Energy-Charged Life Of Dorothy Porter Wesley“). Some said this image was in 1939, but I’m sticking with the date given in the original source. Porter later took on the name Dorothy Louise Porter Wesley. In 1952, her husband, James Amos Porter, painted a portrait of her, which was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery by Porter herself.

The fact that neither Latimer, Porter, or Harsh has been portrayed in any fictional form, to my knowledge, is a shame. It is further unfortunate, considering that Williams wrote a fictional novel entitled When Washington Was in Vogue: A Love Story in the 1920s which “portrays the 1920s African-American high society of which he was a part”. Considering the issues around gender and racial bias, the division between African and Black communities, the fact that some librarians have community service (or adventure) motives, or that many Black people work in multicultural environments, all of these could be adapted into fictional worlds. [10]

The same could be said about accurately showing how microaggressions toward Black librarians are rooted in historical racial stereotypes, how these microaggressions manifest themselves, either in rejection/dismissal of professional experience, hateful/ignorant comments. This is only heightened by separation from other communities, like Asian communities, mistrust of those outside the Black community by Black people, vulnerability and anxiousness inside the community, and the idea of racial realism. The latter is defined by Derrick Bell as the idea that Black people, and people of color, recognize and understand the systemic combination of racism and white racial framing in society. [11]

Such characters may not be appearing for one simple reason: racism. The latter is already an impediment to Black mobility and is so systemic that society would have to be “fundamentally changed” for the racism to be removed. As such, more people of color may realize they need to advance and protect their interests, rather than thinking that society will remedy injustice and inequality, and realizing that struggle for freedom is manifestation of humanity that grows stronger through resilience to oppression. However, these efforts can easily be blunted by nepotism and racial discrimination. [12] Such creators may be stymied, and held back by others. Or, they may be a lower level, and others may stop them there. As such, depictions which show that Black librarians have different experiences than others may never come to fruition in the first place. [13]

These experiences have been manifested in some fiction, which I’ve highlighted this month, either looking at librarians in animation, TV series, or films. There’s also Kimberly Garrett Brown’s 2022 novel, Cora’s Kitchen, which focuses on a 35-year-old Black librarian at the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library, and is encouraged by Langston Hughes to write poetry. Sadly, she ends up leaving her job so she can become a cook at White woman’s home. Other characters include Queenie, a Black packhorse librarian who moved to Philadelphia in Kim Michele Robinson’s The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. These and other characters may agree with what Stacie Williams, a librarian/activist/writer, said, that she tended to “eschew the idea of neutrality because nothing about my lived experience, as a black librarian, is neutral.” Other books which appear to include libraries, librarians, or library themes include The Camel Bookmobile, Large Print: An Unshelved Collection, Murder by Page One, Changes, Say You Need Me, and The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries to name a few books found on a listing on Alibris for “Afro American librarians”. [14]

Fictional librarians, who are Black, are important considering the critical role that Black librarians have in the communities they serve. This is valuable considering the smaller number of credentialed librarians who are Black, and an even smaller group who are Black men. As Library of Congress researcher Julius Jefferson put it, “whatever you want to do in life, there’s a librarian behind that.” There needs to be more Black librarians in real life and in fiction, whether they are part of the ALA’s Spectrum Scholarship program or not. [15]

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Notes

[1] Walker, Shaundra. “Critical Race Theory and the Recruitment, Retention and Promotion of a Librarian of Color: A Counterstory” in Where Are All The Librarians of Color?: The Experiences of People of Color (ed. Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juarez, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA, 2015), 135, 140, 142-4; “Librarian Demographics and Statistics In The US,” Zippia, accessed May 28, 2022; “University Librarian Demographics and Statistics In The US,” Zippia, accessed May 28, 2022; Sokanu, “Librarian demographics in the United States,” CareerExplorer, accessed May 28, 2022; Brown, Anna and Mark Hugo Lopez. “Public Libraries and Hispanics.” Pew Research Center, Mar. 17, 2015. There is also a listing of BIPOC resources for Children’s, MG, and Young Adult books, authors, and industry professionals by Melanin in YA, Edith Bazile’s article entitled “The lens of whiteness won’t close gaps in BPS”, La Loria Konata’s publication entitled “Looking Through a Colored Lens: A Black Librarian’s Narrative“,  Diane Patrick’s “Developing Collections ‘By Any Means Necessary’” in Publisher Weekly, and Haillie Parker and Allie Barton’s “Invisible Chapters: Writing Tucson’s Black community into the stories of libraries, bookstores and publishing” in Tuscon Weekly. Additional stories of note include Ann Althouse’s “The black female librarian introvert at the 5-day conference” blogpost, kYmberly Keeton’s “A Personal Assessment: The African-American Librarian in the 21st Century” post, Dr. Nicole A. Cooke’s post on the Black Librarians Project on the LHRT NEWS AND NOTES site, which highlights Black librarians such as Regina Anderson Andrews (librarian between 1921 and 1966), Florence E. Borders (librarian in 1940s), Virgia Brocks-Shedd, Mary Rayford Collins, Adelina Coppin Alvarado, Katie Hart, Anita Hemmings [passed as White, with her descendants not knowing she was Black until 1990s], Julie Hunter, Latanya Jenkins, Mexico Mickelbury, Grace Lee Mims, Reynolda Motley, Beverly Murphy, Nancy Mildred Harper Nilon, Charlotte Shuster Price, Pauline Short Robinson, Effie Stroud Frazier, Thelma Horn Tate, and Bertha Pleasant Williams. Others pointed to librarian Augusta Baker.

