Cyberpunk Librarian is a podcast with the tagline “High tech, low budget”. You can listen on the official website, on YouTube, or via iTunes, where it is classified as “Software How-To”. The podcast’s creator is Daniel Messer, a technologist who works for the Maricopa County Library District in Phoenix, Arizona. He describes himself as an internet fiend:

“While some people log in, do their online stuff, and then log off, I pretty much stay online twenty-four hours a day. Sure, I sleep just like everyone else, the biggest difference is that I’m sleeping next to a tablet computer, smart phone, and occasionally a laptop computer — all of which are jacked into the Internet.”

Both at work and recreationally, Messer is a fan of open-source software. As he writes, “open source is accountable to, and partially owned by, a community, which makes it very similar to a library.”

Daniel Messer, the cyberpunk librarian himself.

Daniel Messer, the cyberpunk librarian himself.

Messer used to blog at the website Not All Bits, but in January, 2012 he moved to a self-hosted instance of WordPress (linked above). He can also be followed on Twitter, and has written three books:

The other thing that comes up when you Google “cyberpunk librarian” is a research paper called “Enter the cyberpunk librarian: Future directions in Cyberspace” by Jonathan Willson. You can’t easily access the full text online, but according to ERIC:

“This article describes the properties and culture of the electronic frontier, discusses the social impact of cyberspace, examines the role of libraries and librarians in the future. Argues that librarians can help shape a vision of cyberspace that benefits society by providing fair and equitable distribution of information resources.”

ResearchGate has another, slightly different description.

Cyberpunk librarian photo by Cindi on Flickr.

Perhaps another sort of cyberpunk librarian… Photo by Cindi.