Dumpling in a Hanky

So, the good news is Lego, purveyor of fine, building brick based excitement, have released a "Librarian" minifig . Yay! Lego are a cool company, they're modern, and they make some great educational products, So, we'll be seeing a little figure of a modern information professional, a veritable ninja of knowledge: ready, willing and able to assist their users in any way they need, right? Wrong. Lego have gone with a stereotype of a librarian more suited to 1913 than 2013. Look - a book! A mug that says "shhh"! A cardigan, glasses, pleated skirt, frumpy hair and sensible shoes! Wow - this is really showing the face of the profession today! “Shhh!”   Books are just about the Librarian’s most favorite thing in the entire world. Reading them can take you on exciting adventures in far-off lands, introduce you to new friends and cultures, and let you discover poetry, classic literature, science fiction and much more. If only everybody loved to   read a...

This blog pos t from the Scottish Visual Arts Group alerted me to the fact that it was possible to use images from the National Portrait Gallery for non-commercial purposes. Going to the Advanced Search area of the website, it's possible to perform a search for the profession of the sitter/subject of the portrait. So, of course, I decided to have a look and see what the librarians of the past look  like. After all, today, we're apparently all female, frumpy, and middle aged. Of the 72 people whose profession was described as "librarian", only 7 were female librarians*. The rest were be-whiskered, elderly white gentlemen of a certain class, with some amazing names: Arundell James Kennedy Esdaile; Luxmoore Newcombe; Harry Tapley Tapley-Soper; Charles Talbut Onions... Of the 7 female librarians, only one is actually the sole subject of the portrait: the rest are group photographs of National Portrait Gallery staff from various eras, staff of other bo...

For this Thing , I'm meant to be blogging or thinking about my Library Route/Root, or the path that brought me to librarianship, back in the Good Old Days. However, I was involved in the discussions that kicked off the creation of the wiki, and have blogged both my library route , and my root  previously, so if anyone was particularly excited to find out, they can have a look at those - there's been no major changes since I wrote them. I haven't however had a look at many of the other entries since the wiki was established in 2009, so I went over to poke about in some of the newer entries. From reading a good few of those, it seems that librarian career paths can mostly be summed up as: I didn't ever consciously think of libraries as a career, but ended up in them by accident, and it was a happy accident. I started off as/qualified in something else, but I realised eventually that libraries were for me. I always knew I wanted to be a librarian. It seems that ...

So, Channel 5 have got a new TV show (originally a Japanese game show , and then an MTV show) called Silent Library . Can you guess what elements are involved? Sexy-but-prim female Librarian: glasses, hair in a bun, in both human and cartoon form? Check Librarian standing behind an issue desk, piles of books around her? Check Irritated librarian shhhh-ing people in the library when they make noise? Check Large "Silence Please" sign? Check Librarian aggressively using stamp and ink pad? Check My, what an exciting and novel idea they have here...not. The Production team had a similarly inspired approach to asking for contestants "Do you think libraries are dull? Can you suppress your laughter and hold your nerve whilst all those around you are losing theirs? Do you want to win up to £2000 in cash? We are currently producing a new TV series for Channel 5 based on a cult Japanese game show. We are looking for fearless, game for a laugh, up-for-it...

You! Yes, you! So you know a librarian? And you like stereotypes? And you want to buy them something for Christmas that fits in nicely to that stereotype?* Well, let me help… Now, books can get poorly, so what could be better than to let your Beloved Librarian help support sickly books, with a Book Shoe from the National Trust (no, I had no idea what a book shoe was before either). If you’re feeling flush, you could buy Beloved Librarian their very own mobile library ! Of course, they won’t get to draw it around the hills and vales of Britain , or get to give the donkey a funny name, but they’ll get a warm, inner glow of Doing Good. Even warmer if you actually buy them some books to put in i t. Of course, if you’re feeling wildly extravangant, buy BL their own village library . Although for that price, I’d be demanding that the library be named after me. Etsy is of course a world of weird and wonderful handmade gifts…how have I survived without the book ring ? Maybe your BL n...

For your sterling efforts at continuing the stereotyping of librarians as old, boring...with a secret filthy side. Of course, nobody you sent this image to in an email about online security could possibly find this annoying, right? Older, slightly frumpy lady + Glasses + Standing in front of a wall of card files = Geeky, secretly-pervy librarian.