[2] See, for example, Bates, Karen Grigsby. “J.P. Morgan’s Personal Librarian Was A Black Woman. This Is Her Story.” NPR, Jul. 4, 2021; Napp, Francky. “She Was a Black Librarian Who Could Equal America’s Most Powerful Man,” Messy Nessy, Jun. 3, 2020; Scutts, Joanna. “The Mysterious Woman Behind J.P. Morgan’s Library,” Time, May 17, 2016; McAlpin, Heller. “J.P. Morgan’s librarian hid her race. A novel imagines the toll on her.” Christian Science Monitor, Jun. 29, 2021. There are many other sources listed on her Wikipedia page, for those more interested in her story, which is ripe to be used in fictional narrative beyond The Personal Librarian.

[3] While there are many examples listed on the “Passing (racial identity)” Wikipedia page, I’m most familiar with Melvin Van Peebles’s 1970 film Watermelon Man (which is still a great classic film, by the way), and think that the 1960 film I Passed for White could be interesting.

[4] Smith, Katisha. “13 Pioneering Black American Librarians You Oughta Know.” Book Riot, May 8, 2020; “About BCALA,” Black Caucus of the American Library Association, accessed May 29, 2022;  Walker, “Critical Race Theory and the Recruitment, Retention and Promotion of a Librarian of Color,” 136.

[5] Smith, 13 Pioneering Black American Librarians You Oughta Know.”

[6] Ibid; Landgraf, Greg. “Blazing Trails: Pioneering African-American librarians share their stories.” American Libraries, Jan. 2, 2018.

[7] Also see The Black Librarian in America: Reflections, Resistance, and Reawakening by Shauntee Burns-Simpson, Regina Anderson Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian by Ethelene Whitmire, The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown: Civil Rights, Censorship, and the American Library by Louise S. Robbins, Black Librarians Matter 2022 (on Amazon) by MS Swazino Publishing, Proud Black Librarians (on Amazon) by MS Swazino Publishing, The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism by Wayne and Shirley Wiegand, the Black librarians Instagram account, African American Librarians in the Far West: Pioneers and Trailblazers which is edited by Binnie Tate Wilkin, Stop Talking, Start Doing!: Attracting People of Color to the Library Profession by Gregory L Reese and Ernestine L Hawkins, Carla Hayden: Librarian of Congress by Kate Moening, Underground: From Deadbeat to Dean: A Memoir by Peter MacDonald, An Independent Woman: The Autobiography of Edith Guerrier by Edith Guerrier, Molly Matson, and Polly Kaufman, and Johnnie E. Blunt’s The Professional Life of an African American Male Librarian blogspot. Anna Gooding-Call of Book Riot added that the “library profession is extremely white….even some of the few books about librarians of color were written by white authors,” noting that Jackson, Jefferson, and Nosakhere attempt to “add diversity to librarian narratives with these excellent essays by African American library professionals.” See an interview with the authors of The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism here.

[8] “HISTORY: Pioneering African-American Librarians Share Their Stories,” Good Black News, Jan. 22, 2018; Smith, 13 Pioneering Black American Librarians You Oughta Know”; Betit, Jessica. “In Celebration of Black History Month: Black American Librarians.” Gardiner Public Library, Feb. 1, 2022. Betit also lists Thomas Fountain Blue (first Black person to head a public library in the U.S.), Jean Ellen Coleman (founding director of ALA’s Office of Outreach Services), Virginia Procter Powell Florence (first Black woman to earn a library science degree, in 1923). Also see Dawson, Alma. “Celebrating African-Americans and Librarianship.” Library Trends Vol. 49, No. 1, Summer 2000, pp. 49-87; Hunt, Rebecca D. “African American Leaders in the Library Profession: Little Known History.” Black History Bulletin Vol. 76, No. 1, pp. 14-19; Helton, Laura. “On Decimals, Catalogs, and Racial Imaginaries of Reading.” Humanities Commons, 2019.

