About the Film

The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film is complete, and had its red-carpet premiere at the American Library Association annual conference in Washington, DC on June 22, 2007 to over 4,000 librarians and friends. 

It is the first movie ever on the subject of the real lives and actual work of U.S. librarians.  Using the “hook” of Hollywood motion picture clips, it introduces the audience to all kinds of librarians: school and children’s librarians, special librarians (medical and corporate), academic librarians, library educators and graduate students, a cataloger, and public librarians.  Beginning with the history of information organization – Hypatia and the Library of Alexandria – it then touches on Andrew Carnegie, Melvil Dewey, and early women library professionals.  Moving on into the 21st century, the documentary gives audiences the chance to peer into the world of librarians: the skills and passion it takes, the challenges of book censorship, and most of all, declining library funding.

The Hollywood Librarian is appropriate for audiences from young adult up.  It runs 95 minutes (also known as “feature length”).

The documentary was filmed around the country from March 2005 through February 2006.  The librarians in the movie are aged 24 through 85, and have a diversity of ethnic background, library position, and geographic location (California, Colorado, Connecticut,  Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin).

It was shot on the Panasonic Varicam high definition digital camera, and professionally edited and sound mixed, with an original music score composed for the film. The total budget was $185,000, including grants from Carnegie Corporation of New York as well as $25,000 from individual librarians.