Skip to main content

What's with the image?

So, I was following the debate over the last few weeks on whether that New York Sun article and various others are a good thing or a bad thing for librarians.

Now, I don't quite gets the fuss. We're librarians, and we have a stereotype about us. Everyone knows stereotypes aren't totally true...as a Scot, the stereotype is that I should be ginger haired, pasty-skinned, and unhappy about having to spend money...and in reality, only the money one's true! ;-)

Here's a few more more:
Lawyers are evil, doctors are noble, firemen are brave.

We know stereotypes aren't true, so why bother fighting them? Will it really make the world a better place if people know that librarians aren't actually all old ladies who wear tweed, half moon glasses, pearls, and sit behind big intimidating desks in dusty libraries and say 'shhh' a lot? That sometimes we have a drink, act a bit silly

And what the hell is a guybrarian? Is librarianship such a female dominated world that they're a rarity, and need a special description, based on their sex? Do female welders want to be called welderettes because they're female, and their gender is essential in their job title? People, the profession is librarianship, making youmale librarians just plain librarians, not guybrarians. But if you insist on it, I'm going to start calling myself a librarianette!

But seriously, yes, it's nice that librarians are in the papers, that they're young and having fun...but wouldn't it be nicer if they were in the papers because they're doing innovative things with technology, giving access to learning, doing fabulous things in their jobs...not because they're playing drinking games based on Dewey Decimal.....
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When mentoring malfunctions

Mentoring's one of the standard activities that you'll come across in the information profession. We're very caring and sharing like that, wanting to support people in their professional development. As you start your career as an information professional, you'll regularly hear the advice: get a mentor. Or, as you advance in your career and seem to be doing well, you'll be advised to become a mentor. This is fine: yes, both being mentored and being a mentor can be excellent relationships, and very useful for both parties involved. But.....mentoring relationships are like any other relationships: they can go wrong. And they can go wrong in a whole lot of ways. I've heard of mentors and mentees whose relationships have malfunctioned due to mismanagement, wrong focus, disinterest, and inappropriate behaviour. Like any other relationship, bullying and abuse can happen in mentor/mentee arrangements, but it can be very difficult for the participants to escape t...
1 comment
Read more

Time to shut down?

I've been thinking a lot recently about what my blog is actually contributing. I'm not a leading 'thinker', I'm not an investigative reporter, I'm not really great at anything, I'm just, well, here. It's been great for meeting other law librarians, both in the UK and internationally, but do I actually really contribute anything useful or new? I don't think so, to be very honest. So what's the point of me continuing this blog? I can now post (hopefully) useful stuff to the law.librarian collaborative blog, which I would otherwise have posted here, so this blog has become kind of surplus to requirements really. I started it to post items I thought were relevant to my field, so I could refer back to them easily, but law.librarians does a far better job of it together than I could ever do on my own! I may continue to post items of relevance to Scots law only, or the more fun / frivolous that doesn't really fit on law.librarians, but I think that...
5 comments
Read more

Careering along

When I look around at the activities of information professional groups, it seems that there’s a disparity. There’s quite often a lot of support and funding available for those who’re just starting out in the profession, but a desert of nothingness for those of us who’re “just getting on with it”. If you’re a new professional, you have lots of groups to support you as you progress in your early career, various prize funds available for essay and report writing, access to bursaries for conference attendance, eligibility for awards for being new and enthusiastic. But what do you get when you’re past that bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed first 5 years (5 years seems to be the approximate cut-off point for becoming “established” and no longer new). What happens when you’ve already received a bursary from an organisation earlier in your career and so wouldn’t be eligible for one now, meaning you’re not able to attend events or training? When you’re heavily involved in a project but not at ...
16 comments
Read more