[9] Nunes, Zita Christina. “Cataloging Black Knowledge.” Perspectives on History. American Historical Association, Nov. 20, 2018; “Dorothy B. Porter, A Library Hero.” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, Apr. 8, 2021; Taylor, Mildred Europa. “Dorothy Porter, the librarian who stood up against racism in Howard University’s library.” Face2Face Africa, Sept. 23, 2021; Grossman, Ron. “Flashback: A heroine to history: Vivian Harsh, Chicago’s first black librarian, preserved black history, literature with massive collection.” Chicago Tribune, Jan. 31, 2020; Smith, 13 Pioneering Black American Librarians You Oughta Know.” Other prominent Black librarians include the late Miriam Matthews, the first Black librarian hired by the Los Angeles Public Library in 1927,  who created a research collection documenting contributions of Black people, city librarian Minnie Fisher (not to be confused with suffragist Minnie Fisher Cunningham) in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and Nella Larsen Imes as the first Black librarian employed by New York City and later a librarian, from 1921 to 1926. These individuals are noted by the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and KCET. Matthews is briefly mentioned in Jennifer Velez’s article in Bustle entitled “How Afro-Latinx People Made Huge Contributions To Black History — Then Got Erased” and there is a further article on JSTOR entitled “Investing in Literature: Ernestine Rose and the Harlem Branch Public Library of the 1920s“.

[10] Nosakhere, Akilah Shukura. “Serving With a Sense of Purpose: A Black Woman Librarian in Rural New Mexico” in Where Are All The Librarians of Color?: The Experiences of People of Color (ed. Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juarez, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA, 2015), 161-3, 169, 170; “WHEN WASHINGTON WAS IN VOGUE: A Love Story,” Publishers Weekly, accessed May 29, 2022.

[11] Nosakhere, “Serving With a Sense of Purpose,” 180, 180-1; Vince Lee, “Like a Fish Out of Water, But Forging My Own Path” in Where Are All The Librarians of Color?: The Experiences of People of Color (ed. Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juarez, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA, 2015), 190, 193; Hankins, Rebecca. “Racial Realism of Foolish Optimism: An African American Muslim Woman in the Field” in Where Are All The Librarians of Color?: The Experiences of People of Color (ed. Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juarez, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA, 2015), 209, 211; Hankins, Rebecca and Miguel Juarez, “Introduction” in Where Are All The Librarians of Color?: The Experiences of People of Color (ed. Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juarez, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA, 2015), 5.

[12] Hankins, “Racial Realism of Foolish Optimism”, 211-212; Barksdale-Hall, Roland. “Building Dialogic Bridges to Diversity: Are We There Yet?” in Where Are All The Librarians of Color?: The Experiences of People of Color (ed. Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juarez, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA, 2015), 272-80.

[13] Barksdale-Hall, “Building Dialogic Bridges to Diversity,” 288-9.

[14] Other books, which I’m not sure if they have Black librarians or not, include Just Like Beverly, Super-Duper Librarian, Amber By Night, and Librarian’s Night Before Christmas, and The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries Omnibus 2. For sources for this section, see “Inanna Fall 2022,” Inanna Publications & Education Inc., p. 3; Baker, Dee. “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson.” Bookconscious, Jun. 5, 2021; Potkovic, Athena. “Library Neutrality,” CCP Journal, Apr. 10, 2018; Williams, Stacie. “Librarians in the 21st Century: It Is Becoming Impossible to Remain Neutral.” Lit Hub, May 4, 2017; ALA Support. “Equity in Librarianship in ALA Collections.” American Library Association, accessed May 29, 2022. There are additional Black writers who are librarians, like Alechia Dow, possibly Daren a.k.a. the Dope Librarian, a librarian who hosts the Adventures in YA podcast, and Alexander “Alex” Brown who is a queer Black librarian, writer, and local history, as noted by FIYAHCON 2021 and BuzzFeed News, who tweets on Twitter @QueenofRats. Of note is also Librarians in Fiction: A Critical Bibliography by Grant Burns and Aboriginal and Visible Minority Librarians: Oral Histories from Canada edited by Deborah Lee and Mahalakshmi Kumaran.

[15] Contreras, Natalia E. “‘Must reflect the communities we serve’: The critical role that Black librarians play.” Indianapolis Star, Aug. 12, 2021; “‘Endangered Species’: Black Male Librarian,” NPR, Jun. 27, 2008; Cooper, Breanna. “New essay collection celebrates Black librarians.” Indianapolis Recorder, Feb. 24, 2022; “About Us,” National Conference of African American Librarians, accessed May 29, 2022; Pottiger, Maya. “Why Aren’t There More Black Librarians?” Word in Black, Feb. 10, 2022; Hodge, Twanna. “On Being Black in Librarianship.” I Love Libraries, Jul 15, 2020; “Pre-Lit Fest 2022: The Black Librarian in America,” #StayHappening, Jun. 2022.

