The representation of librarianship, libraries and information work in media and popular culture
We were saddened to hear of the death of Anthony Stewart Head, beloved by many as the actor who portrayed Rupert (Ripper) Giles in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Inspired by his role as one of pop culture’s most iconic fictional librarians, we ran a blog post competition on the theme ‘The representation of librarianship, libraries and information work in media and popular culture’.
We invited library staff and LIS students based in Ireland to submit a blog post that explores how library staff, libraries and information work are portrayed across film, television, literature, art, social media, gaming, news media or other cultural formats
We encouraged authors to examine stereotypes, highlight positive or negative portrayals, compare fictional representations with real-world practice, or reflect on how media depictions influence public understanding of the profession. The blog author could focus on one representation of librarianship and libraries in popular culture, or examine several representations at once.
We’re delighted to announce the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners of the competition below who have won €100, €75 and €50 respectively. Click on the entry to read the blog post on libfocus.com:
1st place: To be announced November 2026
2nd place: More Than a Shush: Librarians, Comics and the Power of Popular Culture by Jane Burns
3rd place: Spinsters and Whores: The Fate of Female Librarians in the Public Imagination by Emma Cooling
Four entries also received special mentions from the judges:
Death of a Library by Alana Mahon O’Neill
The Last Patron before Closing by Dr Bláithín Hurley
The Librarian and the Machine by Grace O’Connor
We’d like to thank everyone who took part in the competition this year and express our gratitude to the judges for carefully considering each entry and for providing thoughtful feedback.
COMPETITION DETAILS
The competition was announced in June 2026 and we asked entrants to email their submissions to aslsectionevents@gmail.com by 31st August 2026. We shared anonymised versions of the entries with a panel of judges selected from the A&SL committee. The judges assessed the submissions using the rubric included below so we asked entrants to read through the rubric scoring guide carefully.
We announced that we would award prizes of €100, €75 and €50 to the authors of the first, second and third highest scoring submissions respectively. The three winning authors were notified in September/October 2026 and their entries were published in the Libfocus blog.
Competition guidelines:
- Open to library workers and LIS students based in Ireland
- Theme to focus on representations of librarianship, libraries, librarians and information work in media and popular culture
- Email submissions to aslsectionevents@gmail.com by 31st August 2026
- Submissions will be assessed by a panel of A&SL judges using the competition rubric
- Winners will be notified by September/October 2026
- 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes are €100, €75 and €50 respectively
- The three winning blog posts will be published on the Libfocus blog
Submission details:
- Submit the blog post as a Word document
- Submissions to be a maximum of 1000 words
- Reference lists will not be included in the word count
- Include 1-3 sentences including your full name, title and affiliation
- Include professional LinkedIn, Bluesky and Instagram handles
- Provide 2-3 copyright-compliant images with the blog post
- Submit the images as separate, high-quality JPG or PNG files
- Follow Libfocus guidelines for images, captions and alt text
- Aim for a blog post that is original, and uses accurate references to back up claims
- Provide references to original sources following Libfocus referencing guidelines
- Follow Libfocus guidelines around the use of AI tools
- Follow Libfocus guidelines regarding linked text/hyperlinks
- Use single spacing, avoid indentations, leave two spaces between paragraphs
- Maintain an engaging conversational tone rather than a formal academic tone
- Avoid long, run-on sentences and use plain, jargon-free language
