Why be an Academic Librarian in the 21st Century?

http://scils.rutgers.edu/~borin/video/jill/

 

I chose two movies as sources for my edited video clip. The first segment is from the movie The Chosen, based upon the book of the same name by Chaim Potak. This movie is about a Hasidic Jewish boy and his friendship with a boy outside of his sect. As their friendship grows, both boys learn from each other's worlds and this directly influences how their lives progress.

The rest of the segments are various clips from the movie Pleasantville. In this movie two teenagers, David and Jennifer who are siblings, from the 1990s get transported to the black-and-white 1950s world of a television show. This world is very stable and predictable, very pleasant. Yet, the two teenagers begin to question things and influence the town. Dramatic changes then occur. When people become enlightened they change into Technicolor. Those who are not influenced or refuse to accept the changes remain in black-and-white until at the end even the most stubborn of people shows his humanity and emotions and the whole world becomes Technicolor.

I took the first clip from The Chosen. In this scene, Danny, the Hasidic boy, is telling his friend about the books that he is reading at the library. As a devout Hasidic boy, son of a leading rabbi, he is not supposed to read these books and must keep this a secret. What I like about this scene is that he talks about the books he is reading with such enthusiasm and excitement. They have opened a new world to him that he cannot ignore, even at the expense of his father's disapproval. He is overwhelmed with the excitement of the books he is reading and the power of the library as a place where he can explore new ideas.

After this scene, I included a fade transition that went black to signify that a completely new image is coming. It then opened on a scene from Pleasantville. In this scene, the two 90s teenagers have recently arrived in the Pleasantville world and are encountering the differences. Jennifer is commenting to her brother how strange it is that the library books are blank. This scene provides background to the next scenes that I have included. I then included a straight cut to a later scene where many teenagers are in the diner and one hands David the book Huckleberry Finn. He looks at the book and some of the pages have words. He is surprised because he thought the books were blank. His sister explains that she described as much of the story as she knew to the other teenagers and the pages filed in. Jennifer did not finish the story and all of the kids are very interested in how the story ends. As David tells the rest of the story the pages fill in with text and color. Then someone gives him A Catcher in the Rye and we presume that the same thing occurs. I made the next cut after the camera panned out to show a wider scene of the teenagers talking in the diner to a close up of the public library. This scene shows a large line of excited teenagers waiting to get into the library, after they have learned what books can offer. Those that come out of the library are in color as are the books they are carrying. (The director's use of Technicolor to symbolize enlightenment and change is very powerful.) This shows that they have been enlightened by the ideas from books and knowledge. The the camera pans to the barber shop across the street where the town patriarchs comment how disturbing it is that the teenagers are going to the library. Clearly this signifies that those in power see the gaining of knowledge as a threat to stability in the town. The movie shows that knowledge and enlightenment cannot be stopped. I made my final cut at the end the man's comment about the library's threatening influence as he says "this has to stop."

While theses movies are very different, I feel that they provide the same message. In both innocent and naïve teenagers encounter books and libraries for the first time. They become fascinated with the knowledge that they can obtain and seek as much contact with libraries that they can get. Encountering new ideas, then, changes their lives and perspectives. After they realize what can be gained from books and libraries, they can never return to their naïveté.

These messages demonstrate what attracted me to librarianship. I have always found wonder and enlightenment in books and libraries. For me, libraries opened the door to exciting new ideas that influenced my life. As an academic librarian, my most fundamental contribution will be enlightening students with the knowledge that I can provide them from library resources. While the technology of the 21st century allows me to provide this knowledge through many different resources, books are still the foundation of libraries. Books clearly serve as visual symbols of the enlightenment and wonder one receives from the library.