A place of honor?: Examining two Black reel librarians

In 1961, a Black reel librarian appeared in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In later years, acclaimed actors, and others, would play Black librarians  in Men of Honor, A Winter’s Romance, Dangerous Minds, It: Chapter Two, Escape from Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, Follow the Stars Home, Fatal Attraction, Party Girl, and The Time Machine, and in the series, Stephen King’s It. There are even Black records clerks in Winter’s Tale and BlacKkKlansman. Additionally, there have been plotlines in Lovecraft Country and Hidden Figures which feature segregated libraries, and Black librarians in the case of the former but not the latter. [1] On her site, Reel Librarians, Jennifer Snoek-Brown counted less than 30 librarians who are Black or of African descent. Apart from the films I’ve listed previously, there are a number of librarians who only have supporting or cameo roles. These roles date back to 1953, which she states is the first Black reel librarian she can find, and go up to 2019. [2] Having written about Mr. Anderson, in The Public, on this blog in the past, for this post, I’d like to focus on librarians in The Time Machine and All the President’s Men. Neither have not been featured on this blog before this post, and expand the total of Black librarians I’ve listed on this blog.

Unnamed Black male librarian in All The President’s Men before he gives them the checkout slips. The whole scene can be watched here.

In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.”

Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy.Later, however, they find a wind to confirm the information. Snoek-Brown did an in-depth look at the film, saying that while she was happy that a librarian had a “friendly” face on screen, that it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” [3]

I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point. On the other hand, I am glad that a Black librarian has such a vital role in the story. Snoek-Brown herself has called the scene “pivotal” as this librarian is the only one who gives them a helping hand, giving them the request circulation records, although another unnamed one gives help later in the film. The information he gives pushes the reporters down a “successful trail” and toward uncovering the Watergate story. [4]

The 2002 sci-fi film, The Time Machine, a remake of the 1960 film of the same name, is completely different. It features a librarian of the future named Vox, who is played by Orlando Jones. He is a hologram and an information provider, serving as heart and soul of the film, in Snoek-Brown’s words. He has a timeless style and has a wealth of knowledge, providing information to a wayward inventor, who travels hundreds of thousands of years into the future, about time travel, history, and evolution of the planet and its population. He is able to do this as the compendium of all human knowledge. [5] He is the equivalent of MENTOR, the supercomputer in the comedy mini-series, The Pentaverate, but in a more appealing and less awful nature.

Vox tries to get the attention of Dr. Alexander Hartdegen in a scene from the film. The whole scene can be found here.

Interestingly, even though the film is about time travel, he never goes anywhere. He remains, as Snoek-Brown put it, the “sole, stationary witness to the continuous collapse and rebuilding of civilizations throughout centuries.” As such he is a quintessential information provider and arguably the “holographic heart” of the film. He does this while being a fully-fledged supporting character, in one of the many sci-fi/library crossover films where a futuristic information source provides “library-style information.” [6]

Unlike the unnamed Black librarian in All the President’s Men, he is not alive. He is a hologram, a librarian who can go anywhere, but is likely tied to the library servers for his survival. His existence implies that a Black programmer made him that way and even that he was based off an actual Black men. What White programmer would create an intelligent Black man? More likely, they would create a White man, with their racial biases and prejudice bleeding through into their thinking.

Beyond this, Vox has been described as a library computer system, a “ virtual reality librarian” or a “computer-generated librarian” in the words of his voice actor. It has also been said that his character makes it “easier to find the information you need at the touch of a button,” as a person tied to the world’s databases, artificial intelligence, and a data retrieval system. It is further said that his interactions imply that “human” interaction “will still be required.” Some call him a database hologram “with attitude” who is sarcastic and spirited. [7] He fulfills what TV Tropes describes as the Projected Man.

As some have argued that being a librarian is “something of honor for the African American community,” these fictional librarians are important. After all, there is a continued need in popular culture not only for more librarians, but more librarians of color, and need to avoid a single story for reel librarians or any fictional librarians. [8]

