I get the annoyance with this article, even though I thought it was fluffy fun. The thing is to do what you can to change what annoys you. So write a letter to the editor of your local paper praising the wonderful summer reading program at your public library, or telling how the librarians at your university really helped you with your degree. Put on fun events of your own, and call your old college roommate who was a journalism major to tip her off that there’s a story to be covered. Offer yourself as an exhibitor on career day at the local high school, so you tell young people what a great job you have. I think there are ways that we can work to generate more positive press, even if getting away from the insipid is difficult.

On the other hand, this profile should really get no reaction from librarians. We are way too overconcerned with our image. Our image among the public is very good. Does the public hate us more than doctors, scientists, politicians and sports stars? The image of librarians is a real non-issue.

What we should be angry about is everything else. Where are the fucking jobs that are supposed to be available? Why is there such rampant ageism in the profession? Why aren’t any of these young librarians library directors? Why aren’t librarians paid more? Why do cities spend so much money on library buildings and not an equivalent amount on library worker salaries and books? Why aren’t librarians unionized?

Melinor Vix – Fabulous!

Meg – Amen.

Improve the pay, the training, and the professionalism and stop worrying what other people think and the rest will come. (BTW, where the blazes does the $51k median salary come from, ALA? I’d like to see those numbers.)

But if one life is saved by this Style Page
it has been worth it. Though I feel
joke comprehension may decrease with age

and sense of humor is a narrow stage.
I can still laugh, but I know the deal:
Brave librarian cops will bristle and rage,

“Gen X Bandits Snatch Your Dignity,” page
six. Curse. Push away your favorite meal.
(Joke comprehension may decrease with age.)

“Because we say so—now get in your cage;
Who’s bona fide credentials did you steal?”
Brave librarian cops will bristle and rage.

I am a librarian not a mage,
but I do my job with style. Here’s the spiel:
Joke comprehension may decrease with age,
brave librarian cops will bristle and rage.

I’ve always thought librarians were cool. I remember having nice librarians in elementary school. Of course, I was a stack rat as a kid, too. Now I live in a county (Marin, in CA) with a lot of great libraries staffed by many friendly, helpful (and hip) librarians. I know my kids have appreciated their thoughtfulness, help, and humor. Are they cool people? Hell yeah. Knowledge is power. Power is sexy. So long time coming. Thank gawd the NY Times has taken note. Jessamyn, I guess W is next…

If you’re being a pollyanna dork, jessamyn, where do I sign on? A lot of us seem to have practically defined ourselves by our defiance against the normative image of the shushing bespectacled gray-hair. We’ve fought so long against being defined in that way that we can’t stop: we object to being defined in any way by anybody. It seems to become a sort of an indiscriminate lashing out.

While that may be a good thing in some regards (after all, no single image should ever define any group), it’s not so good if the image of “shushing gray-hair” is replaced with “cranky dour-face.”

The strength of this article, it seems to me, lies in its telling folks who might not have otherwise imagined it that librarians are actually pretty approachable people. Even if we’ve known it all along, it may come as a shock to quite a number of readers out there. So if those that don’t know now know something they should have known–as the result of a fluffy (but fun) article–isn’t that a good thing? Until you can say with straight faces that the majority of the population sees librarians the way we see ourselves, we should be pleased when articles like these open the door to a reinvestigation of our public image–whether it gets it right (for you) or not.

But I’ll say it right now. “Guybrarian” must die. I prefer “librarino.” ;)

I put in my two cents on the hipness question a while ago, and I continue to stand by both of them:

http://yourfairybookmother.typepad.com/your_fairy_bookmother/2005/10/i_have_seen_the.html

Hip is as hip does.

I agree that male and female reactions to librarian stereotypes might be an interesting study.

For gaging reaction to this article The specific nature of this particular article, highlights that you would need to control for age. One of the critiques that has been made is that the article has the us vs. them, young vs. old mentality and deals with a whole different set of stereotypes.

http://www.nysun.com/article/57835