Fiction_L Archives Librarians in Fiction Dates: 2/7/00,10:37 PM  through  2/10/00,10:22 AM  (26 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to February 2000 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: <[removed]@email.unc.edu>
REC'D: 2/7/00, 10:37 PM

Hello All:
I don't know if this has come up before, but I am trying to get a list
of books with librarians as main characters for a project that I am
working on. Does anyone have such a list or some suggestions about what
to include?

Thanks in advance,
C. L. Quillen
Graduate Student
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(919) 914-0109

FROM: <[removed]@aol.com>
REC'D: 2/7/00, 11:47 PM

Hello All:
I don't know if this has come up before, but I am trying to get a list
of books with librarians as main characters for a project that I am
working on. Does anyone have such a list or some suggestions about what
to include?

Thanks in advance,
C. L. Quillen
Graduate Student
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(919) 914-0109

I suggest you check out the following web site, which includes a discussion
of librarians in fiction, as well as cites to book titles.

Among other things, the article refers to a Harlequin Superromance, but I
knew there are other romance titles which include librarians.

Binnie Syril Braunstein
Romance novelist/former librarian

<A HREF="<A HREF="http://valinor.purdy.wayne.edu/el3.htm#Depictions">http://valinor.purdy.wayne.edu/el3.htm#Depictions</A> of Librarians In">C
lick here: Librarians in Fiction</A>

FROM: <[removed]@aol.com>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 6:23 AM

One of my favorite fiction librarians is Helma Zukas. She is a
mystery-solving librarian who lives in Washington State. The author is Jo
Dereske. I believe they are all paperbacks -- I think there are six of them.
A new one came out a month or two ago. Amazon has a list of them. They are
lots of fun to read.
Roben in Virginia

FROM: <[removed]@aol.com>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 6:51 AM

THE GIANT'S HOUSE by Elizabeth McCraken (spelling?)

FROM: "Kathleen L Shannon" <[removed]@edmail.com>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 9:07 AM

--Harold Adams' "No Badge, No Gun" (a Carl Wilcox mystery) has a librarian as Carl's sidekick and soon-to-be fiancee. I believe I read a review of a sequel also.

Kathy Shannon
Thornwood H.S.
South Holland, IL


>


Lightspan Ed-Mail: The free e-mail solution for your school and community.
Join today at <A HREF="http://www.edmail.com">http://www.edmail.com</A>.

FROM: "Rachel Kohl Community Library" <[removed]@delco.lib.pa.us>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 9:58 AM

My favorite librarian in fiction is Jacqueline Kirby, created by Elizabeth
Peters. Titles include Seventh Sinner and Murders of Richard III and the
hilarious Die for Love. Far superior to Amelia Peabody.

Meg Hawkins
Rachel Kohl Community Library
Concordville PA 19331

FROM: "L.Newman" <[removed]@boondocks.ca>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 10:02 AM

L.R.Wright has an award-winning mystery series set in British Columbia
which features RCMP Staff Sergeant
Martin Karl Alberg whose friend is the town librarian, Cassandra Mitchell.
She usually has some adventures that add to the plot and further the
solution of the mystery.

Other mystery authors whose books feature librarians are Miriam G Monfredo
and Kate
Morgan.

Linda Newman
[removed]@boondocks.ca

FROM: "Claudia Livolsi" <[removed]@biblio.org>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 10:41 AM

The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken was written by a librarian and is
about a relationship between a librarian and a very large boy/man.

The Loop by Joe Coomer also includes a librarian character.


Claudia Livolsi
Children's Librarian
Monroe Public Library
Monroe, CT
[removed]@biblio.org

FROM: "Thelma Stone" <[removed]@pub-lib.ci.fort-worth.tx.us>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 10:53 AM

Charlotte MacLeod's Peter Shandy series (hero is married to a librarian),
Charles Goodrum, S. K. Wolfe's MacKinnon's Machine, Jeff Abbott, Jane
Langston's Transcendental Murder, Charlaine Harris's Roe Teagarden
series, and Lillian Jackson Braun's Cat Who series (hero has a librarian
girlfriend). There is a new paperback mystery series by D. R. Meredith
with a librarian sleuth just published in January - Murder in Volume.

