As my 8th blog anniversary occurred in-between my regular posting schedule, I thought a blog-iversary two-fer was in order. I published my first post on Reel Librarians back on September 19th, 2011. When I started this website and blog, I was regularly writing and publishing 3 new posts a week (!!!), but I was also working part-time back then. Fast forward 8 years, and I am now a full-time, tenured faculty librarian, and I’ve scaled back to 2 new posts a month.

I thought it would be fun to take a brief sojourn down memory lane and revisit posts that I published back in September 2011, the first month that I launched Reel Librarians. Note, I didn’t publish my first post until September 19th, the third week of September. But in the 12 remaining days of September 2011, I published 6 (!!!!!!) new posts.

Below are first paragraph excerpts from each of those first 6 posts, with links to the full posts so you can explore each one. Enjoy!

Where do I begin? A love story. (Sept. 19, 2011)

Welcome to my new site about librarians in film! For me, librarians + movies = love! Technically, this site is a new (and hopefully more permanent) incarnation of my previous “Reel Librarians” site, which I had developed off a previous work site and server. But the site’s back now – hopefully, better than ever. Please check back often or sign up for RSS or email updates.Welcome to my new site about librarians in film!

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‘It’s a wonderful’… stereotype? (Sept. 21, 2011)

It’s a wonderful movie, truly. It’s a Wonderful Life. One of my personal favorites, actually. And a personal favorite for many, especially as a TV staple at Christmas, thanks to its lapsed copyright in 1974 (although that was successfully challenged in 1993). The director, Frank Capra, is in top form, as is James Stewart, who displays devastating depth as George Bailey, an ordinary man who aches to be extraordinary. Both deservedly earned Oscar nominations, out of 5 total, including Best Picture.

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Reel librarian firsts (Sept. 23, 2011)

1912: The Librarian, first film to feature a librarian

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It’s an ‘adventure’! (Sept. 26, 2011)

In Rome Adventure (1962), Suzanne Pleshette plays Prudence Bell, an assistant librarian at the Briarcroft College for Women. The first scene sets the stage:  Prudence lands in trouble for letting a young girl read Lovers Must Learn, a book considered “too adult” for this school. The board has banned the book (this also serves as a clever advertisement for the real book, which the film was based on, and its author, Irving Fineman, who is name-dropped in the first five minutes) and reprimands Prudence in the process. Prudence, however, stands up to them and defies their rules. She delivers a speech about the importance of love — what’s hiding in every girl’s heart, that need to be loved — and quits the library to follow the book’s advice. She says, “This is Independence Day!” We are on her side for standing up to the board — and, in effect, standing up against censorship. [Plus, this week is the annual Banned Books Week, so this post is right on target!]

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Mistaken identity in ‘Spellbound’ (Sept. 28, 2011)

How should a woman react when she is mistaken for a Spinster Librarian? To her credit, Dr. Constance Petersen, played by the beautiful Ingrid Bergman, takes it in good humor. The moment does inject a bit of comedy (although at the expense of librarians!) in the otherwise suspenseful and dramatic film, Spellbound (1945).

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The ‘Year of the Librarian’ continues (Sept. 30, 2011)

Since the 1970s, the study of “popular culture” has increased in academic relevance, but I believe the image of librarians in media really began to be looked at as a serious topic of research after 1989. That was when ALA declared it the “Year of the Librarian” in its January 1989 issue of American Libraries. The article, below, and theme focused on the media image of librarians and “public awareness efforts on the library professional for the first time.”

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Stay tuned for thriller-themed posts in October!