I’ve hunted around Youtube for this and never found it. It was a PSA type ad, maybe sponsored by the ACLU or some organization like that. A young college student looking type guy goes up to a severe old lady working as a librarian, to check out a book.
She takes one look at the title, and declares flatly: “We can’t let you check that out.”
Dude sputters: “Uh, why?”
She ignores this and demands, “What’s your name?”
"Huh?
“What. Is. Your. Name?”
“Uh, forget it, I’m leaving.” He turns to go, but by this time two or three ominous looking guys in suits have risen up from the desks behind him and are blocking his exit.
I’ve never seen or heard of the ad you’re talking about, but about 9 years ago there were widespread concerns about a provision in the Patriot Act that made it easier for the government to demand information about what patrons are looking up and checking out in the library. So it’s plausible that your brain didn’t make that up out of whole cloth.
From the description in your OP I was imagining a mean old battleaxe of a librarian who was happy to see the student get busted. I’m a librarian myself, and found the actual video more disturbing because she instead looks concerned/sympathetic when the student is stopped for questioning…but is apparently powerless to help him.
As I recall, the Ad Council had produced that ad as one of many, before the Patriot Act got rolling in congress, and wasn’t specifically meant to refer to it. When the ad started to air, its timeliness was appreciated by the American Library Association, who had come out in opposition to the Patriot Act by that time.
It boggles my mind that it’s possible to interpret that ad as pro-Patriot Act.
The ominous fear music that starts when the librarian says “those books are no longer available”. The confusion and disbelief in the kid’s face. The jack-booted thugs who haul the kid away. The “What if America wasn’t America” title over the end.
Yeah, I guess that’s what it was. Plus the American flag background and the whole “What if America wasn’t America?” felt like “You know, if Muslims took over.”
Really, it’s pretty vague on what it’s point is. Of course, maybe right when it aired there was a more relevant news story.
What boggles *my *mind is that someone would expect a public service announcement to depict a “battleaxe of a librarian” being happy to see a patron getting busted.
In what universe–with or without the Patriot Act–would anyone make a PSA showing something like that?
Is there some reason you’re quoting me without actually quoting me? I mean, you did directly reply to my post earlier without mentioning how mind boggling it was. If you were looking for clarification you could have asked me then instead of using my words without attribution later.
I’m not really sure what there is to clarify though, other than to point out that the word I used was “imagined” not “expected”. While I don’t find it totally beyond all plausibility that someone might make a PSA warning against a future in which even the librarians are on Big Brother’s side, I did not click on the link expecting that what I had imagined while reading the OP would be totally accurate.
Oh, I get it now, (and I just didn’t think direct attribution would be necessary with so few posts in the thread). By reading the thread title alone, yes, I can completely see how it seems like it could simply be about a tough librarian, and possibly a difficult library patron. Really, for purely personal reasons, actually, I was more amused by the term “battleaxe librarian,” and not really concerned who said it. (I once made a mockumentary film about the Berkeley library–where I worked for three years–which depicted a “black ops” staff department whose duty was to retrieve “by any means” books that weren’t returned on time.)