FROM: "Dennis Lien" <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 10:54 AM

>Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2000 07:11:42 -0800
>From: "Kathleen L Shannon" <[removed]@edmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Check out Librarians in Fiction
>
>
>- --Harold Adams' "No Badge, No Gun" (a Carl Wilcox mystery) has a
librarian as Carl's sidekick and soon-to-be fiancee. I believe I read a
review of a sequel also.
>
>Kathy Shannon
>Thornwood H.S.
>South Holland, IL

The latest Adams is LEAD, SO I CAN FOLLOW. I've not read it yet but
hope to soon.

But it seems to me that Wilcox's librarian lady love appeared in the
last-but-two-or-so book, THE ICE-PICK ARTIST, rather than in NO BADGE,
NO GUN (he's had a new lady friend in each volume to date, sometimes
more than one; I guess that streak will now be broken). I may be
misrecalling this as the titles and plots do tend to blur together
in my mind and I don't have copies handy to check.

Questions about librarians in literature / librarians as characters have
also come up in Stumpers on several occasions and could in theory be
found in the Stumpers Archives, though since the keywords are all
common any search strategy would also retrieve a lot of false drops.
But here's a few things from the Stumpers Archives that I can find
quickly, mostly because I posted them in the first place--

************
This is a section of the document
'gopher_root:[searchidx]stumpers-l_1993-08.txt;1'.


From: [removed]@vm1.spcs.umn.edu" "Dennis Lien" 6-AUG-1993 14:53:22.21
To: [removed]@CRF.CUIS.EDU"
CC:
Subj: Librarians in Fiction

U of MN has five relevant-looking titles: two are microformat copies of old
MA theses that I didn't examine. (THE LIBRARIAN IN THE SHORT STORY: AN
ANALYSIS AND APPRAISAL by Margaret Ann Nation; Florida State U, 1956; and
THE STEREOTYPED LIBRARIAN AS PORTRAYED IN MODERN AMERICAN BELLES-LETTRES
by Lucille Eileen Long; Kent State U, 1957.)

Of the other three, one is in English (well, English of a sort): THE
TRANSLATED WORLD: A POSTMODERN TOUR OF LIBRARIES IN LITERATURE by Debra A.
Castillo (Florida State U Press: 1984). I found myself unable to get
through any two consecutive sentences on any random-selected page without
my eyes glazing over, so all I can report is that she covers a rather small
number of texts at rather great length and that she seems to have what strike
me as strange ideas about what librarians do, want to do, or think they do.
Maybe someone on the LIST who speaks postmodernism can tell us more.

MERKWUERDIGE LEUTE: BIBLIOTHEK UND BIBLIOTHEKA IN DER SCHOENEN LITERATUR
by Klaus Doehmer (Konigshausen and Neumann, 1984) looks like more fun for
those who read German, and maybe even for those of us who don't. The last
section is a brief-entry bibliography of 293 books featuring libraries/-ians,
of which at least half are in English.

DROLES DE BIBLIOTHEQUES: LA THEME DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE DANS LA LITTERATURE ET
LA CINEMA by Anne-Marie Chaintreau and Renee Lemaitre (Editions du Cercle de
la Librairie, 1990) covers comic strips as well as fiction and cinema. The
first third is an overview, the middle third an anthology of selections, and
the last part (pp. 175-265) an annotated bibliography of 177 books and 63
films of interest, with a paragraph on each (all annotations in French, though
again many of the works are originally English-language).

