2007 - The Year of the Librarian?

Here in Australia, the library industry is all abuzz awaiting any information we can glean on the upcoming ABC show, "The Librarians". After a professional uproar over Optus Telecommunications Ad, in which a tiger wanders through a library, complaining that there isn't anybody there to help him, there is already a sense of professional anxiety hovering in the air over what The Librarians will do for the profession's public image.

But whatever happens, at least there will be a show on a major TV network about librarians. I don't think that anybody can expect a realistic or conventional view of libraries from what promises to be a riotous comedy. It's not like Faulty Towers represents an accurate portrayal of hotel managers, or Black Books of bookstore owners (actually, I've met a couple of 2nd-hand booksellers who aren't that different from Bernard Black). But the point is that librarians have enough of a profile in society to warrant a tv show.

I was also recently down in Melbourne for the Comedy Festival, and saw Josh Earl's new show, "Josh Earl is a Librarian."



Yes, he is a librarian, working at "Scollingwood Scollege" (names have been changed for legal reasons), and bases his show around the main divisions of the Dewey Decimal Classification system, mixing both a lot of his personal life with his professional life, in a series of songs and standup comedy, and getting great reviews. Although I'd seen his stuff a few times before, it was still thoroughly enjoyable, although I resent him quizzing me on my Dewey, just because he knew I was a librarian.

Which brings me to my own blatant self-promotion. I've been working the comedy scene up here in Darwin, ever since moving up here last year. I was the runner-up in the RAW comedy state final, and a lot of my material is also about being a librarian. It's always a bit of a tricky line to tread - on one hand, I need to maintain my own professional standards, but on another, I find that I need to go with whatever is familiar with the audience. For example, I have quite a bit of material on Shushing - something that I only ever do as a joke when I'm in the library. Shushing is one of those things that people always associate with librarians, and I guess that because it's no longer something that we do anymore, it's fun to send it up a bit.

But the main gist of my show is a lot more personal. It's all about being a librarian, which I'm quite passionate about, but also trying to be popular. People don't normally consider librarians to be sexy politically-outspoken popstars. And yet we've had librarians throughout history, such as Casanova and Mao Tse-Tung, who have become "Librarian Idols" in their own right. So this show is my own personal "journey" to become an Librarian Idol. And it opens two months from today (which means I really need to finish writing it!!)