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Notes

[1] Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Current Oscar nominees who have played reel librarians.” Reel Librarians, Mar. 23, 2022; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “31 thoughts and questions I had while watching ‘A Winter Romance’ (2021).” Reel Librarians, Dec. 22, 2021; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Research and high school library scenes in ‘Dangerous Minds’.” Reel Librarians, Sept. 9, 2020; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Class III (minor roles).” Reel Librarians, accessed May 28, 2022; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Class I (major roles, integral).” Reel Librarians, accessed May 28, 2022; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Class II (major roles, non-integral).” Reel Librarians, accessed May 28, 2022; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “A research quest in ‘Winter’s Tale’ (2014) + how to tell the difference between microfilm vs. microfiche.” Reel Librarians, Feb. 9, 2022; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “5 movies featuring Black reel librarians in major roles.” Reel Librarians, Jul. 8, 2020; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Library research montage in ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ (2004) remake.” Reel Librarians, Apr. 8, 2020; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reel librarians and archivists in 16 sci-fi films.” Reel Librarians, Mar. 11, 2020; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Law librarian sighting in ‘Fatal Attraction’.” Reel Librarians, Dec. 11, 2019; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “First impressions: ‘It: Chapter Two’ (2019) and the town librarian hero.” Reel Librarians, Oct. 9, 2019; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Graduate library school discussion in ‘Party Girl’.” Reel Librarians, May 22, 2019; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “First impressions: ‘BlacKkKlansman’ (2018).” Reel Librarians, Nov. 7, 2018; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “First impressions: ‘It’ (2017) and its library scene.” Reel Librarians, Oct. 10, 2017; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Revisiting reel librarian totals.” Reel Librarians, Aug. 2, 2017; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Scary clowns + reel librarians.” Reel Librarians, Oct. 12, 2016; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “‘Spotlight’-ing a news library.” Reel Librarians, May 4, 2016; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Meet Hannah in ‘Follow the Stars Home’.” Reel Librarians, Aug. 12, 2015; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “‘South Street’ librarian.” Reel Librarians, Sept. 10, 2014; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “‘Somewhere’ in the library.” Reel Librarians, Feb. 4, 2014; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “A not-so-enchanting librarian in ‘Ella Enchanted’.” Reel Librarians, Apr. 10, 2012; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “A tale of seven shushes in ‘City Slickers II’.” Reel Librarians, Jan. 9, 2012; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Best librarian films by decade, Part II: 1960s-2000s.” Reel Librarians, Dec. 30, 2011; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “With or without honors.” Reel Librarians, Dec. 26, 2011; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Lovecraft Country’s ‘A History of Violence’ and segregated libraries.” Reel Librarians, Nov. 10, 2021; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “A closer look at the library scene in ‘Hidden Figures’ (2016).” Reel Librarians, Mar. 10, 2021; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “First impressions: ‘Hidden Figures’ and its library scene.” Reel Librarians, Feb. 15, 2017; Rampell, Ed. “TCM Classic Filmfest wrapup: Hooray for Hollywood!” People’s World, Apr. 18, 2019.

[2] This includes Jaye Loft-Lyn as a microfilm library clerk in Pickup on South Street (1953), Jaye Stewart as a librarian in All the President’s Men (1976), Noreen Walker as a public librarian in Somewhere in Time (1980), an uncredited Black male shelver in Fatal Attraction (1987), an uncredited Black male shelver in City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold (1994), an uncredited Black female librarian in With Honors (1994), Jeff Feringa as a school librarian in Dangerous Minds (1995), C. Francis Blackchild as Wanda and L. B. Williams as Howard who are both public librarians in Party Girl (1995), Mary Alice as a children’s librarian in Bed of Roses (1996), Dolores Mitchell as a research librarian in Autumn in New York (2000), Demene E. Hall as Mrs. Biddle in Men of Honor (2000), Octavia Spencer as a public librarian named Hildy in Follow the Stars Home (2001), Ronald William Lawrence as a library clerk in The Ring (2002), Lynette DuPree as a public librarian in Back When We Were Grownups (2004), Merrina Millsapp as a Hall of Records attendant in Ella Enchanted (2004), Duana Butler as a library clerk in The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Norm Lewis as a newspaper librarian in Winter’s Tale (2014), Zarrin Darnell-Martin as a newspaper librarian in Spotlight (2015), and Jeffrey Wright as a head public librarian named Mr. Anderson in The Public (2018).

[3] Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “All the president’s librarians in ‘All the President’s Men’.” Reel Librarians, Mar. 1, 2017; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Law librarian sighting in ‘The Pelican Brief’.” Reel Librarians, Jul. 24, 2019.

[4] Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Favorite reel librarian posts, 2017.” Reel Librarians, Jan. 10, 2018; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “All the president’s librarians in ‘All the President’s Men’.” Reel Librarians, Mar. 1, 2017; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Any reel librarians in the AFI Top 100 list?” Reel Librarians, May 17, 2017; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reel librarians in political-themed films.” Reel Librarians, Jan. 18, 2017; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Heard but not seen.” Reel Librarians, Sept. 2, 2015; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Information Provider librarians.” Reel Librarians, Feb. 24, 2012; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer, “Class III (minor roles)” [All the President’s Men section], Reel Librarians, accessed May 28, 2022. It is also one of the films that Snoek-Brown covered in her undergraduate thesis on libraries in popular culture.