The last book also contains a two-page list of Sources Bibliographiques, of
which the following are in English: BOOKED FOR MURDER by Betty Rosenberg
(Glendale CA: 1979); "Librarian at Large" by David Cheshire in NEW LIBRARY
WORLD Sept. 1979 pp. 167-9; "Libraries and Librarians: Novels and Novelists"
by Julian Moynahan, AMERICAN LIBRARIES Nov. 1974, pp. 550-3; and "The
Librarian
as Main Character: A Professional Sampler" in WILSON LIBRARY BULLETIN Jan.
1987, pp. 29-33.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@vm1.spcs.umn.edu
.


************
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'gopher_root:[searchidx]stumpers-l_1994-10.txt;31'.


Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 10:05:02 -0500 (CDT)
From: Dennis Lien <[removed]@vm1.spcs.umn.edu>
To: [removed]@hookup.net, [removed]@CRF.CUIS.EDU
Subj: Libraries in fiction

A few top of the head suggestions to add to those already noted:

Charlotte MacLeod's "Peter Shandy" mystery series (starting with REST YOU
MERRY)--Shandy's wife and co-detective is a college librarian.

I'm better read in libraries in sf and fantasy; some that come to mind:

RUNE by Christopher Fowler (modernized M.R.Jamesian horror; two protagonists
work in library which includes special collection of occult lit which
becomes a focus of Things Happening).

WOLF OF WINTER by Paula Volsky--according to review in recent LOCUS, protag.
at one point works in a "library/university where she discovers the
librarians in conclave practice a kind of necromancy...dedicated to
liberating the dead from their slavery, and freeing them to move on to a
higher plane."This is a 1994 UK book; no US edition yet I think.

THE SWORD OF MAIDEN'S TEARS by "Rosemary Edghill" (pseud.), reviewed in
same LOCUS (August issue??)--1994 DAW paperback. "The injured elf is
found by a library science student with an interest in the middle ages.
She and her multi-talented librarian friends agree (after much discussion,
many literary quotations, and news reports of a monster in the subway
tunnels) to help the elf in his quest. And of course the companions
assembled just happen to have precisely the unusual talents (hacker,
swordswoman, body-builder, ballad-lover) needed for the quest. It's the
sort of book in which no one with an IQ below 150, without a college
education, or unable to quote poetry at the drop of a hat, is allowed to
be anything but a villain or corpse." Sounds like fun....

A like book, though with only a couple of scenes in a library, is TAM LIN
by local author Pamela Dean, a retelling of the fairy tale in modern terms
set at a thinly-disguised Carleton College in Northfield, MN. (Cheating to
list this here, really, but it's one of my favorite recent books...)

Another book by a then-local author, Kara Dalkey, is THE SWORD OF SAGAMORE
(Ace pb, 1989), which features one chapter in a magic library presided
over by a large and hairy librarian named Master Dennileen. Kara didn't
let me do anything very librarianish, but I DO get to have a pet dragon
(the Book Worm) who is available to hunt down overdue book scofflaws. (I
also appear in a 1977 Doubleday science fiction novel by Gene DeWeese and
Robert Coulson, but I'm not depicted there as a librarian. Title, believe
it or not, is CHARLES FORT NEVER MENTIONED WOMBATS.)

Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series features the librarian of Unseen
University as a continuing character. Due to a magical accident early
on, he is in the shape of an oranutang and can say only "Ook," but this
does not seem to affect his sterling professional qualities. (Pratchett's
books are a delight.)

In short stories, Hal Draper's "Ms Fnd in a Lbry" was cited in STUMPERS
a couple of weeks ago, and Borges' classic "The Library of Babel" has
been already mentioned. British horror author Ramsey Campbell (himself a
sometime librarian) has a couple of nice/nasty shorts with library
settings, but I can't recall the titles offhand... There are a lot of
library settings in ghost stories and occult horror fiction, though mostly
just as a setting for protagonist discovering Horrible Book that Lets
Things Out and such. (I recall at least one of Lovecraft's doomed
protagonists--in "Whisperer in the Darkness," I think--is librarian at
Arkham University,though I don't believe we see him doing any real
librarianing...)

