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What shall I ask about “The Librarians”?

Nov 1st, 2007 Print this

If you have a couple of minutes, please swing by this blog and leave a comment.

As I mentioned before, I’m hosting a discussion of the ABC TV series “The Librarians” in Second Life tonight and am after some quesitons to raise…please let me know what you think would be useful.

After watching it, I think that this is a bit like people who work in paper firms discussing “The Office“. It wasn’t really like “Frontline” or “Drop the Dead Donkey” which really did say things about how the news was made. It must mean that they got the library background pretty much right or else I’d be preparing for an onslaught of groaning.

Overall I enjoyed it. I thought that Frances had characteristics of a lot of people I’ve worked with. I wonder if there are people like that in other workplaces - that special blend of intelligence and ability with incredibly inflexible and conservative personality. There are bigots in other workplaces..but I think some libraries have particularly smart ones who run themselves in rings to rationalise their behaviour.

I think the returns chute topic is a definite goer. And maybe also things people have found used as bookmarks….can you say “used dental floss”?…..eeeuw….

I had a laugh at the white writing in different font sizes on the front window - MPOW has just been remodelled and have just the same iconography.

Do you think people will want to discuss whether the kids librarian was actually qualified? (sigh).

Anyone know if the animal knickers book was the genuine article?

I definitelly wil be asking “was it funny?”

Any questions / topics to raise gratefully accepted…

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18 Responses to “What shall I ask about “The Librarians”?”

on 01 Nov 2007 at 8:31 am1Sue Waters

I really wished I had watched the show last night so I knew of intelligent questions to ask you relating to the show. So instead I will focus on questions that really spring to mind about librarians and libraries (is that okay?)

Well what has absolutely amazed me in the last 6 months - is the fact that I was totally unaware of how librarians have become involved in these emerging technologies. So I would love to hear the stories of librarians that are engaging with the changes and what impact this is having on individuals and/or libraries that are trying to ignoring how the nature of libraries are changing.

Also I was totally in awe of how different RMIT library is from what I remember of university libraries. So would love to hear how technology and social networking has changed the physical landscape in libraries. What are the perils and pitfalls associated with this physical changes.

Hope these have helped — even if they may not relate to the show –sorry
on 01 Nov 2007 at 9:21 am2morgan

I cringed a lot and there were some moments I could hardly bear to watch - kind of like the Office - but I enjoyed it. I’ve talked with two others who don’t have anything to do with libraries and they enjoyed it too. Of course, for me there was that extra layer - being able to play that game of thinking about which characters are like my past and present co-workers, and most frighteningly, which one seemed closest to me.
on 01 Nov 2007 at 9:21 am3Andrew

The knickers book is real.

I wonder if next week we’ll get “The Little Mole who knew it was none of his business.”
on 01 Nov 2007 at 11:33 am4Hoi

Not funny at all. In fact it was boring like hell. Will give it another try next week and if not, forget it. =)
on 01 Nov 2007 at 11:38 am5the next day « snail

[…] library experiences and I’m looking forward to future episodes. Various librarians have been blogging already and there’s been some discussion on librarian elists. Some folk liked it, some folk […]
on 01 Nov 2007 at 11:57 am6Kim

Oh dear…. it had a lot to live up to and following Summer Heights High it didn’t really have much chance. The biggest laugh I had was when Dawn (in the wheelchair) was talking to a borrower about fines… and she let them off!

But on the whole I didn’t think it was very funny. Hopefully next week it will be better. I will give it another go. I wanted so much for it to be funny…
on 01 Nov 2007 at 12:05 pm7Tom Goodfellow

First episodes of sitcoms are notoriously hard to get right - too many characters and relationships to introduce whilst keeping the laughs coming. I thought this was OK, if overly derivative of The Office and another BBC show called Nighty Night.

As to the library stuff - I kept giggling at the signage, much to my wife’s bemusement. I’ve also sat in too many meetings just like the book week ideas one. I was reminded of the real-life example of an online service that must have been discussed like that and ended up with the name “Lit click”…
on 01 Nov 2007 at 2:34 pm8Katy Watson

Hi Kathryn, Good luck with the Second Life chat on the show tonight! Unfortunately I wont be able to make it. Looking forward to reading ur blog post to see how it went. Cheers, Katy Watson.
on 01 Nov 2007 at 2:42 pm9Kathryn Greenhill

Thanks for your replies.

