Jedi Librarian

31st December. How did that happen? I thought I’d just get a sneaky one in before we hit the big 11…

Now, my recent Miranda post aside, I’m not usually one for obsessing about how librarians are portrayed in popular culture, but this morning I found myself watching another episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the best cartoon series ever made?) and the library and a Jedi librarian that featured in it could just not pass without comment, especially as I just did a turn as Obi-Wan Kenobi at the work Xmas do.

Apart from the completely predictable decision to have a be-bunned elderly lady librarian – Jocasta Nu – I was fascinated by its incredibly old-fashioned approach to the electronic library with shelves upon shelves of what appeared to be e-books and very few computer terminals. Below: Jocasta Nu gives Ahsoka Tano a library tour…

Now I know this all happened in a galaxy far away a long time ago, but we are clearly meant to accept this as a space-age library. I didn’t learn much more about the library – the Jedi Archives on Coruscant – from the episode other than the fact that its really really important as it also houses Jedi secrets that must be guarded at all times and Jocasta’s proud claim that it contains “More knowledge than anywhere else in the galaxy”, so I decided to do a bit of student-style research (i.e. bunging a couple of words into Google).

I soon found myself on  Wookiepedia ( Wookiepedia – brilliant!) and soon discovered a whole lot more about the Jedi Archives and its librarian, much of which confirmed just how old-fashioned the set-up of the Archives was. I know this is sci-fi territory so I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover as much detail as I did, but I was. It includes an explanation of what exactly was on those library shelves…

Apparently they were known as the Stacks and they are ‘holobook’ shelves (thought so) each containing ‘trillions of datatapes and datacards, carefully sorted and arranged into categories and subcategories’. So yes, Jocasta Nu in her infnite Jedi wisdom bought trillions of ebooks and decided that the best thing to do is to file them away on physical shelves (presumably cases with datachips in them?). Which is precisely what I think some librarians would love to do now if they had the chance!  Below: Floorplan of the Jedi Archives…

So what of the Jedi Library access policy? Well I am informed that the archives were open all hours (pleased to hear they got something right) and were accessible to all Jedi in need of information (ah but just Jedi you understand, not any old random members of the Coruscant populace researching for their GCSEs). What is more, Jedi were ‘welcome to scan or copy most any data in the Stacks’ although the next sentence of the policy rather contradicts this: ‘removal of any material from the Archives was strictly prohibited’ – some work needed on that policy methinks. Furthermore it transpires that remote access to databases was completely prohibited, meaning that Jedi had to find time in their busy droid-battling schedule to travel to the Library, which probably explains why its COMPLETELY EMPTY throughout the episode I was watching. I can’t imagine that Jocasta’s annual footfall stats are higher than mine and on the face of it she certainly appears to have a much more exciting collection.

It should be said though in Jocasta’s defence, the main reason for the remote access ban is because of ‘the Dark Side of the Force’ and their attempts to corrupt and alter data held in the Archives which on one occasion included the removal of information about an entire planet (Kamin0 – nope I hadn’t heard of it either). So maybe we’ll let her off this particular draconian measure.

I’m assuming that the lack of terminals is  is to do with the proliferation of hand-held Jedi devices, but Wookiepedia is silent on this, although we are told that the few computer terminals that are there are linked to the main index catalog. Which leads me on to muse that it would be a very brave LAS vendor who would take on the huge Jedi Archives! Apparently the Library catalogue is touchscreen, so I hope there are plenty of monitor-wiping droids about. Below: Jocasta Nu interrogates the touchscreen Library catalogue…

I’m very pleased to hear that Jocasta, and chief librarians before her, had clear reporting lines to the ‘Council of First Knowledge’ and were also responsible for ‘briefing Jedi preparing for missions’ (gathering data beforehand and presenting it in a quick session) and for creating portfolios of information which were transmitted to the Jedi High Council to help them reach more ‘informed decisions’. Now that’s more like it. 

Those shelves and shelves of e-books and those access restrictions still bother me though, but wait… what’s this, I’ve just found out that librarian Jocasta was eventually killed by the young Darth Vader himself for not providing the information he wanted, clearly a very dissatsified library user, and on the evidence of the approach largely taken, who can blame him? Below: Vader makes it very clear to the chief librarian that he’s not that impressed with her customer service skills…

So that’s what happened to Jocasta, but what of the Library? Well, before the collection was destroyed, I’m pleased to say that a male rookie Padawan librarian called Jin-Lo Rayce (I like to think of him as a Star Wars eqivalent of a Graduate Trainee) secreted the information from the Archives off-world.  He (pleasantly surprised that he’s a he!) went on to found the Agents of Ossus (much catchier than CILIP) who were tasked with protecting the information until a new (and presumably vast physical) Library could be built. Very high-up on the rebel alliances’s to-do list after Return of the Jedi’s Battle of Endor I don’t think.

Although I don’t remember at the time (I probably tutted very loudly), Jocasta Nu briefly made into the big screen Star Wars prequels and due to her inability to help Obi-Wa Kenobi find the information he needed, and her proud boast that if they didn’t have it the information didn’t exist, she has been dubbed on YouTube as ‘the worst librarian in the galaxy’, a debate which still rages there if you want to join it. ‘Til next year…

January 17th edit: This post ended up having quite an impact,  to find out what happened next, read this