List of librarians in SF

SF fans and writers = bibliophiles; bibliophiles love librarians; and therefore librarians show up disproportionately in SF. Which is interesting because librarianship in real life is gendered profession, disproportionately female (and gay).

Female librarians

• "Batwoman"
• Evelyn Carnahan in "The Mummy" feature film, 1999
• Cimerone in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede spends a lot of time working in the library and at one point holds the title Head Cook and Librarian.
• Jane Fletcher. The World Celaeno Chose (Dimsdale: London, 1999) - a librarian plays an important role (although by the time of the plot she is an ex-librarian)
• Ellen Klages, "In the House of the Seven Librarians" (Firebirds Rising anthology)
• Joanna Russ' The Female Man (one of the protagonists is a librarian)
• Nancy Springer, . Fair Peril (librarian protagonist / gay black male librarian cohort)
• Cynthia Ward . "Brass in Pocket" in New Amazons edited by Margaret Weis, 2000. (not a very nice librarian; in fact a librarian that is one of the stereotypical shy women without social skills)
• M. K. Wren. A Gift Upon the Sea (tale centers around a post-holocaust archivist of books and the threats posed by fundamentalist christians)

Male and other-gendered librarians

• Rupert Giles in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (TV series)
• Gill Alderman, The Archivist
• Nancy Springer, Fair Peril (librarian protagonist / gay black male librarian cohort)
• Flynn Carsen, a male librarian The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (fall 2004) and The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006) (linked TV movies)
• Mr. Raven in George MacDonald's Lilith (1895) (the ghost of Mr. Raven, a librarian, haunts Mr. Vane's library)

Unsorted

• Jorge Luis Borges. The Library of Babel.
• Harlan Ellison. "Enter the Fanatic, Stage Center," in Gentleman Junkie (1961)
• Lirael in Garth Nix's Old Kingdom Books
• Ursula K. Le Guin
  • The Telling (2000) (The whole thing is about libraries, really.)
  • short story in Sea Road (not science fiction, but completists may want to read it just because it's by Le Guin)
• Theodore Sturgeon . "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" (the Master Archivist, on an interestingly-described library-sort-of-planet, is the recipient of this tale which is otherwise not about librarians. The MA -- as an upper-echelon male -- has an attractive female secretary.)
• Sean McMullen. Souls in the Great Machine
• Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Shadow of the Wind
• Keith Donohue. The Stolen Child
• Audrey Niffenegger. The Time Traveler's Wife
• Rosemary Edghill. The Sword of Maiden's Tears

Notable non-SFnal librarian works

• "Desk Set" (Katharine Hepburn's character)
• "Party Girl" the movie and "Party Girl" the TV series

Further reading

• LibraryThing discussion thread on librarians in fiction
• The Librarian Hero (WisCon 30 panel)