Film Clips Focus on Librarians Starring Role

Librarians at the University of Cincinnati are turning to the time-honored process of “show-and-tell” with the emphasis on “show” rather than “tell.” 

Jane Carlin, head librarian at UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, wanted to better direct the attention of university students and faculty to the too-often untapped power of libraries in resolving pressing problems and advancing critical-thinking skills.  To find a medium and examples that “students can relate to,” Carlin turned to Hollywood in the form of her own personal library of movies as well as those belonging to friends.

Movies in hand – the animated “Beauty and the Beast,” the blockbuster “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” Diane Keaton’s “Baby Boom,” Kevin Costner’s “Field of Dreams,” Tom Hanks’ “Philadelphia,” Katharine Hepburn’s “Desk Set,” Parker Posey’s “Party Girl,” and 1999’s “The Mummy” – Carlin went to UC library’s multimedia services to edit a four-minute tribute to libraries and librarians.

“I could have taken snippets from tons of other films, including “The Matrix” and Ali McGraw’s ‘Goodbye Columbus,’ but I knew I had to keep it short.  Personally, my favorite clip is from ‘The Mummy.’  In it, a librarian proudly declares: ‘I may not be an explorer….an adventurer…a treasure seeker…a gun fighter, but I am proud of what I am….I am a librarian.’”  

Other clips show Belle of “Beauty and the Beast” receiving the gift of a library; Diane Keaton using a library to conduct market research on bringing gourmet baby food to grocers’ shelves; Kevin Costner conducting research on baseball; and Tom Hanks as an attorney researching AIDS discrimination.  Parker Posey is a party girl-turned-serious (but not too serious since she has an affair among the stacks).  She gets a job at a library and finds that she enjoys research, all while aiding any number of people in finding information vital to them, and so, goes off to graduate school in library science.

So far, Carlin and her colleagues have used the film montage in a faculty-development workshop and with student trainees who will be working in campus libraries.  “I wanted to create some excitement from the point of view of the students, in a humorous and light-hearted way.  We are centers of problem-based learning, for enhancing critical-thinking skills via the power of research.  Saying that isn’t enough.  We have to show it,” she added.