I LOVE this movie even though they never call the ladies "librarians". That's exactly what they are! I remember saying in my job, "I hope I retire before computers take over the library." That was in 1979. LOL My library was automated in 1994 and I did not retire 'til 10 years later! But I was ahead of the game - I bought my first personal computer in 1983. This is such a funny movie even though the people are being "outsourced" by a computer.
shareThey are not librarians in the usual sense of the word. It's not a public library, it's the research department for a broadcasting network. They look up information for the shows' producers and answers questions from the public as well, but nobody comes in to check out books.
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LOL She IS a librarian, FYI There are many branches of librarianship - public, school, university, medical, corporate, etc. I even know of one family in Dallas that has a librarian just for their library collection. Many businesses have (or had) librarians. And, yes, company workers did come in to use the books and documents. They may have even "checked them out!
Reality is Nothing - Perception is Everything!
Yes, but what I said was she wasn't a librarian in "the usual sense of the word." I didn't mean to downplay the title of librarian -- there seemed to be a number of posters who had some confusion about what the "research department" actually did in the movie.
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Yes, but the confusion lies in what people THINK librarians do - the "usual sense of the word.". The job these ladies were doing is EXACTLY what corporate/reference librarians do in the real world. Librarians do not always work in a "library" but the function is the same.
Reality is Nothing - Perception is Everything!
Thats straightening her out....
shareIt's a reference library, but the ladies who work there seem to be primarily concerned with providing the public with information rather than books. In an ordinary reference library, a librarian would normally guide people towards the right book they needed to look up what they needed, rather than being expected to provide information themselves on whatever subject it is. If you went to an ordinary reference library to find out the words of a Poem for instance you would expect to look it up yourself in a book, rather than have the librarian recite it to you.
shareIt is not exactly a general reference library but a specialized corporate reference library with "mostly" information related to the business. In this type of library the librarians clerks spend most of their time answering question related "mainly" to the business. It is not really arranged for browsing. Sometimes associates may come in to look up their own info or to read business-related magazines, documents or books but the librarian and clerks would be the best source for finding answers and you would expect her to look up the info - even a poem. It is not much like a public or even a university library.
Reality is Nothing - Perception is Everything!
I hope I'm not insulting anyone as I don't mean to, but speaking as a professional librarian of almost a decade, the research staff are professional librarians or at least Bunny is. Corporate librarians that is.
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Even as one of you spoke of the "usual sense of the word" libraries really are not just about books and in the 21st century, mostly not that -- if you called and asked the librarian to recite The Song of Hiawatha (the poem Bunny was repeating), he or she would probably do it and also note the reference -- book or website or looseleaf paper -- whatever. Even if he or she knew it by heart. Most professional staff probably would not just say, it's in this book, come and get it. That would be terrible service! More questions would be asked -- can you come in? If not, I can recite it for you or scan it and email it, etc. The internet has made things both easier and more difficult.
I will say though, I found the questions unusual that they received, but maybe a television network would really have those types of questions from show writers and producers for example.
The books in the "library" were probably what you'd find in any large reference department of that era. Now, much of this is online -- freely available websites and subscription databases.
The computer is hilarious and also the "technician" who looks like Lilith from Fraser.
I have been an ALA accredited librarian for 25 years and Bunny was definitely a librarian. There are all sorts of libraries -- public, school, law, medical, corporate. Book circulation is not necessarily a part of certain types of libraries. Before I was a librarian, I worked as a research assistant at a law firm library. The head librarian was a lawyer and a certified librarian; she helped and guided the lawyers in their legal research. Librarians can get a little prickly when people assume that it's all about stamping out books.
sharewell, when I worked in a library, it was primarily about finding people the books they wanted. People normally came in to do their own research rather than expecting the librarians to do it for them. Sp if you wanted to know the words of a poem you would go and look it up in a book. you would expect the librarian to find the right book for you rather than expecting them to be able to recite it for you. maybe it's different in america - but i. The UK it would be unusual for people to expect lubrarians to know the answer to,everything without looking it up.
shareThanks for posting this. Yes, this is absolutely a library! It is what is known as a special library. In this case specifically it's a corporate library. Its "customers" are internal - the employees of the fictional Federal Broadcasting Network. There is one scene where someone asks what department the caller is from and the person responds "Promotions." The callers are not members of the public.
As for the confusion on lending, this does appear to be a circulating library - again for employees of the company only. There is a scene where the little old lady (original model for company mascot or something) takes a book, signs it out, and gives the slip to one of the girls.
The movie plays up the notion of the ladies having tons of facts and figures and trivia committed to memory, but individual librarians will disagree as to how realistic this actually is. :)