One chapter of Gene Wolfe's THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER, first of his BOOK
OF THE NEW SUN series, is set in an immense, millenia-old library, full of
crumbling works. There's also a library setting in part of his novel/linked
story collection THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS (1972).

Then there's the horrible scene near the end of Fritz Leiber's OUR LADY OF
DARKNESS where the protagonist, who up until that time had my full sympathy,
steals an irreplacable old San Francisco city directory from his public
library, at which point I decided I WANTED the undead monsterthing to eat him.

Several H.W. Wilson literature indexes do subject indexing: FICTION CATALOG,
SHORT STORY INDEX, PLAY INDEX will all produce hits under libraries and/or
librarians terms; so does the British FICTION INDEX (a.k.a. CUMULATED
FICTION INDEX). Wilson's BOOK REVIEW DIGEST may also (look for them as a
subheading under "Fiction" in the index, though the couple sample volumes
I checked didn't have any hits).

OK, I guess this wound up being more than "off the top of my head." Down
well below the shoulders, anyway...


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@vm1.spcs.umn.edu


who does look and sound like himself in Dalkey's book, but is no longer so
thin as DeWeese and Coulson claimed him to be

*************
This is a section of the document
'gopher_root:[searchidx]stumpers-l_1996-06.txt;30'.


Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 17:34:07 -0500
From: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
To: Laura Koepfler <[removed]@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu>
Cc: [removed]@crf.cuis.edu
Subj: % Librarians in Literature

At 09:57 AM 6/13/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi Stumperfolk:
>
>I'm looking for information pertaining to
>images of librarians and/or libraries in popular fiction.
>If anyone keeps a mental list of works of fiction where a
>protagonist is a librarian or a good deal of a book's narrative takes place
>in a library, I'd greatly appreciate an e-mail reply.
>
>I've gotten information on all the stock works, ie. The Name of the
>Rose, Goobye Columbus, The Abortion, etc. I've also researched various
>genres of literature (romances and mysteries) where certain authors
>conistently use librarians as main characters (ie. the authors Charles
>Goodrum, Jayne Ann Krentz).
>
>I've searched out information in library literature and have attended
>a recent seminar at Baruch College in NYC that dealt with images of
>librarians in the media and pop. culture.
>
>If anyone has information on new works of fiction, children's fiction,
>or any slightly "off-beat" works, please pass it on.
>
As Todd Mills has pointed out, we've had this question a couple of times
before, and a lot of the suggested titles are on their third time around...

If you have access to the Stumpers Archives, there were a flurry of these
around August 1993 and another one in October 1994. I would suggest at
least taking a lot at my 6 August 1993 posting (subject line: Librarians
in Fiction), as I cited a half-dozen previous bibliographies on the subject,
none of which seem to have been mentioned on the latest go-round. My
12 October 1994 posting (subject line: Libraries in Fiction) lists a few
titles, mostly sf and fantasy, that also seem not to have come up again.

***********


Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 14:40:22 -0600
From: "Dennis K. Lien" <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
To: [removed]@hit.net, [removed]@crf.cuis.edu
Subj: % fiction about librarians

At 06:16 PM 11/20/97 -0600, Parsons Public Library wrote:
>I have a patron who would like a list of fiction books that the story line
>is about a librarian. Thank you in advance.
> Debbie


This question has been through Stumpers a couple of times before, and a
quick check of the Archives reveals about fifty relevant postings (and a
number of not-so) under "Librarians in fiction" or "Librarians in
literature." There was even some vague thought about someone trying
to gather all the suggestions together into a publishable article or
website, but I don't think that ever happened.

Anyway, if you search the Archives under keywords <librarians fiction>
most of the relevant results should be obvious from their headers.
There are also references to libraries/librarians in movies etc.


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

***********
One can search Stumpers Archives (you don't have to be a member) at

<A HREF="http://wombats.areawesome.net/">http://wombats.areawesome.net/</A>

and/or

<A HREF="http://www.cuis.edu/~stumpers/">http://www.cuis.edu/~stumpers/</A>


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

FROM: "Woosley, Sheila M." <[removed]@mailserv.gcpl.lib.oh.us>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 11:20 AM

Miriam Grace Monfredo has a series set in Seneca Falls NY. The
librarian is a fiesty suffragette.

