Riot Headline Book Riot’s 2025 Read Harder Challenge
Lists

Six Bad Ass Librarians from Pop Culture

Jessi Lewis

Staff Writer

Jessi Lewis has her MFA in fiction and an MA in Writing and Rhetoric. She was one of the founding editors of Cheat River Review and now works to bring her own fiction, poetry and essays to eyes each month.     Twitter: @jessiwrit

Sometimes the media needs to remind us who the truly tough, mysterious characters are in this world, and they usually hang out with books. It’s so interesting to see the irony, the complexity and the romantic view of this sweet sweet employment:

We’ll never forget Yvonne Craig’s original Batgirl, though we might forget that the character was a librarian. The only way we can really do this classic librarian justice is a look back at the character’s start. Want to see a really awesome moment from Batgirl? Check out her equal pay PSA from 1973. 

You just can’t forget the general bold reputation of the Parks and Rec librarians and their constant feud with Leslie Knope’s department. Here’s Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope fighting the great and powerful bureaucrats of the library branch:

 

Here’s Rachel Weisz as she announce her librarian greatness in The Mummy of 1999. Because, really, The Mummy hit all the right buttons for a Blockbuster, including that librarian:

Of course, in 1984, the original Ghost Busters featured the librarian ghost who first simply shushed Bill Murray. Then of course when Dan Aykroyd yells, the ghostly librarian attacked in skeletal form. I wouldn’t have it any different.

I don’t know if Margot Robbie’s SNL librarian skit qualifies as “bad ass.” It is pretty much just disturbing. Though, you have to give them props for the ironic twist on the sexy librarian stereotype.

And then, there’s always Seinfeld’s Bookman. It feels dated now, but that might be because we all watched Seinfeld reruns over and over again: