Librarians

[NuclearFairy]

Librarians, stereotypes, archetypes, cliches and tropes. What are they? What are your favorites? Which ones are annoying?

 

[Bazzle]

Decorum

 

[Bamagan]

I think the only cliche or whatever that annoys me is when the librarian character is presented as being basically unable to cope with day to day life outside the library, as if everything they know they learned from a book, so they're socially inept and hopeless at doing anything but reading.

 

[SmilingLez]

I like my librarians on the dark academia side of fashion. Understated sexy/sensual. Cultured and educated. Prim and proper with a bunch of twisted kinks/fetishes

 

[jsmiam]

Always instantly hot, just by taking off their glasses, unpinning a hair clip, and undoing top button of blouse.

See also: nerdy male, instantly hot just by removal of glasses, different clothes, and change of position of part in hairdo.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm totally down with the hot librarian cliche. I'm writing a story that leans hard into it.

 

[Rob_Royale]

It's a subject I haven't given a lot of thought to. My librarian is always the old lady from Ghostbusters.

 

[AwkwardMD]

@PennyThompson you are being paged.

 

[PennyThompson]

I have my own hang-ups about libraries and librarians, which admittedly are a little bit fetishized in some ways

But on the other hand, I've received a fair amount of feedback from actual real librarians who appreciated my take and the ethos behind it...

In my experience, the stereotype of librarians being bookish or nerdy is mostly accurate, it's a very self-selecting sort of career. They love books, they love media, they love information and information systems. That is very sexy to me.

A less accurate trope is that most of them aren't particularly sheltered or small-c conservative, on account of their entire job being about maintaining currency and relevancy in as diverse a selection of identities and viewpoints as possible. Some of them are pretty radical in their politics, especially around things like intellectual property, free speech, and the nature of capitalism!

I think the thing that a lot of librarian erotica misses is that most of them are deeply empathetic and service-oriented. Librarianship in many ways is in the same emotional Venn space as social workers, ER doctors, midwives, therapists...

So, aside from the classic "dark academia" cardigan and glasses aesthetic (which many librarians embrace 100%), to me it's the combination of literacy, nerdiness, and pro-social empathy that makes me weak in the knees

 

[PennyThompson]

Always instantly hot, just by taking off their glasses, unpinning a hair clip, and undoing top button of blouse.

See also: nerdy male, instantly hot just by removal of glasses, different clothes, and change of position of part in hairdo.

fuck that, the glasses STAY ON

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Always instantly hot, just by taking off their glasses, unpinning a hair clip, and undoing top button of blouse.

The frumpy clothes hide a trophy body.

Glasses? Change from black horn rimmed to stylish wired.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

She leads a double life of sorts. At work she wants to be taken seriously and not have to constantly fight off advances. She dresses down deliberately and wears bulky sweaters or jackets, dresses and skirts below the knee and flat shoes. No makeup at all, hair tucked up.

Nights and weekends are complete opposites. She wants to have fun and hide the smart bit. Tight fitting minidresses, heels, makeup, styled hair.

The two personas are kept secret. Only a small number of people know she's the same person.



Until somebody recognizes her in the opposite place. Somebody she'd least expect to find out. Somebody she'd least want to find out.

 

[Zootonius]

Hitting up the librarian
https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress...is-flirted-with.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1

 

[yowser]

About every half dozen years the American Library Association has its annual conference in San Francisco, at a big convention center south of Market, the main city artery.

The conference, by a fluke of calendars, always occurred the same weekend as the Gay Pride Parade. Market was closed to crossing traffic for several hours in the middle of the day (when I lived there, I knew you could take an underground passage under the street at the light rail stations, but outsiders had no way of knowing this way was a means of crossing market.) Many major hotels were located North of Market.

It was always supremely entertaining while spectating at the parade, to see hordes of librarians (clothing and sensible shoes along with a certain demeanor were dead giveaways, along with their ALA conference badges) coming to Market street, wondering both HOW they were going to cross Market and get to the conference, and often, amusingly, dumb-struck by the nature of the parade, not what they had bargained for when flying in from Kansas or Tennessee. Naked flamboyant bodies dancing around signing, chanting slogans, midday.

