Famous Librarians
Shamelessly stolen from : http://www.westsussexhealthlibraries.nhs.uk/famous.htm
Famous Librarians
Librarians aren't shy and retiring. Here we highlight a few shining examples from the profession. We'll add to this list as we find out more.
Rupert Giles
Giles is The Watcher: the source of training, counter- intelligence, and guidance for Buffy Summers, the one girl of her generation chosen as the Vampire Slayer. Giles is the school librarian and Buffy a student at Sunnydale High School, in California (where else?)
Giles and Buffy meet and conduct much of their research in the school library. Fortunately, being America, none of the other students go anywhere near it. Giles must have a pretty free hand in stock selection, as the library has vast numbers of volumes on vampire and demon lore, the occult and witchcraft. In one episode this was noticed by the Headmaster: "Just how is, um, Blood Rites and Sacrifices appropriate material for a public school library? Chess Club branching out?"
Unlike Buffy's friend Willow, who believes everything is to be found on the Internet, Giles knows that anything worth knowing is in a book. He also knows that you have to put in the hours in order to get results.
Willow: How is it you always know this stuff? You always know what's going on.
Giles: Well, you weren't here from midnight until six researching it.
And the moral of the story is....
There are centuries of knowledge in books but only thirty years-worth on the Internet.
Inside every librarian's lunchbox is a sharpened stake.
Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon was the daughter of Gotham City's Police Commissioner James Gordon and the city's Head Librarian. One evening, whilst dressed in a home-made "Batgirl" costume on the way to a policemen's masquerade ball, she encountered the Killer Moth trying to kidnap wealthy industrialist Bruce Wayne (alias Batman). Luckily, being a brown belt in judo, she was able to drive him off. From then on she became Batgirl by night and librarian by day.
After being shot by the Joker and confined to a wheelchair, Batgirl became ORACLE, the information supremo for the superheroes of the world. They come to her time and again to handle the tasks too big for their superpowers. She is a presence throughout the world: watching, tracking, investigating, searching.
And the moral of the story is....
You don't have to wear your pants outside your tights to make a difference.
Information is power.... and who knows what librarians do at night?
Chairman Mao
Born in Hunan province, Mao was the eldest son of a moderately prosperous peasant family. During the 1911 Revolution he served in the Hunan provincial army and witnessed first-hand the chaos that followed the fall of the Ch’ing Dynasty. In the 1910s, Mao returned to school, where he became an advocate of physical fitness and collective action (just like our Head of Library Services.... apart from the physical fitness bit, obviously). After graduation from secondary school in 1918, Mao moved to Beijing where he secured a job as an assistant librarian at Beijing University, a hotbed of revolutionary thought. The head librarian, Li Ta-chao, was one of China’s few Marxist intellectuals and he had a great impact on the young Mao Tse-tung. He converted Mao to Marxism and they became great friends.
And the moral of the story is....
Librarians are subversive. They don't just buy the books and find the articles, they read them too. Then they recommend them to other people. They're in the background, quietly providing information to those who want things to change. If you want to take over the world, be nice to a librarian.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya
Nadezhda "Nadya" Krupskaya was an influential figure in the Russian Revolution, married Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov and was one of the few people to challenge Stalin and survive. And yes, she was a librarian.
Her parents were well educated but poor and Nadya grew up with a spirit of protest against the condition of the poor. Whilst a member of various discussion circles, she discovered Marx's writings and met Lenin. They were both arrested and married whilst in exile in Siberia. She was an active Bolshevik and, after the revolution, took charge of adult education in the new soviet state. After Lenin's death she was unsuccessful in resisting Stalin's rise to power. Despite publicly challenging him, she was not arrested during the Great Purge, when so many of his rivals were liquidated. Stalin was one of the coffin-bearers at her funeral in 1939.
At a library conference she stated: “We have a laughable number of libraries, and their book stocks are even more inadequate. Their quality is terrible, the majority of the population does not know how to use them and does not even know what a library is.” Thanks to her efforts, between 1928 and 1933 literacy rose from 58-90%. She believed passionately that Marxism was the ideal way for a country to be run. She saw her goal as improving the life of the people, giving them access to education and libraries so that they could create a more fulfilling life for themselves.
And the moral of the story is....
Librarians don't just work in libraries, they believe in them.
Even Stalin was scared of a librarian.
