Hey Friends!

I was looking over my agenda this weekend thinking about what to post about next. I know I’ve been heavy on the Brash Jobs lately and realized I haven’t done an episode of Unusual Librarians Who Rock (ULWR) in over a year! If you grew up during the 90’s, then you’re probably very familiar with this English museum-curating, vampire-vanquishing high school librarian.

I’m talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Rupert Edmund Giles, MLS.

Librarians should totally dress this way.

Giles (played by Anthony Steward Head) serves as mentor, trainer and kinda-sorta father figure to heroine Buffy Summers (made famous by Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends who help protect Sunnydale from vampires, demons, werewolves, zombies, witches, and the like.

Before he became a librarian, Giles was a pretty bad dude. He was raised and groomed to be part of a secret organization called “The Watchers” – they pretty much mentor and teach slayers. Was Giles down with this? NO WAY. Rather than carry on the family legacy, he dropped out of studying history at Oxford so he could dabble in dark magic, demonology, witchcraft, hot-wiring cars, sorcery and punk rock. Long story short, Giles summoned a demon, got one of his close friends killed, and learned how to sing and play guitar with mad skill!

(Probably because Anthony Steward Head is an accomplished guitarist/singer in real life.)

After failing to banish the demon that killed his friend, Giles finally accepted his destiny and became a member of The Watchers. Trained in martial arts and fencing, Giles breaks the stereotype of being some mild-mannered librarian. Giles’ Wikipedia page recounts a time be beat a vampire “senseless with a flaming baseball bat”. Oh, he’s also fluent in Latin, ancient Greek, Sumerian, Japanese and possibly Gaelic.

The Toast made up a great fictional course list for Giles during his time in library school. I’m only mentioning a few of my favorites, but you can read them all here.

Course List for Rupert Giles, Master of Library Sciences Candidate, Michaelmas Term 1982

• Taking Your Glasses Off And Slowly Rubbing Your Temples: An Introduction
• Guarding A Vampire Slaying-Teen: Is It For You? Non-Traditional Employment In A Saturated Library Sciences Market
• Late Fees And Love Spells: Intro to Communications Systems
• Making The Most Of Your Resources: How To Acquire Medieval Assault Weapons And Strange Tinctures On A Limited Library Budget
• Distinguishing Between Third-Degree Burns And Spontaneous Combustion
• Integrated Library Systems And Standard Runes
• Supernatural Harassment In The Workplace: What Every Librarian Should Know
• There’s An Ancient Prophecy For That: Matching Your Present-Day Disturbances With Twelfth-Century Romanian Curses

You keep doing you, Giles.

That’s all for this week! Don’t forget also comment or discuss on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram about this or any of my stuff!

Justin Brasher, Brash Librarian