Libraries

Quiz: Which Librarian From Pop Culture Are You?

Christine Hoxmeier

Staff Writer

Christine Hoxmeier can usually be found hard at work in her beloved home of Austin with a cup of coffee in one hand and a taco in the other. She spends her free time reading, writing, and dreaming of a teleportation device so she can visit her friends spread across the globe on a daily basis. If it were possible to live inside one Disneyland attraction for the rest of her life, Christine would cheat and choose to split her time between It's A Small World and The Enchanted Tiki Room. She prefers to communicate in CAPSLOCK and with gifs. Twitter: @aramblingfancy

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They are the keepers of knowledge, curators of stories, and when I was young, I wanted nothing more than to be a librarian. What fun to sit amidst what seemed like every book ever, helping people find books, and talk to them about great mystery series. This was clearly the dream job! However, I also thought being a librarian included giving piano lessons, researching suspicious men who are new to your town, destroying books in the name of love, and singing songs. What can I say, I was obsessed with The Music Man and Marian Peru, the librarian of River City. And while I know now that there is a lot more to being a librarian than helping 8-year-olds find the Encyclopedia Brown books and that, sadly, it does not involve catchy songs and elaborate dance sequences (although music and storytime for babies comes the closest to this fantasy), I can’t help but still be enamored of Marian, madam librarian.

If you are a lover of books and reading, there is a good chance you were obsessed with a fictional librarian at some point. Perhaps you still are! Whether it’s Marian, Giles, or Twilight Sparkle, there are several iconic librarians in pop-culture that inspire admiration.

As has been explored in another post, there is sadly a lack of librarians in pop-culture, especially when it comes to librarians of color. But the few that we have are quite memorable! For every character that is composed entirely of librarian stereotypes, there are those that buck the cliches and represent a newer, bolder librarian (even if the way the job is portrayed is a bit unrealistic). 

It’s time to silence your phones, dispose of any food or drink near your computer, and take our quiz to find out which librarian from pop culture you are!