Chief Librarian Tigurias and colleagues
According to Games Workshop, in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. But then, if it wasn't grim and dark it wouldn't attract teenage boys, would it? The librarians of the Space Marines are mighty warrior-mystics, wielding incredible and devastating powers. They are super-human thanks to a harsh regime of genetic modification, psycho-conditioning and rigorous training (That's true even today - an information science degree isn't for the faint-hearted). They use their psychically enhanced wisdom and knowledge to fulfil the roles of oracle and psychic communicator within the Space Marines.
The Libraries of the Space Marines are immense structures, housing the collective knowledge that the Marines have acquired over the millennia. The librarians are charged with the upkeep of the library and only they know the full wonders and horrors that are contained within the ancient pages. (Not unlike the Dunhill Library. We've got pictures here that would make your stomach churn).
Librarians train their minds and bodies constantly to reinforce their willpower. They use their psychic powers to devastate their enemies, rending them apart with pure force of will. You'll have experienced this if you've ever tried to justify keeping a grossly overdue book.
Unfortunately, despite all these powers, Space Marine Librarians are only just over an inch tall.
And the moral of the story is....
Record manager, keeper of knowledge, powerful warrior mystic... yes, I can see myself there.
Giacomo Girolama Casanova
Soldier, spy, diplomat, writer, adventurer, Casanova is chiefly remembered for the incidents described in his autobiography. Helpfully entitled "History of my life," this 12-volume account of his adventures (including liaisons with 137 women) saw him travelling across Europe in search of fortune and respectability, often being betrayed by his own inability to stop fornicating and intriguing. Rather like a student gap year, really.
Casanova spent his last 13 years as librarian to Count Waldstein at Castle Dux in Bohemia. The Prince de Ligne, although he was Casanova's sincere friend and admirer, gives a rather sombre picture of Casanova's life at Dux:
"It must not be imagined that he was satisfied to live quietly in the refuge provided him through the kindness of Waldstein. That was not within his nature. Not a day passed without trouble; something was certain to be wrong with the coffee, the milk, the dish of macaroni which he required each day."
Thirteen years working in the same library is likely to do that to anyone.
And the moral of the story is....
Librarians aren't quiet and retiring because that's the sort of people they are; it's because they're exhausted.
Famous Librarians
Librarians aren't shy and retiring. Here we highlight a few shining examples from the profession. We'll add to this list as we find out more.
Rupert Giles
Giles is The Watcher: the source of training, counter- intelligence, and guidance for Buffy Summers, the one girl of her generation chosen as the Vampire Slayer. Giles is the school librarian and Buffy a student at Sunnydale High School, in California (where else?)
Giles and Buffy meet and conduct much of their research in the school library. Fortunately, being America, none of the other students go anywhere near it. Giles must have a pretty free hand in stock selection, as the library has vast numbers of volumes on vampire and demon lore, the occult and witchcraft. In one episode this was noticed by the Headmaster: "Just how is, um, Blood Rites and Sacrifices appropriate material for a public school library? Chess Club branching out?"
Unlike Buffy's friend Willow, who believes everything is to be found on the Internet, Giles knows that anything worth knowing is in a book. He also knows that you have to put in the hours in order to get results.
Willow: How is it you always know this stuff? You always know what's going on.
Giles: Well, you weren't here from midnight until six researching it.
And the moral of the story is....
There are centuries of knowledge in books but only thirty years-worth on the Internet.
Inside every librarian's lunchbox is a sharpened stake.
Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon was the daughter of Gotham City's Police Commissioner James Gordon and the city's Head Librarian. One evening, whilst dressed in a home-made "Batgirl" costume on the way to a policemen's masquerade ball, she encountered the Killer Moth trying to kidnap wealthy industrialist Bruce Wayne (alias Batman). Luckily, being a brown belt in judo, she was able to drive him off. From then on she became Batgirl by night and librarian by day.
After being shot by the Joker and confined to a wheelchair, Batgirl became ORACLE, the information supremo for the superheroes of the world. They come to her time and again to handle the tasks too big for their superpowers. She is a presence throughout the world: watching, tracking, investigating, searching.
And the moral of the story is....
You don't have to wear your pants outside your tights to make a difference.
Information is power.... and who knows what librarians do at night?
