Despite the propaganda being spread by movies like It’s A Wonderful Life and The Music Man, not all librarians are frumpy, bespectacled scolds who work in dour silence and wouldn’t know what “fun” was if they looked it up in the dictionary. Okay, the “bespectacled” part is true, but the rest is unfair. The plucky staffers of Australia’s Shoalhaven Library have proven that with their parody of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” entitled “Librarian Rhapsody.” The librarians of Shoalhaven are understandably proud of their institution, with its free wi-fi and well-stocked children’s section, and they wanted to highlight some of its recent accomplishments in a fun way. So they decided to rock out, Wayne’s World style, to the music of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor. It’s a perfectly understandable reaction. The original song lends itself easily to the new topic. “Is this non-fiction? Is this just fantasy?” go the opening lines. The rest basically writes itself.
In a way “Librarian Rhapsody” serves as wish fulfillment for anyone who ever had the desire to be really, really loud in a library. Here, for five glorious minutes, the librarians are allowed to harmonize at the top of their lungs and even play some sweet air guitar, all without any regard for patrons who might be trying to read some periodicals nearby. Underneath it all, though, is a genuine and affecting love of libraries and reading. “Open your eyes, pick up a book, and read” say the lyrics, and it’s great advice in these media-saturated times. When the librarians avow that “libraries really matter to me,” it’s clear that they mean it. But the video wisely undercuts the sweetness a little by showing a patron arriving at the counter with an overdue book. Even in this fantasy world, that mildly treasonous act merits a dirty look.
[via For Reading Addicts]