I can see from Sue’s comments, that it would be worth discussion “Brand Librarian” - whether it exists, whether we should try to control it, what it is, how it’s changed.

I think the set bears thinking about as well…what we all saw there. I was looking at the windows and Tom at the signage - did anyone notice Frances’ coffee mug? CafePress for sure.

Thanks again…lots more to raise there…
on 01 Nov 2007 at 5:09 pm10Julia Gross

I thought it was very quirky, lots of characters with the flash backs promising multiple story lines which will develop over the coming weeks. So I’ll be watching again. The Frances character is a gem and very true to more than one person I’ve come across in libraries….the narrow minded control freaks. Frannie’s relationship with the w**king husband might be explored a bit. It’s very traditional library, no technology much in sight. And they seem to be over-staffed.
on 01 Nov 2007 at 6:39 pm11Kay O'brien

Hi Kathryn,

I really liked it, and actually laughed outloud several times. All the staff where I work watched it, some people liked it, some didn’t.
I was wondering if the knicker book was real too!!
I will continue watching the show, it will be interesting to see the characters and storyline develop.
on 05 Nov 2007 at 11:38 pm12Ross

I thought the first episode was very poor - so weak that I can’t bring myself to waste any more time on it. Humour level meter barely moved. You could see ‘The Office’ hanging around in the background as an influence and an obvious reference point, but the scripting for ‘The Librarians’ had no sparkle, none of the groundbreaking originality of Ricky Gervais, no polish or wit, and some very clumsy and hamfisted attempts at satirising some of the bigotry that is rife in the Aust community at the moment. The quirkiness that some have mentioned was way too self-conscious, I thought. The big problem, though, was that it wasn’t remotely funny. Not for me, anyway.

Damn, I’m impressed by the metamorphosis of librarians though! The wonders of the web age have some pretty bizarre and unpredictable manifestations!

Cheers and thanks again for your PodCamp presentation, Kathryn! Now I can add checking my blog stats on Sitemeter and Google Anaytics to my ever-growing list of Net addictions.
on 06 Nov 2007 at 5:04 am13Dave Pattern

Just watched the first episode, although had to resort to eMule to get it. Not bad, although (like Tom) it felt like a cross between “The Office” and “Nighty Night”.

UPDATE borrowers
SET firstname=”Cledan”
WHERE firstname=”Declan”
on 06 Nov 2007 at 10:39 pm14Kathryn Greenhill

Definitely overstaffed, Julia. Bet they don’t do the “librarian has breakdown because she has to make staff roster and please everyone” scenario.

I think I’ll keep watching it, but not sure if I would if it wasn’t set in a library. Heck, I think “Black Books” is absolutely hilarious, but have only caught four or five eps. when it was on in the same timeslot.

Thanks Ross - many librarians do still look like the people in the TV show, but more and more of us are perky geeks. I guess you picked up links from my later post to your blog on your shiney new sitemeter.

Vade - slydexia n’tis nufny! lewl ti si a tib.
on 09 Nov 2007 at 9:33 pm15Ross

Don’t credit me with too much savvy, Kathryn. Thanks to you, I do have a shiny new sitemeter, but that doesn’t mean I know how to use it! I’m still at the stage where I get my jollies out of seeing that a handful of folk have stopped by and looked at my blog. Identifying who they are or where they came from is just too much excitement for me to handle at the moment.

Cheers!
on 17 Nov 2007 at 8:41 am16Kathryn Greenhill

Ross…I dunno, my sitemeter has shown a couple of hits coming from your sitemeter site in the last couple of weeks…*someone* has to be clicking on those links
on 02 Dec 2007 at 6:49 pm17Library Views 圖書館觀點 » 電視劇《The Librarians》

[…] 澳洲 ABC 電視台最近才播映完畢一部完全以圖書館(員) 為劇情主軸的喜劇－ The Librarians。這齣只有6個單元的喜劇，主要圍繞在神經緊張的主管發展。澳洲當地的圖書館員當然也對此劇有所討論，Kathryn Greenhill 甚至在 Second Life 裡主持了一場討論會。 […]
on 03 Dec 2007 at 4:16 am18Bibliothekare in Fernsehserien « Bibliotan

[…] Bibliothekare, die ein zweites Leben hat, haben auch in der virtuellen Welt über die Auswirkung der Image von Bibliothekare […]