Chairman Mao
Born in Hunan province, Mao was the eldest son of a moderately prosperous peasant family. During the 1911 Revolution he served in the Hunan provincial army and witnessed first-hand the chaos that followed the fall of the Ch’ing Dynasty. In the 1910s, Mao returned to school, where he became an advocate of physical fitness and collective action (just like our Head of Library Services.... apart from the physical fitness bit, obviously). After graduation from secondary school in 1918, Mao moved to Beijing where he secured a job as an assistant librarian at Beijing University, a hotbed of revolutionary thought. The head librarian, Li Ta-chao, was one of China’s few Marxist intellectuals and he had a great impact on the young Mao Tse-tung. He converted Mao to Marxism and they became great friends.
And the moral of the story is....
Librarians are subversive. They don't just buy the books and find the articles, they read them too. Then they recommend them to other people. They're in the background, quietly providing information to those who want things to change. If you want to take over the world, be nice to a librarian.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya
Nadezhda "Nadya" Krupskaya was an influential figure in the Russian Revolution, married Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov and was one of the few people to challenge Stalin and survive. And yes, she was a librarian.
Her parents were well educated but poor and Nadya grew up with a spirit of protest against the condition of the poor. Whilst a member of various discussion circles, she discovered Marx's writings and met Lenin. They were both arrested and married whilst in exile in Siberia. She was an active Bolshevik and, after the revolution, took charge of adult education in the new soviet state. After Lenin's death she was unsuccessful in resisting Stalin's rise to power. Despite publicly challenging him, she was not arrested during the Great Purge, when so many of his rivals were liquidated. Stalin was one of the coffin-bearers at her funeral in 1939.
At a library conference she stated: “We have a laughable number of libraries, and their book stocks are even more inadequate. Their quality is terrible, the majority of the population does not know how to use them and does not even know what a library is.” Thanks to her efforts, between 1928 and 1933 literacy rose from 58-90%. She believed passionately that Marxism was the ideal way for a country to be run. She saw her goal as improving the life of the people, giving them access to education and libraries so that they could create a more fulfilling life for themselves.
And the moral of the story is....
Librarians don't just work in libraries, they believe in them.
Even Stalin was scared of a librarian.
Chief Librarian Tigurias and colleagues
According to Games Workshop, in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. But then, if it wasn't grim and dark it wouldn't attract teenage boys, would it? The librarians of the Space Marines are mighty warrior-mystics, wielding incredible and devastating powers. They are super-human thanks to a harsh regime of genetic modification, psycho-conditioning and rigorous training (That's true even today - an information science degree isn't for the faint-hearted). They use their psychically enhanced wisdom and knowledge to fulfil the roles of oracle and psychic communicator within the Space Marines.
The Libraries of the Space Marines are immense structures, housing the collective knowledge that the Marines have acquired over the millennia. The librarians are charged with the upkeep of the library and only they know the full wonders and horrors that are contained within the ancient pages. (Not unlike the Dunhill Library. We've got pictures here that would make your stomach churn).
Librarians train their minds and bodies constantly to reinforce their willpower. They use their psychic powers to devastate their enemies, rending them apart with pure force of will. You'll have experienced this if you've ever tried to justify keeping a grossly overdue book.
Unfortunately, despite all these powers, Space Marine Librarians are only just over an inch tall.
And the moral of the story is....
Record manager, keeper of knowledge, powerful warrior mystic... yes, I can see myself there.
Giacomo Girolama Casanova
Soldier, spy, diplomat, writer, adventurer, Casanova is chiefly remembered for the incidents described in his autobiography. Helpfully entitled "History of my life," this 12-volume account of his adventures (including liaisons with 137 women) saw him travelling across Europe in search of fortune and respectability, often being betrayed by his own inability to stop fornicating and intriguing. Rather like a student gap year, really.
Casanova spent his last 13 years as librarian to Count Waldstein at Castle Dux in Bohemia. The Prince de Ligne, although he was Casanova's sincere friend and admirer, gives a rather sombre picture of Casanova's life at Dux:
"It must not be imagined that he was satisfied to live quietly in the refuge provided him through the kindness of Waldstein. That was not within his nature. Not a day passed without trouble; something was certain to be wrong with the coffee, the milk, the dish of macaroni which he required each day."
Thirteen years working in the same library is likely to do that to anyone.
And the moral of the story is....
Librarians aren't quiet and retiring because that's the sort of people they are; it's because they're exhausted.