Where can I find…..?

What have these famous people in common: Berlioz, Jorge Luis Borges, Laura Bush,
Casanova, J. Edgar Hoover, Philip Larkin, Leibnitz, Longfellow, Mao and Golda
Meir? Right first time! All have been librarians.

The important role librarians play in our lives came to mind the other evening when I
saw a film. Not The Incredible Hulk or Sex and the City, but The Hollywood
Librarian. An interesting concept: the film weaves together movie clips, documentary
footage and interviews. The clips are of Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and other
cinema greats playing librarians; Elizabeth Taylor is there, too, as Cleopatra defending
the Library of Alexandria from destruction. The documentary patches are wide-
ranging: death-row inmates in San Quentin campaigning to keep a public library
open, the burning of Steinbeck’s books in 1930’s America and the impact on cultural
freedom of the US’s controversial Patriot Act. We also saw the dreadful aftermath of
the bombing and looting of Iraq’s national library.

Scattered through the film are interviews with real librarians (including Katharine
Hepburn’s sister) on the importance of libraries and the challenges facing librarians.
Also interviewed is Ray Bradbury, who wrote his novel about book-burning,
Fahrenheit 451, whilst sitting in a library.

The librarians interviewed on film were full of enthusiasm for their work. There were
200 in the London audience (5,000 turned up for the US launch!): those I spoke to
were equally committed.

The film highlights a little-understood profession: “one of the hallmarks of a healthy

society is the unfettered flow …. of ideas and materials, and nurturing that flow is the
librarian’s mission,” says writer/director Ann Seidl.

Librarians know the important role they play in our society – but don’t always get that
message across. Modesty, perhaps.

That’s a pity: the complexity of our every-day information needs makes information
and knowledge managers (which is what librarians are) increasingly important. Their
expertise in finding, organising, packaging and delivering information is key – not
just in schools, universities and businesses, but in all areas of our busy lives. Research
demonstrates the value added to balance sheets by effective library services.

Librarians understand people’s information needs and are intermediaries (often with
specialised subject knowledge) between producers of information and its users. That
means having the skills, where necessary, to train colleagues in the use of information
resources (including such ‘social software’ as RSS feeds, blogs and wikis). It is their
understanding of knowledge-transfer, through the study of cataloguing and
classification, that gives librarians the ideal skills to develop the ‘new’ web.

A good example of an information service is the IET’s library with its vast range of
resources, both printed and electronic: most of the articles and books in the Virtual
Library can even be accessed from home. Then there is the IET’s Inspec data-base,
with its ten-million indexed and summarised articles, conference papers, technical
reports, patents and standards. The key to using all this material effectively is the
staff’s expertise: “librarians know where to find it – fast!” goes a tee-shirt slogan.

Which brings us back to Hollywood: Julie Andrews extols librarians’ virtues on

YouTube! While comedian Shad Kunkle shows how to ask librarians questions.

Ralph Adam, July 2008