[5] Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reel librarians of color, 2021 update.” Reel Librarians, Jan. 27, 2021; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Stylish male reel librarians.” Reel Librarians, Feb. 3, 2016; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Character Types [see Information Provider (all genders) section],” Reel Librarians, accessed on May 28, 2022; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer, “Class III (minor roles)” [The Time Machine section], Reel Librarians, accessed May 28, 2022; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “5 movies featuring Black reel librarians in major roles.” Reel Librarians, Jul. 8, 2020; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Revisiting reel librarian totals.” Reel Librarians, Aug. 2, 2017; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Information Provider librarians.” Reel Librarians, Feb. 24, 2012; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reel librarians and archivists in 16 sci-fi films.” Reel Librarians, Mar. 11, 2020; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reel librarians vs. reel archivists.” Reel Librarians, Aug. 1, 2018; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Actors.” Reel Librarians, accessed on May 28, 2022.

[6] Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reel librarians take a trip.” Reel Librarians, Aug. 5, 2015; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Travelin’ librarians.” Reel Librarians, Aug. 17, 2012; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reel Substance: A look at Classes III and IV.” Reel Librarians, Jun. 17, 2015; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reader Q and A.” Reel Librarians, Jun. 18, 2013; Goodfellow, Tom. “In the eye of the survivor.” Reel Librarians, Aug. 28, 2012; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Hall of Fame.” Reel Librarians, Oct. 5, 2011; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Master List of English-Language Films.” Reel Librarians, accessed on May 28, 2022.

[7]  The Time Machine Wiki. “Vox.” Last revised Sept. 5, 2021; Teacher’s Notes on The Time Machine, Film Education, accessed May 28, 2022, p. 10; Emma Smart and Sarah Currant. “The 10 best librarians on screen.” BFI, Feb. 5, 2016; “The Time Machine,” screenit, Mar. 8, 2002; Bourne, Mark. “A Time Machine (2002).” DVD Journal, 2002; Laura and Robin. “The Time Machine.” Reeling Reviews, accessed May 28, 2022; Fuches, Cynthia. “The Time Machine (2002).” Pop Matters, Mar. 7, 2002; Weinkauf, Gregory. “Future Shock.” Riverfront Times, Mar. 6, 2002; McCarthy, Todd. “The Time Machine.” Variety, Mar. 7, 2002; “Cultural Images of Librarians,” Clubul Tinerilor Bibliotecari, Feb. 2011; Tucker, Betty Jo. “Time Travel Wins Again.” Reel Talk Movie Reviews, accessed May 28, 2022; Young, M. Joseph. “The Time Machine,” Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies, accessed May 28, 2022. Reportedly Brown said “I play the role of Vox in this film and Vox is a third generation fusion-powered photonic with verbal and visual link capabilities connected to every database in the planet. Now, what does that mean? What that means is that Vox is basically a computer-generated librarian.”

[8] Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Video lecture: ‘The African American Struggle for Library Equality: The Untold Story of the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program’.” Reel Librarians, Feb. 24, 2021; Rosenberg, Rachel. “Why Aren’t There More Librarians in Pop Culture?” Book Riot, Mar. 2, 2020; Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “‘The danger of a single story’ for reel librarians.” Reel Librarians, Nov. 2, 2016.

Black History Month special: Examining ten Black fictional librarians

Clara doing exercises on the balcony of her apartment at the end of the final episode of Welcome to the Wayne

On this blog, I’ve occasionally written about Black librarians in fiction and am trying to write about it more, as long as I can find characters to write about. In fact, in The Public, a film by Emilio Estevez, which I reviewed in one of this blog’s first posts, appears a Black man named Mr. Anderson. Voiced by Jeffrey Wright, he is unique as he is a Black library administrator, something which is sadly seen too little in pop culture. In this first post for Black History Month, I’d like to highlight librarians I’ve written about on this blog and beyond.

With White librarians as the norm, so-called “diverse librarians”, which is code for non-white, are said to be “in demand”. Some have even said in response that their librarianship is not for White people and they are not the folks they are trying to reach or center in their work. [1] However, fictional Black librarians often can’t choose which patrons they are serving. In fact, the unnamed Black male librarian in a We Bare Bears episode (“Our Stuff”) and a Black woman named Lydia Lovely in Horrid Henry episode (“Horrid Henry: Computer Whizz”) serve multiracial and multiethnic patrons.

Furthermore, in keeping with past practices in animation, which have seemingly been retired, for the most part, some Black fictional librarians were voiced by White people. One example of this is Ms. Lovely, voiced by Joanna Ruiz, a White woman. Kimberly Brooks turned this paradigm around, however, when she voiced a strict White female librarian in an episode of DC Super Hero Girls.

