Librarians in Spooky Media

[owlmoose]

Libraries are haunted.

Perhaps it's no surprise that libraries, which are often old buildings filled with old books, often get spooky stories attached to them. My own alma mater has such a legend, about the original campus library which now primarily houses classrooms and faculty offices. It's said to be haunted by the spirit of the college's founder (and, until recently, the building's namesake), M. Carey Thomas. I never saw her myself, but I have friends who claimed sightings of a mysterious figure who disappeared when they got too close. Such stories about libraries are so common that the flagship publication of the American Library Association even published a guide to them in 2015.

But I'm here today to talk about fictional libraries and librarians in dark places. This is of course not an exhaustive list, just the ones that came to mind for me, in some cases after jogging my memories with a little research. Feel free to share your own in comments!*

Sandman: The protagonist of this horror comic series, Dream of the Endless, keep a library in his ream -- a library that contains every book that anyone ever dreamed, from never-written sequels to newly imagined worlds to "The Bestselling Romantic Spy Thriller I Used to Think About on the Bus That Would Sell a Billion Copies and Mean I’d Never Have to Work Again" (I suspect there are multiple copies of that one). This collection is overseen by Lucien, chief librarian and Dream's most trusted servant. Lucien is one of my favorite characters in this series -- he is steady and calm, so steadfast that he was the only member of the Dreaming's staff who stayed with the realm throughout Dream's long imprisonment. He protects his library, the books it contains, and the people who use it against forces of chaos and darkness -- a librarian to be admired.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No list of librarians in horror and/or fantasy would be complete without Rupert Giles: high school librarian, Watcher, mentor, hero. Of the characters on the list, he is the one we most often see performing acts of librarianship, such as doing research, helping other people find information, tending to a collection of books -- although I do wonder at times how he manages when students besides the Scoobies try to use the library. How well stocked can the stacks possibly be for social studies papers and book reports? But when it comes to standing up against vampires, demons, and bureaucracies of all kinds, Giles has no equal.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: There are two librarians of note in the Netflix adaptation of this book series (which I suppose is not what one would traditionally consider spooky, but I find its dark aesthetic appropriate to include here). The first is Olivia Calaban, the school librarian at Prufrock Preparatory School. At first she's not much more than a kindly sort who wants to do her best to help the Baudelaire and Quagmire children (and engages in the time-honored library tradition of surfing on book carts), but it's not long before she steps into a hero's role: she learns about secret organizations and is recruited into the volunteer side of the VFD by the dashing Jacques Snicket. She joins Jacques in his quest to protect the Baudelaires and find them a stable home and ultimately sacrifices her life for them.

The other is sub-sub librarian Dewey Denouement, an information specialist who has dedicated his life to collecting and cataloging evidence against the villains of the series. Although he doesn't get to have as many adventures as some of the other librarians on this list, the hotel where he lives and works is a giant library, and he, too, dies in defense of the Baudelaire orphans.

Is it an accident that two of the most helpful and sympathetic adults in a world full of terrible people are librarians? I would say not.

Doctor Who,"Silence in the Library" & "Forest of the Dead": Talk about spooky libraries. The planet-sized library featured in this two-parter featuring Donna Noble, the Tenth Doctor, and introducing River Song is, frankly, one of the most terrifying settings I've ever experienced, library or otherwise. And the shadow-dwelling Vashta Nerada are possibly the scariest villains in the series (yes, even more than the Weeping Angels). Don't watch it alone in the dark.

The Mummy: It is maybe pushing the definition to call this action/adventure movie "spooky", but it involves a supernatural creature, and how could I write a list of fictional librarians without including Evelyn Carnahan? This movie came out while I was in library school, and it was a delight to watch a spirited and adventurous woman declare her pride in her calling.

*I know that IT is a fairly glaring omission. In my defense, I've never read the book or watched any of the film or TV adaptations. I feel like there ought to be other Stephen King librarians who I do know and am just forgetting, though.

Comments

[foxfirefey]

Avatar the Last Airbender: The Library: The gang find a legendary library in the desert mostly buried under sand and attended to by an intimidating owl faced spirit and foxes.

[owlmoose]

I'm a fan of the show; I do remember that episode, but I hadn't thought of adding it to the list. But now that you mention it, I do think that the owl spirit librarian, at least, ought to qualify. :)

[dragoness_e]

Don't forget Terry Pratchett's Discworld and the Unseen University's LIbrary. The Unseen University is a wizard's college, and when you put that many magical tomes in one area... space gets weird. Very weird. L-Space are the stacks that never end; every time you turn the corner, there are more, and it's getting dustier and darker the further you go. And you can't find your way back unaided, when you get to the sections where space is crooked enough that Things start leaking through...

The Librarian knows his way around the stacks, though. Just don't call him a monkey.

[owlmoose]

I haven't read much of Discworld, so while I have heard of the Unseen University library and in particular its librarian, I wasn't familiar with its spookier aspects! Thanks for adding to the list. :)

[bibliofile]

I think you have the main spookiest libraries there. In Buffy, wasn't the hell hole underneath the library, too? Or was it just the gateway?

There's a series of kids books by Michael Dahl called the Library of Doom, which sounds promising. Apparently the books are dangerous, physically. Book pages which escape and become bats, deadly books that are actually, y'know, deadly.

[owlmoose]

I'm pretty sure the Hellmouth was revealed in the series finale of Buffy to be directly under the library, yeah.

I've never heard of that book series! It sounds fun. If you check it out, let me know what you think.

Graphic Novel with Haunted Archive

[jesse_the_k]

Archival Quality by Christina "Steenz" Stewart and Ivy Noelle Weir is a pretty nifty comic book (complete in one volume).

Blurb:

After losing her job at the library, Celeste Walden starts working at the haunting Logan Museum as an archivist. But the job may not be the second chance she was hoping for, and she finds herself confronting her mental health, her relationships, and before long, her grasp on reality as she begins to dream of a young woman she’s never met, but feels strangely drawn to. Especially after she asks Cel for help… As Cel attempts to learn more about the woman, she begins losing time, misplacing things, passing out—the job is becoming dangerous, but she can’t let go of this mysterious woman. Who is she? Why is she so fixated on Cel? And does Cel have the power to save her when she’s still trying to save herself?