Happy New Year! Before launching into the new year, I wanted to celebrate a quick look back at my favorite posts from the past year. Please note that these are personal favorites, not necessarily the most viewed posts I wrote and published this past year.

From May 2019: Graduate library school discussion in ‘Party Girl’

In this post, I had fun diving into a specific scene in 1995’s cult indie film Party Girl, the scene in which a group of librarians discuss graduate library science programs. It’s just a WONDERFUL scene, with a diversity of ethnicities, genders, ages, and opinions. I also enjoyed going off on a tangent to explore what graduate library science programs had been available at that time.

Librarians discuss library school options in Party Girl (1995)

From June 2019: The dragon lady librarian in ‘The Golden Child’ (1986)

This post was really fun to analyze and write. Some posts take forever to put together, and some posts come together really quickly. This post is an example of the latter.

In particular, it was satisfying to realize that the reel librarian character, the dragon lady librarian, showed up three times in the film, essentially driving the plot forward at critical points each time. And it was interesting to note that although she was a most unconventional librarian in some ways (by, uh, being half-dragon), she was also a very conventional librarian by how she invited questions (“Do you have any other questions?“) and how she answered those questions.

From June 2019: First impressions: ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ (2019) and its memorable fight scene in the NYPL

This post is a good example of my “First impressions” series of posts — posts that feature current films I have watched in theaters that include reel librarians and/or library or archives scenes — as well as an excellent example of how a short library scene can result in a surprisingly in-depth post.

As I wrote in the original post:

And they did this scene so well that it took me more than FOUR HOURS (!!!!) to draft this initial post. For a scene that lasts less than two minutes. My initial notes, the ones I jotted down on the notepad app on my phone, were pretty brief. But once I started to ~~unpack~~, er, unshelve the scene, there was a lot more there to analyze and think through than I had originally thought!

Library fight scene from John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) — Library fight scene from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)

From August 2019: Here’s lookin’ at you, Mr. Stringer

In this massive post, I delve into the role of village librarian Mr. Stringer, a supporting character in all four movies of MGM’s Miss Marple series of the 1960s. Mr. Stringer was played by Stringer Davis, the real-life husband of Margaret Rutherford, who played the leading role of Miss Marple.

Why did I choose this post as one of my faves? Because I had had the idea of analyzing Mr. Stringer’s role in all four films for YEARS, and I kept putting it off because I knew it would take a long time to watch all the films, take notes, rewatch the films, take screenshots, create collages, write the post, etc. And indeed, it took me weeks to put this post together — but it felt enormously satisfying to finish the post and publish it.

Plus, it was so much fun to watch Stringer Davis’s expressive face! I created collages of his different facial expressions in each film, and narrowing down those pics was probably the hardest — and most fun! — part of putting this post together. 😉

A collage of Mr. Stringer's facial expressions in Murder, She Said (1961) — A collage of Mr. Stringer’s facial expressions in *Murder, She Said* (1961)

From October 2019: 3 reel librarians who have died in the line of duty

The title of this fave post is certainly a walking spoiler alert! I highlight 3 different films in which reel librarian characters die — in different ways — in the line of duty. I enjoy this post because it’s a good example of:

how I go off on tangents
how I enjoy making lists
how posts can come from asking myself the oddest questions (Why WOULDN’T you ask yourself, “Have there been any reel librarians who have died in the line of duty?” 😉 )
how I use my own blog and archives to research these kinds of questions