There are a few Black fictional librarians who shine through, however. Most prominent is Clara Rhone in Welcome to the Wayne. She is a Black woman and is voiced by Harriet B. Foy. Although she is not a main character, she is an oft supporting character who runs the Stanza, a magical library hidden within the Wayne apartment building. She does not do all the work on her own, but is, instead, helped by non-human library workers who fetch books for her, and help her to ensure that the library remains organized for anyone who can use it. She becomes a central part of the story as Ansi Molina, Olly, and Saraline Timbers work together uncover the Wayne’s mysteries before it is too late.

Just as prominent is O’Bengh / Cagliostro in an episode of What If…? (“What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?”). He is a Nigerian man and is voiced by Ike Amadi. He tries to help Doctor Strange harness his powers and attempts to tell him to not go to the side of evil. Although he is unsuccessful, he remains an important part of the episode. Unfortunately, his character carries with it the implication that librarians are magicians and that what they do is “magic.” This can’t be further from the truth. In some ways, however, this is inevitable as his character is a sorcerer, so there was no way they could have gotten around this when depicting him in the episode. It is further disappointing that he will likely never appear again in the series, meaning this episode is his one and only episode, becoming one-episode-wonder, nothing more, nothing less.

Then there’s George and Lance in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. They are gay Black men who are voiced by Regi Davis and Chris Jai Alex respectfully. Although both are technically historians, they are de facto librarians as they run, and live-in, a library in the Whispering Woods. Although they only appear very infrequently in the series, the episodes they do appear in they have an impact. They help the protagonists solve a riddle which leads them to a barren desert, and uncover the clues needed to uncover the biggest mystery of all about the planet of Etheria. On top of all of that, they are supportive of their son, Bow, who reveals he is a fighter for the rebellion. Even though they are opposed to joining in as part of the fight by themselves, which led him to come up with an elaborate story that he was going to a boarding school, they don’t want to hold Bow back.

Marienne Bellamy (left) and Amarie Treadeau (right)

Now, there are many other Black fictional librarians out there, with those in major film roles described by Jennifer Snoek-Brown on her Reel Librarians blog. I haven’t seen the psychological thriller series, You, but there is a smart, non-nonsense librarian named Marienne Bellamy (played by Tati Gabrielle) who observes the citizens of the neighborhood but does not get taken in by the entitlement and privilege of the patrons. While she holds in her own personal struggles, she is helped by another librarian, Dante Ferguson, a White male family man with damaged eyesight who wants to expand his family. [2]

Then, there’s Amarie Treadeau, otherwise known as “Amma”, who is voiced by Viola Davis, in Beautiful Creatures, a 2013 romantic fantasy film. She is the combination of two characters from the 2009 novel of the same name by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. She is wicked smart, skilled with magic, brave, and well-read. Davis described her character as more than what is on the surface, a person with “different secrets to be discovered,” including a tribal scarification on her back, channeling spirits, and serving as a “keeper of a library that’s the gateway to different worlds.” Davis further said she liked that, saying she likes “when there are different layers to peel away,” adding that “it was just subtle enough to play and to craft” and saying that this is what appealed to her about the role.” [3]

These are not the only Black librarians in fiction, however. One of the most prominent is Valerie the Librarian, who appears in multiple issues of Spidey Super Stories. She also appears in episodes of The Electric Company, where she is voiced by Hattie Winston. In her role, she often bucks stereotypes of Black women and of librarians, sometimes at the same time! She is clearly a groundbreaking character, even though she doesn’t appear as much in the comics as she should.

As for this blog, it has come a long way from August 2020, when I said that George and Lance where “the only non-white (and Black) librarians in animation” I could think of off hand. Then in March 2021, I wrote about them in a guest post for Reel Librarians. Since then, I’ve written about Clara Rhone in Welcome to the Wayne, Black librarians in stock footage and GIFs, Black voice actors, depictions of librarians of color (including Black characters) and the micoaggressions they face, and more. Although I hope to come across more Black librarians in fiction, I have a sinking suspicion that come next year and I’ll have the same number of Black librarians listed on this blog as before. Here’s to hoping that I come across Black librarians in the future!

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Notes

[1] David James Hudson, “The Whiteness of Practicality” in Topographies of Whiteness: Mapping Whiteness in Library and Information Science (ed. Gina Schlesselman-Tarango, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA: 2017), p. 218, 220; Jorge R. Lopez-McKnight, “My Librarianship is Not For You” in Topographies of Whiteness: Mapping Whiteness in Library and Information Science (ed. Gina Schlesselman-Tarango, Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA: 2017), p. 268.

