Watching the librarians

If a TV sit-com was set in a library with a cast of typically wacky sit-com characters, would that be a good thing or a bad thing for the library and information profession?

It's not a hypothetical question - at least not for our colleagues in Australia who've seen two series of The Librarians screened in 2007 and 2009 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Yes, you've guessed - those are the two DVDs which I got as my third library-related Christmas gift. I watched the 2007 series last weekend and I'm planning to watch the 2009 series next weekend.

I'm told that some of our Aussie colleagues found the show "too close for comfort" when it was first screened - but I think that misses the point. OK, so Frances, the Head Librarian, is repressed and blithely racist with a voice like an Australian Sybil Fawlty. Ok. so Christine, the Childrens Librarian, is a drug-dealing blonde bombshell in a spray-on dress. OK, so the rest of the library staff are, in turn, nervously dyslexic, manically disabled, wimpishly poetic, assertively muslim, gladly gay, and a dodgy postman doing community service for stealing money sent through the post. OK, so the comedy is smutty, childish, crude, borderline offensive at times. But it's a good sit-com - funny and watchable, and watched by close to a million viewers per episode when screened.

The cast are sit-com stereotypes who happen to work in a library - but they're not librarian stereotypes. The library itself is portrayed positively - well used, appreciated by local people, with a diverse programme of outreach activities (although these don't always go according to plan, in true sit-com style) - as are the library staff when they're providing library service:  well-meaning, attentive, and Christine is brillliant with the children which is not surprising as she's not just a blonde bombshell she's also a professionally qualified librarian. There are also some good knowing jokes for library folks - the stuff that gets put in the return chute, the fish that gets wrapped in the library's newspaper, and, best of all, the handwritten sign saying "Library" below the offical sign proclaiming the "Middleton Interactive Learning Centre." I wonder if the script writers have ever been to Tower Hamlets?

As the credits role, there's a prominent mention for the Australian Library and Information Association and ALIA was closely involved in the making of the show. As well as giving advice on library stuff there are ALIA campaign posters on the walls of the fictional library and ALIA members were on set and, in some cases, on screen as extras. Our colleagues in ALIA are to be congratulated for supporting the show - and getting a million TV viewers tuning in to an (albeit fictional) suburban library.

Think about it. Did Green Wing harm the standing of the medical profession? Did The Brittas Empire belittle leisure centre staff? Did Fawlty Towers  damage the hospitality industry? Did The Office  ruin the reputation of office workers? Did Are You Being Served? denigrate the role of retail staff? Did Drop the Dead Donkey rubbish journalists? Did Yes Minister make us laugh at politicians and civil servants (Ah... better not go there...)?

You get my point. Somewhat laboured, but I got carried away listing some of my favourite sit-coms. All brilliantly funny, all drawing humour from their setting and characters - and all recognised as wonderfully imagined comic creations, not the real thing (except for Yes Minister of course ...). The setting of The Librarians is a library but the setting isn't the point. The series is about the characters not the library, as the script writers have said.

Of course, there's a rich tradition in literature and film/TV of using the traditional professions - particularly the medical and legal professions - as settings for comedy. Perhaps because these professions are so confident of their worth that they're happy to allow a little humour into our view of their lives. It's good to see that our colleagues in Australia feel the same sense of relaxed confidence about our own library and information profession. Yes, we're a profession with an important role in society. But we don't have to be precious or defensive or passive-aggressive about it. We're a good humoured bunch, game for a laugh and capable of not taking ourselves too seriously. That's the positive and refreshing message I get from watching The Librarians.

I'm looking forward to watching the second DVD which includes a "The making of The Librarians" special feature as well as the second series, screened in 2009. Apparently the storyline in the second series features the (fictional) Head of the Australian Library Association - now that should be fun! As the head of a national association myself, I promise not to take offence...

G'day!