I am a librarian (what, you didn’t know?! 😉 ), so I’m interested in how people search for information. This includes the keywords and phrases, otherwise known as “search strings” that people choose to search with. So I took a recent look at my WordPress stats — a trip down a rabbit hole if ever there was one! — and wanted to share some of the various paths people take to this Reel Librarians blog.
Out of nearly 20,000 searches (!) that WordPress has recorded since my blog began in September 2011, here are the top 12 searches that led one here:
This list reveals that yes, people are still obsessed with naughty librarians — big surprise — as well as librarian names and the reel librarian from An Extremely Goofy Movie.
Also a huge theme that jumped out at me as I scrolled through the list of search terms is how many ways people misspell the word “librarian,” especially when in the “naughty librarian” combination. They get the word “naughty” right, but not the “librarian” part. SIGH.
Here are the most popular misspelled variations of this particular search phrase:
- naughty librian
- naughty libraian
- naughty libarian
- naughty librian
- naughty librain
- naught librianian (say whaaaaaat?!)
Here are a few more head-scratchers:
- eye of sauron
(42 searches for this phrase, leading one to my post on the first Lord of the Rings film, as well as this Cinfolit guest post) - time takes a cigarette puts in your mouth
(7 searches for this lyric from the David Bowie song ‘Rock n Roll Suicide,’ which leads you to my post on the David Mamet film Homicide. Which I kind of like.) - vintage laughter
(6 searches for this phrase — huh?) - noomi rapce in pantyhose
(only 1 search for this phrase, thank goodness, which leads one to my post on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)
And finally, below are a few search phrases that I found particularly interesting. I would like to meet the researchers who searched for:
- reel librarians the stereotype and technology
- when does a stock character become a negative stereotype
- jennifer snoek-brown
(Awwww, 16 searches so far for my name. Thanks, y’all! 😀 )
Happy searching!
REEL LIBRARIANS 
I saw “rude lieberian” once in my stats. Too funny!
HA! Hope they weren’t being rude to Liberians. Which of course I just looked up in my stats — and sure enough, there have been multiple searches for “naughty liberians” as well. As well as multiple searches for “scary librarians” and “failed librarian”. 😉
Any searches for “failed attempts to spell ‘librarian'”? 😉