Westbrook’s Warren Memorial Library will be the sole Maine venue to be part of the national debut of a documentary film designed to erase stereotypes of librarians and raise awareness of the importance of libraries.

The film, “The Hollywood Librarian,” will be shown at the library next week in connection with the observance of the 26th annual American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. The film attempts to eliminate images of bespectacled librarians shushing patrons, and recast libraries as vibrant and vital community centers.

“They have more cardholders than Visa. More outlets than McDonald’s. They move more items than FedEx,” says the movie’s trailer.

“The Hollywood Librarian” first premiered this summer at the American Library Association’s annual national conference in Washington, D.C. Directed by Ann Seidl, it’s a mix of clips from Hollywood movies stereotypically depicting librarians and interviews with actual librarians and the issues that face libraries across the country.

“I think it’s mostly about how to value libraries,” said Wendy Hysko, the director of Warren Memorial Library, who is bringing the movie to the state.

The screening begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4, at the Warren Memorial Library auditorium. Tickets are $8, and more than half have sold already.

Libraries are often one of the first things in a city budget to get cut, Hysko said. She said the libraries in Salinas, Calif., where one library was named in honor of hometown resident John Steinbeck, are a featured story in the film. In 2004 municipal budget cuts almost led to the libraries’ closures.

“The Hollywood Librarian” will debut in Maine on Thursday, Oct. 4, during Banned Books Week, which begins Saturday and runs through Oct. 6. The events are arriving on the heels of the recent Lewiston tale of JoAn Karkos, who refused to return a library book she found to be inappropriate. Karkos took out the book, “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health,” by Robbie Harris, after finding the illustrations in the book to amount to pornogrpahy, according to news reports. She chose to send a check to the library to cover the cost of the book, instead of returning the book to the shelves.

“It reminds you that it’s something that happens everywhere,” said Hysko.

Warren Memorial Library carries “It’s Perfectly Normal,” according to Hysko. “It’s actually in our banned books display,” she said. “It’s been great publicity for that book.”

“It’s dangerous to keep that information from people who want it,” she said.

Hysko said materials do go missing at her library, which she said could be because of similar attitudes or because of adolescents taking books they are embarrassed to check out. In her three years at the library, she said, there have been two or three concerns about the materials offered, but none have been formal complaints. One was a note included inside a book by comedian George Carlin when it was returned. The note mentioned offensive langauge, but the matter wasn’t pursued by the library patron.

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom received 546 formal complaints about materials in libraries last year, though its studies show that for every complaint reported, there are another four or five that aren’t. The 2006 top 10 challenged books include two books, “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison, the Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning author as well as Robert Cormier’s “The Chocolate War.”

From 1990 to 2000 the Office for Intellectual Freedom received reports of more than 6,300 challenges, with the top 100 most challenged books in that time period including authors Stephen King, Mark Twain, Steinbeck, J.K. Rowling, J.D. Salinger, Shel Silverstein and Roald Dahl.

“That’s why we have Banned Books Week every year, to bring to light that we have a 2006 list of books that have been challenged,” Hysko said.

Karen Valley and Lynn Bivens, director and assistant director of Westbrook’s Walker Memorial Library, said they haven’t received any formal complaints about materials in the past couple of years, which they think reflects well on the community. The Walker library has a display for Banned Books Week every year, but the library closed last week for renovations.

Megan Frazer, the new librarian at Westbrook High School, said a folder of clippings kept by former librarian Deborah Locke showed that “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger, was contested in 1984, but remains on the shelf today.

With the Karkos incident and the coming of “The Hollywood Librarian,” Hysko said she thinks it’s a great thing that the mission of libraries is being discussed beyond the library walls.

“People always say, ‘Oh, that’s a relaxing job.’ It’s actually very busy,” Hysko said. “I think (the movie) will be good for people who love libraries and know librarians, because nobody understands what we do.”

Hysko said a key component of librarianship is being a steward of the freedom of choice.

“We’re a family library, we’re not out to cause a scene,” she said. “We try to have a balanced collection, and show every view point. Some people out there just want to have one view point.”

Along with the increased attention on libraries because of Banned Books Week and “The Hollywood Librarian,” a new, younger and hipper generation of librarians has been getting some media play, as well, including a July article in the New York Times titled “A Hipper Crowd of Shushers,” which opens with a scene of young librarians at a bar for a social gathering in the trendy Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Williamsburg.

Hysko, 34, said she hadn’t really thought about choosing a career as a librarian until the technology of the profession caught her attention. Hysko has a master’s degree in library science. She brought the Warren Memorial Library online with the statewide materials-sharing system Minerva just last year. The technical system has grown so popular that it has had to limit the number of libraries joining to just four this year. The Walker Memorial Library will find out Friday if it made it on the system this year.

Hysko has been getting notes from around the state commending her for bringing “Hollywood Librarian” into Maine, and she expects people from Bangor and beyond to show up for the screening. Before the show, Maine Senate President Beth Edmonds, who is also the director of the Freeport Community Library, will be singing library-inspired songs set to popular tunes from musicals as a part of a group called Book Chicks, with fellow library staffers Sharon Davis, Elaine Schmidt, Arlene Arris and Hannah DeGrandpre.

A CLOSER LOOK

“The Hollywood Librarian” Maine premiere is Thursday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m., at Westbrook’s Warren Memorial Library auditorium. Tickets are $8 and are available at the library, 479 Main st., or by calling 854-5891.

Find more information about “The Hollywood Librarian” at www.hollywoodlibrarian.com, and more information on Banned Books Week at www.ala.org.

Warren Memorial Library Director Wendy Hysko stands in front of the Banned Books Week display at the library on Wednesday. “It’s Perfectly Normal,” in the upper left corner, was recently checked out of the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries by a Lewiston woman who thought the book, about puberty, was tantamount to pornography, and refuses to return the book. (A sample of the book’s illustrations can be found at Amazon.com’s “Look Inside” feature.)In “The Hollywood Librarian,” a documentary about librarians to be screened at the Warren Memorial Libary on Oct. 4, the stereotypical librarian gets a new image, and issues such as censorship and the Patriot Act get their play. The screening comes during Banned Books Week, which the Warren Library is also celebrating with a display of books that have been challenged over the years.