Joel J. Rane was a reference librarian in the Literature and Fiction Department of the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles in the early 2000s. Scream at the Librarian chronicles his on-the-job experiences, offering profiles of the character types he encountered, such as "Miss Information," "The Screamer," and "The Screenwriter." The profiles are accompanied by one-page graphic illustrations by Raymond Pettibon and Cristin Sheehan Sullivan.