Happy New Year! I do hope 2021 will ultimately be better, safer, and healthier than the pandemic dumpster fire year that was 2020! But before launching into the new year, I wanted to take a quick look back at favorite posts from the past year. First, I will highlight the most viewed posts I wrote and published this past year, and then I will go into detail about my own personal favorite posts from this past year. As it turned out, there is some overlap between the two lists (unplanned, because I made my list of my own personal favorite posts first). I hope you enjoy these posts — even if they are only momentary distractions!
Viewer’s choice: Top 5 viewed posts published in 2020
- Law librarian failure in ‘Philadelphia’ (1993) (published June 2020)
- Spring training and special collections in ‘Major League’ (1989) (published April 2020)
- Reel librarians and archivists in 16 sci-fi films (published March 2020)
- A reel librarian returns in ‘Major League II’ (1994) (published May 2020)
- 5 movies featuring Black reel librarians in major roles (published July 2020)
Librarian’s choice: Top 5 personal favorite posts published in 2020
For my own personal favorite posts I wrote and published this past year, I will list the posts in chronological order.
From March 2020: Reel librarians and archivists in 16 sci-fi films
This post was fun to put together, and the idea for it germinated from updating my Genres & Themes page and thinking about additional genres I could highlight. There are so many reel librarians and archivists in sci-fi films, it was actually kind of hard to narrow down to just 16 for this post! I also enjoyed that it’s a “listmaking” post that goes a bit deeper, in that after I narrowed down the list, I noted three major trends of the reel librarian roles in these sci-fi films: Heroes, Helpers, and Hindrances.
Read the post: Reel librarians and archivists in 16 sci-fi films
From April 2020: Spring training and special collections in ‘Major League’ (1989)
I’ve always had a soft spot for Major League — and it appears that many of you do, too! In particular, I’ve also always had a soft spot for Rene Russo’s portrayal as Lynn, a reel librarian, and how she proudly states, “In two years I put together one of the best special collection departments in the country.“
As I remember it, this post took me quite a while to put together, particularly figuring out how to structure it, since Lynn is a major character throughout the film. I ended up using a baseball-themed series of headings, starting off with “First base” and ending up with a “Home run.” Cheesy? YES! That’s how I roll here on this Reel Librarians blog. 😉
Read the post: Spring training and special collections in ‘Major League’ (1989)
From July 2020: 5 movies featuring Black reel librarians in major roles
I put this post together in the midst of this past summer of racial reckoning, after I had participated (with a face mask on, of course) in a regional “Educators for Black Lives Matter” protest and march. I kept thinking about what I, a White woman and librarian, could do in my own little sphere of the interwebs, to highlight that Black Lives Matter and that Black representation of librarianship on screen matters. It’s only one post, I know, but after recently re-reading it, it’s a post that has helped inspire me to do more in the coming year to highlight on this blog more reel librarians of color. I will go into much more detail about this in my next post!
Read the post: 5 movies featuring Black reel librarians in major roles
From August 2020: ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ librarian
This post just made me laugh putting it together! I mean, how could you NOT laugh when you’ve got a deadpan reel librarian spouting lines like:
“Didn’t even get to keep my damn tiara.”
“Lutefisk is codfish that’s been salted and soaked in lye for a week or so. … It’s best with lots of butter.“
I often mix it up here on the blog, sprinkling in some lighter posts amidst the longer and more analytical posts. This post is a good example of the former.
Read the post: ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ librarian
From December 2020: Comparing library scenes between the original book and movie version of ‘The Da Vinci Code’
This post is one that I didn’t plan, and had not been thinking about at all. In fact, I had forgotten completely about the library research scene in this movie. Rewatching the movie reminded me of the library research scene in the book, and thus, an idea for this post was born. Some posts I plan and work on for ages, while others come spur-of-the-moment. This post is definitely a good example of the latter!
I think I enjoyed re-reading this post because I felt that my snarky sense of humor comes through in the end result. Did I chuckle at how many times I was able to slip in variations of the word “mansplaining” into the post? OF COURSE. 😉
Read the post: Comparing library scenes between the original book and movie version of ‘The Da Vinci Code’
Did you have any personal favorite posts from this past year? Please share!
Sources used
- Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “5 movies featuring Black reel librarians in major roles.” Reel Librarians, 8 July 2020.
- Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Comparing library scenes between the original book and movie version of ‘The Da Vinci Code’.” Reel Librarians, 9 Dec. 2020.
- Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ librarian.” Reel Librarians, 12 Aug. 2020.
- Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Reel librarians and archivists in 16 sci-fi films.” Reel Librarians, 11 Mar. 2020.
- Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Spring training and special collections in ‘Major League’ (1989).” Reel Librarians, 22 Apr. 2020.
REEL LIBRARIANS 