The wide eyed expressions were priceless.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I love it when I bring a book to a librarian to check out, and they get so excited because it's one of their favorite books. If it's by an author I love, I really enjoy geeking out about the author's other works with them. Only had it happen a couple times, but by God it's a wonderful feeling.

 

[old_prof]

About every half dozen years the American Library Association has its annual conference in San Francisco, at a big convention center south of Market, the main city artery.

The conference, by a fluke of calendars, always occurred the same weekend as the Gay Pride Parade. Market was closed to crossing traffic for several hours in the middle of the day (when I lived there, I knew you could take an underground passage under the street at the light rail stations, but outsiders had no way of knowing this way was a means of crossing market.) Many major hotels were located North of Market.

It was always supremely entertaining while spectating at the parade, to see hordes of librarians (clothing and sensible shoes along with a certain demeanor were dead giveaways, along with their ALA conference badges) coming to Market street, wondering both HOW they were going to cross Market and get to the conference, and often, amusingly, dumb-struck by the nature of the parade, not what they had bargained for when flying in from Kansas or Tennessee. Naked flamboyant bodies dancing around signing, chanting slogans, midday.

The wide eyed expressions were priceless.

It's interesting to me that you this. I've known a fair number of librarians over the years. On the whole, I would consider them the most accepting group of people out of any group of professionals I've known. But I think there may be really three different groups of librarians. Public school librarians, public library librarians and college librarians. I think every one I've known socially comes from one of the latter two wings of the profession. Public libraries have become the last refuges for many marginalized communities, so I think it would be very hard to work at a public library if you were not very accepting. And working with college students means almost nothing should surprise you.

But I can see k-12 librarians being much more sheltered, especially the elementary school ones and, as you say, from parts of the country where some groups are less visible.

Being safe and accepting of third graders is very different from being seen that way by college students or the community at large.

 

[Bamagan]

I love it when I bring a book to a librarian to check out, and they get so excited because it's one of their favorite books. If it's by an author I love, I really enjoy geeking out about the author's other works with them. Only had it happen a couple times, but by God it's a wonderful feeling.

It's too bad Literotica doesn't have a librarian to do that with. Although they would probably get tired of the kind of gushing appreciation porn readers often indulge in.

 

[dirk2024]

Most librarian stories I've read have her as quiet and shy at work. Her clothing is subtle, leaving a hint at the sexiness underneath. Then, some lucky bastard (male or female) comes along and finally lights her fire.

I am interested to see a librarian story where she's mature, dresses for passionate success and knows her impact. She curates potential lovers like she curates her books, adoringly and with care. When she finds one she finally wants to "read", she does so thoroughly and with spirit. Feasting on them from cover to cover.

 

[AlexBailey]

I spent my 4th grade year living with my grandmother who was the head librarian at a liberal arts college. My elementary school was on the opposite side of the college from her house, so I would often cut across the campus and visit her. She was usually busy so I would wander the deepest catacombs looking for the oldest books I could find.

The ones that grabbed my 10 year old attention most were the old explorer records - Sir Francis Drake and Lewis and Clark among others.

Just writing this reminds me of the smell of grandma’s tuna sandwiches and old parchment.

 

[Andreas_Kreuz]

At Uni we had a librarian in charge of our IT department library. She was just a few years older than us nerdy students. And she was hot as Frittenfett. Always dressed in tight tops and short skirts. Then she married.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Under that carefully-cultivated sensible-shoes-and-cardigan image, it’s Frederick’s of Hollywood.

 

[SimonDoom]

Mr. Bookman, the library cop from the famous episode of Seinfeld:

"I remember when the librarian was a much older woman: Kindly,

discreet, unattractive. We didn't know anything about her private life.

We didn't want to know anything about her private life. She didn't have

a private life. While you're thinking about that, think about this: The

library closes at five o'clock, no exceptions. This is your final

warning. Got that, kewpie-doll?"

 

[Dodola]

I got close to a herd of librarians once.
It's very rare to see them in groups, in the wild.
Of course, they ran away when I got too close.

 

[wwot40]

fuck that, the glasses STAY ON

Agreed. The glasses must stay on.

 

[SimonDoom]

I got close to a herd of librarians once.
It's very rare to see them in groups, in the wild.
Of course, they ran away when I got too close.

Approach slowly and toss them bookmarks, and they'll warm up to you.