-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@email.unc.edu [<A HREF="mailto:quillen@email.unc.edu">mailto:quillen@email.unc.edu</A>]
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2000 11:40 PM
To: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org
Subject: Librarians in Fiction


Hello All:
I don't know if this has come up before, but I am trying to get a list
of books with librarians as main characters for a project that I am
working on. Does anyone have such a list or some suggestions about what
to include?

Thanks in advance,
C. L. Quillen
Graduate Student
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(919) 914-0109

FROM: "Judy Koopmann" <[removed]@wlsmail.wls.lib.ny.us>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 12:49 PM

My all-time fav librarian is Jeanette Koss in Richard Powers' "The Gold
Bug Variations." There are many lines that capture the feel of the
profession, including:
"I pride myself on working impartially even for those whose sole
purpose on earth is to propagate ravaging inanity."
"The unfolding subway, the byzantine network of accumulating
particulars-our Pyramid, Great Wall, St. Peter's, the largest
engineering feat of all time-daily runs a nip-and-tuck footrace between
the facts worth saving and the technology for managing the explosion."
"Mother always insisted I got what I had coming. From birth, I was
addicted to questions....So it righted a cosmic imbalance in her eyes
that I ended up answering others' questions for a living. She hoped to
see me sit behind a Reference Desk until I'd answered as many
unanswerables as I had plagued her with all those years."
"Librarian is a service occupation, gas station attendant of the
mind. In an earlier age, I might have made things. Now I only make
things available. Another blit in the bulge of the late-capitalist job
curve."
"My M.L.S. cheekbones crumbled like a rear-ended economy car."

Judy Koopmann
North Salem Free Library

FROM: "Mary Zajac" <[removed]@nileslibrary.org>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 1:26 PM

Has anyone mentioned THE ARCHIVIST by Martha Cooley?

Mary Zajac
Niles Public Library District
Niles, Illinois

FROM: "Raap" <[removed]@sls.lib.il.us>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 1:40 PM

Please post the list to Fiction L when you have it compiled. Thanks.

******************************************************************************
Christine Raap * "The universe is crazy,
Evergreen Park Pub. Lib. * anything else would be
9400 S. Troy * redundant."
Evergreen Park, Il. 60805 * Londo, Baylon 5
[removed]@sls.lib.il.us *
[removed]@ibm.net *
******************************************************************************

FROM: "Karen Traynor" <[removed]@midyork.lib.ny.us>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 2:16 PM

The Giants House by Elizabeth McCracken 1996 has a librarian as one of the
main characters.

Karen Traynor
Sullivan Free Library
519 McDonnell Street
Chittenango, NY 13037
>

FROM: "Greta Ulrich" <[removed]@nileslibrary.org>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 2:42 PM

Elinor Lipman's "Then She Found Me" has a school librarian as a character.

Greta Ulrich
Reader's Advisory
Niles Public Library District
Niles, IL

FROM: <[removed]@park-ridge.lib.il.us>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 4:34 PM

Not strictly a librarian, but the woman in the Sixteen Pleasures by Robert
Hellenga restores manuscripts in Florence, Italy after the flood in the
1960's.

-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org
[<A HREF="mailto:owner-fiction_l@maillist.nslsilus.org]On">mailto:owner-fiction_l@maillist.nslsilus.org]On</A> Behalf Of Woosley,
Sheila M.
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 11:23 AM
To: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org'
Subject: RE: Librarians in Fiction


Miriam Grace Monfredo has a series set in Seneca Falls NY. The
librarian is a fiesty suffragette.

