Giles Books in SHS Library

[midwesternwatcher]

Something that always bothered me.

Giles has a collection of rare and valuable books which are critically important resources in the struggle against evil.

Why does he keep them just a few feet from the Hellmouth? And in a public place, where vampires can enter freely? And why doesn't he move them, even after a vampire actually steals one?

When the high school is destroyed, I don't remember that he moves them. I suppose that happens off screen?

Any ideas?

[Skytteflickan88]

He must have moved them off screen.

I get that noone ever came to library and the books seemed safe, but I think keeping them in his locked office would have been better.

[midwesternwatcher]

I do remember a handful of times when other students did come to that library. And of course vampires did. One of them steals a book while Giles watches. And don't forget, in season 2, vampires invade the library while Buffy is absent. Twice.

[usagianddarien]

wow that is a good question you think he would have learned hislesson and moved them. where were his books when he was no longer librarian? did he put all his books in the magic box? hmmmm . . .

[Jezebel Jinx]

Nov 30, 2010 10:44:31 GMT -5 midwesternwatcher said:

When the high school is destroyed, I don't remember that he moves them. I suppose that happens off screen?

With this question I have two possible answers. One, he could have moved those books after the Gingerbread episode because he didn't want a similar incident that happened with 'MOO' to happen again. Another possibility is that he boxed them up sometime during Graduation Day pt 2 when the other books were being boxed up. There was at least one scene where Cordy and Wesley were boxing books up, it was during the whole awkward kiss thing. It's highly unlikely he'd leave the books there to be blown up, especially if they were important slayer/watcher/demon type books.

[Scarygothgirl]

When the mayor gets into the library the shelves are all empty so I'm assuming he moved them all.

He did keep some locked in his office, 'cos Willow admits that she was looking at the books in his office that she knew he didn't want her to read at some point.


I also wonder where they all went after season three. He moved some into his house (He gets Xander to help sort them in season four), but that's no-where near the amount that were in the library, where did they all go?

[midwesternwatcher]

Some of them must've been in the Magic Box. Remember Willow sucked the power out of several shelves full of black magic books. I suppose some of them, maybe all, belonged to Giles? They weren't for sale, I don't believe.

When Giles goes back to England ... there's an exchange between Giles & Anya that I no longer remember so clearly. There were some things he wanted to take with him that Anya thought she should be able to keep as merchandise for sale. He might've, probably did, take some of the NFS items.

[SOMNAMBULIST 2.0]

Well, the library was the main meeting source for the first three seasons. As Giles only came to Sunnydale High to keep an eye on Buffy and train her, he had to LOOK like a librarian and have a lot of books there. Anyways, he must have figured it'd be an organized place and a good place since they would mostly be in the library when evil erupted. And, in some episodes, it showed that there ARE real books in the library. Emily Dickinson and some other text books Jonathan and his friend were looking for.

[wenxina]

Dec 4, 2010 11:56:27 GMT -5 SOMNAMBULIST 2.0 said:

Well, the library was the main meeting source for the first three seasons. As Giles only came to Sunnydale High to keep an eye on Buffy and train her, he had to LOOK like a librarian and have a lot of books there.

Erm... you look like a librarian by working in one. Being stuffy and wearing tweed and being English helps the stereotype, I guess.
But the majority of the books in the library were more than likely school property... regular books that libraries would have.

Incidentally, Giles didn't have to be a librarian. In fact, if the Council had known Buffy better, stationing a Watcher in a place that she'd be more likely to show up than a library would probably have been a better idea. The library only became the unofficial meeting place because it was convenient, and would rouse the least amount of suspicion. I mean kids visiting the library... normal, right?

[tkts]

Dec 4, 2010 14:32:13 GMT -5 wenxina said:

Incidentally, Giles didn't have to be a librarian. In fact, if the Council had known Buffy better, stationing a Watcher in a place that she'd be more likely to show up than a library would probably have been a better idea. The library only became the unofficial meeting place because it was convenient, and would rouse the least amount of suspicion. I mean kids visiting the library... normal, right?

However, the job did have to be something with a cover Giles would be fairly good at maintaining. (Imagine if they'd tried to make him, say, a computer science teacher.) And as a librarian at a school where apparently nobody ever goes to the library, he'd have more free time for his Watcher duties than a teacher with a full course load. Imagine if any time Buffy needed his help, she had to barge into a classroom while he was teaching.

[wenxina]

Dec 5, 2010 18:11:06 GMT -5 tkts said:

Dec 4, 2010 14:32:13 GMT -5 wenxina said:

Incidentally, Giles didn't have to be a librarian. In fact, if the Council had known Buffy better, stationing a Watcher in a place that she'd be more likely to show up than a library would probably have been a better idea. The library only became the unofficial meeting place because it was convenient, and would rouse the least amount of suspicion. I mean kids visiting the library... normal, right?

However, the job did have to be something with a cover Giles would be fairly good at maintaining. (Imagine if they'd tried to make him, say, a computer science teacher.) And as a librarian at a school where apparently nobody ever goes to the library, he'd have more free time for his Watcher duties than a teacher with a full course load. Imagine if any time Buffy needed his help, she had to barge into a classroom while he was teaching.

I agree. All I was saying was that Giles didn't need to be a librarian to be Buffy's Watcher. Somnambulist's point was "As Giles only came to Sunnydale High to keep an eye on Buffy and train her, he had to LOOK like a librarian and have a lot of books there".
I also disagreed with his point that Giles needed to have a lot of books there as librarians don't stock their libraries with their private collections. He may have stocked the library with a higher than usual amount of books about the occult and the like during his tenure there.

[midwesternwatcher]

I always assumed that Giles simply used the school library's shelves for his private collection, alongside the library's books. He was in charge, who was there to complain, even if anybody noticed?

I suppose Buffy could've had a watcher who wasn't a librarian, but that wouldn't have been Giles, because being a librarian is part of his character.

The producers chose right here. There are good reasons why the Scoobies chose to gather on the Hellmouth, and why the Hellmouth was located in the library.

[wenxina]

I think he did use the shelves to fit some of his books. But libraries also contain regular books; classic, encyclopedias, dictionaries, reference books, textbooks, etc. Those would have taken up the bulk of the library inventory.

[Whedon Fan]

They were definatley moved when the snake mayor is in the library right before"OH GOSH" half the shelves are empty. Plus i'm sure a lot of them were his own books which is why when MOO (Mother opposed to the occult) Ha! and Snyder came in and removed alot of them he wasn't sure what half them were. . not school property.