It has certainly been the summer for iconic sci-fi universes, hasn’t it?! First my exhaustive series cataloging all the library, archives, librarian, and research scenes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now a hot-off-the-presses video foray into libraries and archives in the Star Wars universe with Sam Cross on her POP Archives YouTube channel. (By the way, these two universes, Star Wars and the MCU, actually connect in an episode of What If…?, which you can read about here in this post.)
Here’s the video description from POP Archives:
This episode Sam (she/her) is joined by Jennifer Snoek-Brown (she/her), aka Reel Librarians, as they travel to a galaxy far, far away to uncover the archival nature of the Skywalker Saga. They theorize about what exactly is “The New Hope,” dive into Jocasta Nu’s backstory, and ponder the media degradation of the Death Star’s digitization practices.
So how did this come about? Earlier this summer, Sam Cross, the real-life archivist and genius behind the POP Archives site, contacted me about guesting on her new POP Archives YouTube channel, to chat about the differences between archivists and librarian portrayals in movies. I was admittedly a bit nervous — I feel most confident communicating through writing — but it sounded like a fun opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. After some back-and-forth brainstorming (I literally had jotted down 4+ pages of notes and topic ideas, LOL! I’m glad I didn’t scare Sam off! :D), we decided to “travel to a galaxy far, far away” to the Star Wars universe, which has many examples of libraries/librarians and archives/archivists, including in the movies, TV series, and graphic novels.
And it was SO. MUCH. FUN. chatting and laughing with Sam! She made me feel immediately at ease. It really felt like a natural conversation between two information professional nerds (or professional nerds? either way works!), as we weaved around themes and differences and similarities amidst different librarian and archivist portrayals in Star Wars. And I think that natural flow comes across in the video. Please check it out! (Note: It is an admittedly long video! Feel free to let the nerdiness wash over you in the background as you fold laundry or take a walk or what-have-you, etc.)
And if you’re on YouTube and/or have a Gmail account, it’s super easy to subscribe to the POP Archives channel, so you get a notification for when there’s a new video (just make sure you’re logged in and click the red “Subscribe” button). And, of course, make sure you’ve bookmarked the main POP Archives website plus visit Sam’s Twitter account. Sam writes about all sorts of archival topics and portrayals in all types of pop culture mediums, including video games, comics, TV series, movies, and more!
Sources used
All the sources we referenced in our chat are linked in the YouTube video record (click on the “More” link in the video title and description field).
REEL LIBRARIANS 