Perception of libraries and librarians in popular culture

Popularna kultura kakvu danas poznajemo nastaje, razvija se i rapidno širi kroz 20. stoljeće, a predstavlja svojevrsni temelj zapadne kulture i njezinog svakodnevnog života. Društvo ju prakticira u mnogim oblicima te ono ujedno predstavlja i glavnog proizvođača i potrošača iste. Utjecaje popularne kulture moguće je pronaći u skoro svim sferama ljudskog djelovanja, od umjetničkih djela, obrazovanja, razonode pa sve do izravne i neizravne manipulacije ljudskog mišljenja. Osmišljanjem određenih ideja i slika o komu ili čemu popularna kultura putem svojih mnogobrojnih medija utječe na način na koji šira javnost to isto percipira. Knjižničarstvo ne predstavlja iznimku. Svaku struku i profesiju prate određene predrasude i stereotipi koji svoje korijenje pronalaze u samom društvu, stoga nije iznenađujuće da je i knjižničarstvo, kao jedna od najstarijih struka, popraćeno pokojom stereotipnom idejom o tome što ono točno jest, čime se knjižničari bave i kakvom profilu osobnosti knjižničari pripadaju. Nevažno je jesu li knjižnica ili knjižničar prikazani negativno ili pozitivno, stereotipne percepcije nikada nisu potpune i ispravne reprezentacije stvarnog stanja. Ali posezanje za knjižničarstvom kao izvorom inspiracije ne predstavlja novitet, upravo suprotno, knjižnice i knjižničari već su klišejizirane tematike raznih oblika umjetnosti, a prvenstveno igranih i animiranih filmova i TV serija. Percepcija knjižnica i knjižničara u popularnoj kulturi bavi se razumijevanjem što je to uopće popularna kultura i kakav utjecaj ona ima na formiranje percepcija te kroz analizu izabranog korpusa popularne kulture pokušava dočarati kako se u prosjeku prikazuju knjižnice i knjižničari u igranim i animiranim filmovima i TV serijama. Fokusiranjem na stereotipne prezentacije knjižnica kao institucija i knjižničnih zaposlenika kao individualnih karaktera pokušava se dokučiti kakav utjecaj popularna kultura vrši na kulturno-društveni status knjižničarstva. Popular culture as we know it today has evolved at the beginning of 20th century and has since then been continuously expanding and developing. Popular culture represents a foundation of the Western culture and its everyday life. The society practices popular culture in various forms and it simultaneously represents its main producers and consumers. The influences of popular culture can be found in almost all spheres of human activity, from works of art, education, entertainment to the direct and indirect manipulation of human thought. Creating specific ideas and images about someone or something, popular culture, through the means of its many forms of media, influences how the general public perceives the represented thing. Librarianship is no exception to this. Each profession and field of work is labeled with certain prejudices and stereotypes that are rooted in society itself, so it is not surprising that librarianship, as one of the oldest professions, is marked with several stereotypical ideas of what it really is, what librarians actually do and what kind of personality traits they possess. No matter if the library or librarian is presented in a negative or positive way, stereotyped perceptions are never truly correct representations of the reallife situation. But reaching for things related to librarianship as a source of inspiration is not a novelty, on the contrary, libraries and librarians have been long clichéd topics of various art forms, especially (animated) films and TV series. Perception of libraries and librarians in popular culture deals with understanding what popular culture really is and the impact it has on the formation of public perceptions of it. Through analyzing a selected corpus of popular culture this paper wants to review the way libraries and librarians are portrayed in popular (animated) films and TV series. By focusing on the stereotypical presentations of libraries as institutions and library employees as individual characters goal of the paper is understanding and raising awareness of the influence popular culture exerts on the cultural and social status of librarianship as a profession.