-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@email.unc.edu [<A HREF="mailto:quillen@email.unc.edu">mailto:quillen@email.unc.edu</A>]
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2000 11:40 PM
To: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org
Subject: Librarians in Fiction


Hello All:
I don't know if this has come up before, but I am trying to get a list
of books with librarians as main characters for a project that I am
working on. Does anyone have such a list or some suggestions about what
to include?

Thanks in advance,
C. L. Quillen
Graduate Student
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(919) 914-0109

FROM: "Virginia Franklyn" <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 2/8/00, 4:36 PM

The book _The Abortion_, by Richard Brautigan, has a
rather uncommon librarian as the narrator/main
character.

Virginia Franklyn


--- "L.Newman" <[removed]@boondocks.ca> wrote:
> L.R.Wright has an award-winning mystery series set
> in British Columbia
> which features RCMP Staff Sergeant
> Martin Karl Alberg whose friend is the town
> librarian, Cassandra Mitchell.
> She usually has some adventures that add to the plot
> and further the
> solution of the mystery.
>
> Other mystery authors whose books feature
> librarians are Miriam G Monfredo
> and Kate
> Morgan.
>
> Linda Newman
> [removed]@boondocks.ca
>
>
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
<A HREF="http://im.yahoo.com">http://im.yahoo.com</A>

FROM: "Donna Jo Atwood" <[removed]@JCL.LIB.KS.US>
REC'D: 2/9/00, 9:13 AM

>The main character in Restoree by Anne McCaffrey was a librarian before
being shipped to another planet.

FROM: "Alix Bentrud" <[removed]@oppl.org>
REC'D: 2/9/00, 1:51 PM

Earlene Fowler's Goose in the Pond - librarians as bad guys
Charlene Weir's The Winter Widow - librarian as evil sister-in-law
Rosemary Edgehill's The Sword of Maiden's Tears - library school
students fighting monsters in subways
Kathleen Taylor's Delphi, South Dakota series - not a professional
librarian, but a lottery winner transforms his house into the town's
public library

FROM: <[removed]@aol.com>
REC'D: 2/9/00, 2:08 PM

RE: Librarians in fiction

When I was growing up, there was a series that included, GINNIE GORDON,
LENDING LIBRARY.

She actually had me pasting book pockets in the back of all my books!

Binnie Syril Braunstein
Romance novelist/former librarian

FROM: <[removed]@aol.com>
REC'D: 2/9/00, 2:38 PM

I wasn't in on this from the beginning but all of Miram Grace Monfredo's
books feature the librarian as the main character.

FROM: "Georgine Olson" <[removed]@muskox.alaska.edu>
REC'D: 2/9/00, 8:19 PM

Actually - Rosemary Edghill's SWORD OF A MAIDEN'S TEARS is the first of
three fantasy titles with our heroine moving from library school to
practicing librarian. The next two titles are CLOAK OF NIGHT AND DAGGERS
and CUP OF MORNING SHADOWS. It's a pretty open-ended series, so more could
be coming. Edghill's depiction of the librarian's world hits the mark
nicely - and some of her observations brought up wincing memories - tho I
wish her heroine had a bit more backbone....

Georgine Olson
Outreach Services Manager
Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library & Regional Center
1215 Cowles Street
Fairbanks AK 99701

phone: (907) 459-1020
-----Original Message-----
From: Alix Bentrud <[removed]@oppl.org>
To: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org <[removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org>
Date: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: librarians in fiction


>Earlene Fowler's Goose in the Pond - librarians as bad guys
>Charlene Weir's The Winter Widow - librarian as evil sister-in-law
>Rosemary Edgehill's The Sword of Maiden's Tears - library school
>students fighting monsters in subways
>Kathleen Taylor's Delphi, South Dakota series - not a professional
>librarian, but a lottery winner transforms his house into the town's
>public library
>

FROM: "Angelina Benedetti" <[removed]@kcls.org>
REC'D: 2/9/00, 8:38 PM

Has anyone mentioned SOULS IN THE GREAT MACHINE, a sci-fic book
from last year? While set far in the future, the author's idea that
librarians could one day rule the world has serious merit.
They get to duel to the death, too.