[2] Petski, Denise. “‘You’ Season 3: Saffron Burrows Upped To Series Regular, Dylan Arnold, Tati Gabrielle Among 12 Cast In Netflix Series.” Deadline, Nov. 18, 2020. Also see the You (TV series) Wikipedia page. Bellamy appears in multiple episodes and becomes the titular deuteragonist in the second half of the show’s third season.

[3] Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “A reel librarian’s multi-faceted role in ‘Beautiful Creatures’ (2013).” Reel Librarians, Feb. 10, 2021; Wood, Rachel Noelle. “The Best Fictional Librarians from Popular Culture.” KQED, Apr. 11, 2017; The Caster Chronicles Wiki. “Marian Ashcroft.” Last modified Jan. 16, 2020, see “Appearance and Personality” section; Kroll, Justin. “Viola Davis books two feature roles.” Variety, Feb. 2, 2012; Anderton, “Viola Davis Lands Roles in ‘Ender’s Game’ and ‘Beautiful Creatures’,” FirstShowing.Net, Feb. 3, 2012; “Viola Davis: The Beautiful Creatures Interview,” aalbc.com, Sept. 18, 2017

Recently added titles (January 2023)

Yumi, in episode 6 of Maria Watches Over Us, tells Yoshina she came to the library to get a book on Rosa catina, but does not know the student librarian she talked to was actually Rosa Catina herself, the “enemy” of the student council!

Building upon the titles listed for July/August, September, October,  November, and and December 2021, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2022, this post notes recent titles with libraries or librarians in popular culture which I’ve come across in the past month. Each of these has been watched or read during the past month. Not as many animated series or anime with libraries this past month, but I did come across a good deal in comics, whether in graphic novels or webcomics, and hopefully there will be more that I find in the days, weeks, and months to come. That’s my hope at least.

Animated series recently added to this page

None for this month.

Anime series recently added to this page

• Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, “Senpai, don’t you ever get angry?”
• Maria Watches Over Us, “Rosa Canina”
• Maria Watches Over Us, “White Pedals”
• Maria Watches Over Us, “The Yellow Rose at Full Tilt”
• Maria Watches Over Us, “Codename Operation OK”
• Maria Watches Over Us, “Crisscross”
• Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, “The Magical Girl Comes Back”
• Ouran High School Host Club, “Starting Today You Are A Host”
• Ouran High School Host Club, “The Job of a High School Host!”

Comics recently added to this page

• Anemone in Heat, “Chapter 8”
• Can’t Defy The Lonely Girl, “Chapter 3”
• Diamond Dive, “Winter Special Part 2”
  
• Daybreak, “Episode 39”
• Fuwafuwa Futashika Yume Mitai
• Glass Case, “Aires”
• Glass Case, “Circinus”
• Glass Case, “Sagitta”
• Glass Case, “Fornax”
• Glass Case, “Caelum”
• Glass Case, “Mensa”
• Glass Case, “Apus”
• Glass Case, “Pisces”
• Glass Case, “Virgo”
• Glass Case, “Capricornus”
• Glass Case, “Cancer”
• Glass Case, “Cetus”
• Glass Case, “Chamaeleon”
• Glass Case, “Aquarius”
• Glass Case, “Corvus”
• Glass Case, “Equuleus”
• Glass Case, “Triangulum”
• Glass Case, “Microscopium”
• Glass Case, “Canes Venatici”
• Glass Case, “Grus”
• Himawari-San
• I Kissed a Succubus aka Watashi wa Succubus to Kiss o Shita 
• Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo
• Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata
• My Masochistic Boss, “[S2] 8 – Different Worlds”
• Nuku Nuku Toshoiin aka Snuggly Librarian 
• Shitsurakuen aka Lost Paradise 
• The Caged Bird Sings Themes of Love aka Kago no Shoujo wa Koi wo suru 
• The Girlfriend Project
• Vampire-chan x Junior-chan aka Kyuuketsuki-chan to Kouhai-chan 
• Yuri Hime Collection 
• Yuri Shimai

Films recently added to this page

• x

Other entries recently added to this page

• Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk [Video game]
• Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea [Video game]
• BanG Dream! [Music media franchise]
• Conflict Girl [Visual novel]
• ~Daydream Reconstruct~ [Visual novel]
• Flowers [Visual novel]
• Hanidebi! Honey & Devil [Visual novel]
• Kamitsure [Visual novel]
• Kohonya [Visual novel]
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Strikers [Anime TV series]
• Man’in Chijo Densha 2 [Visual novel]
• Once on a Windswept Night [Visual novel]
• Please Be Happy [Visual novel]
• Sakura Sadist [Visual novel]
• Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo [Visual novel]
• Touhou Project [Video game]

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Thank you to all the people that regularly read my blog. As always, if you have any titles you’d like to suggest, let me know. Thanks!