Angelina Benedetti

Angelina Benedetti What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
[removed]@kcls.org And what do we think we might see?
King County Library System -Kermit the Frog

FROM: "Lisa Price" <[removed]@MtLaurel.Lib.NJ.US>
REC'D: 2/10/00, 9:26 AM

One of the main characters in Stephen King's "It" grows up to be a librarian
-- he is the one who calls all of them together again as adults, and the only
one with a memory of the events until that point. There are allusions to the
idea that he is the "appointed archivist" for the group.
Lisa Price
Mount Laurel (NJ) Library
All opinions are my own.

[removed]@park-ridge.lib.il.us wrote:

> Not strictly a librarian, but the woman in the Sixteen Pleasures by Robert
> Hellenga restores manuscripts in Florence, Italy after the flood in the
> 1960's.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org
> [<A HREF="mailto:owner-fiction_l@maillist.nslsilus.org]On">mailto:owner-fiction_l@maillist.nslsilus.org]On</A> Behalf Of Woosley,
> Sheila M.
> Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 11:23 AM
> To: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org'
> Subject: RE: Librarians in Fiction
>
> Miriam Grace Monfredo has a series set in Seneca Falls NY. The
> librarian is a fiesty suffragette.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [removed]@email.unc.edu [<A HREF="mailto:quillen@email.unc.edu">mailto:quillen@email.unc.edu</A>]
> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2000 11:40 PM
> To: [removed]@maillist.nslsilus.org
> Subject: Librarians in Fiction
>
> Hello All:
> I don't know if this has come up before, but I am trying to get a list
> of books with librarians as main characters for a project that I am
> working on. Does anyone have such a list or some suggestions about what
> to include?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> C. L. Quillen
> Graduate Student
> School of Information and Library Science
> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
> (919) 914-0109

FROM: "Dennis Lien" <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 2/10/00, 10:22 AM

>Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 17:29:57 -0900
>From: "Georgine Olson" <[removed]@muskox.alaska.edu>
>Subject: Re: librarians in fiction
>
>Actually - Rosemary Edghill's SWORD OF A MAIDEN'S TEARS is the first of
>three fantasy titles with our heroine moving from library school to
>practicing librarian. The next two titles are CLOAK OF NIGHT AND DAGGERS
>and CUP OF MORNING SHADOWS. It's a pretty open-ended series, so more could
>be coming. Edghill's depiction of the librarian's world hits the mark
>nicely - and some of her observations brought up wincing memories - tho I
>wish her heroine had a bit more backbone....
>
>Georgine Olson
>Outreach Services Manager
>Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library & Regional Center
>1215 Cowles Street
>Fairbanks AK 99701

If I recall correctly, Edghill had originally planned a much longer
series (six volumes? twelve volumes?) but had to cut it short when
the publisher decided they weren't selling well enough to continue.
Alas.

Someone else mentioned Sean McMullen's SOULS IN THE GREAT MACHINE (1999)
which certainly should be included in any "librarians in fiction"'
list. Should be noted however that this is a rewritten version of two
previous McMullen novels published only in Australia: VOICES IN
THE LIGHT (1994) and MIRRORSUN RISING (1995). I haven't read the
US rewritten version yet, but presumably a bibliography should cite both
versions.

Another marginal title from Australia (though again with US editions)
is THE SCARLET RIDER by Lucy Sussex. The protagonist is not a
librarian but a recent University English graduate doing literary
research into the identity and life of the anonymous author of a
recently-discovered old Australian newspaper serial involving both
bushranger adventure and feminist concerns; much of her research is
done in libraries and archives and there are several minor characters
employed in these. (It's also a fine, fine book which didn't find its
audience, having elements of detective, romance, historical, feminist,
adventure, "college novel," and fantasy/horror, and a packaging job on
the hardcover (Tor Forge 1996) and especially the paperback (Tor
1999) which indicated to me that the publisher had no idea how to
market something with so many different genre irons in the fire at once.)

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

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