The Librarian Stereotype... on the Big Screen and Beyond

I've been thinking a lot, as I often do, about the topics that Jen raised in her last post, on Librarians, Stereotypes, Professionalism, and Pop Culture.

Then earlier today, I came across a new piece on a feminist blog and magazine to which I subscribe:

From the Library: The Librarian Stereotype on the Big Screen

Here, librarian and blogger Ashley McAllister looks at librarian characters in a few famous films through the ages (with clips!), and concludes: "When we see librarians in the movies, they are usually fulfilling the role of a very narrow stereotype."

In my professional experience, the Real World Workplace of the large university library has not had a majority of female staff-members, but has been pretty evenly split. However, most popular stereotypes about librarians and library workers tend to portray them first and foremost as women.

As a well-read feminist, it is hard for me not to get deep into the long and complex history of why that may be the case, or of the general history of Women in Libraries, but I will say that I believe it is very important to debunk these kinds of stereotypes.

How to go about doing so?
That's a whole different story: the story at the heart of Jen's post.

However, where Jen mentions the argument made by some people that "librarians shouldn't complain 'about the deprofessionalization of librarianship... and then do things like this [funny video] and still expect to be taken seriously'", I can't help but point out that in our culture it is most often women who have trouble being taken seriously as professionals in general, and that most of the library professionals in that video also happen to be women.

For me, questions about library work, stereotypes, professionalism, and pop culture are always bound up in questions about gender and sexism. And of course this effects everybody, not just women!

I don't have any answers. Just more food for thought.

Librarians, Stereotypes, Professionalism, and Pop Culture

A little bird (one of the students working in ILL) recently sent me a link to a YouTube video featuring students and faculty at the University of Washington's Information School (teaching Library and information Science) doing their rendition of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." Less than a week later, I saw the link to this video posted on one of our library's internal list servs (lib-all, I think).

In the video, the students and faculty librarians at UWash changed the lyrics to relate to libraries; the chorus lets the world know that they "can use my, can use my, you can use my catalog (don't forget the databases)."



The video is certainly entertaining and good for a laugh. What I found interesting were a couple of comments posted on New York Magazine's website in reaction to the video.

One comment says that librarians shouldn't complain "about the deprofessionalization of librarianship (i.e. people who don't have a library science degree doing 'professional' library jobs) and then do things like this and still expect to be taken seriously."

A self-identified library student then replied to this comment, stating that there's difference between professionalism and having a sense of humor.

In my library school classes, we talk a lot about the level of professionalism in the field of librarianship. There is a drive to publish scholarly articles and make the profession comparable to other professional occupations in law (lawyers), medicine (doctors), etc. I think, though, that the professionalism of librarianship need not confine itself to the standards set by other long-established professional occupations.

Librarians work with a whole host of people in the library, not just "professionals" with Master's degrees. It is the total group, consisting of library student assistants, staff, administrators, professionals and faculty, that projects whatever level of professionalism they wish for their library. We do so by helping patrons and giving them a sense of how we do business, how we treat them, and how we demonstrate to them that we have specialized knowledge that will help them use the library.

What do you think of this video? What do you think patrons at this library would think of this video? What would they think about their library after seeing this video?

Also, should we make a video?

Day Jobs

I've been thinking a lot about the staff art exhibit, The Memory Salon, on display now through July 16th in the Fales Tracy/Barry Gallery. What really strikes me is the huge number of colleagues we have for whom this library thing is really just a day job. Please don't misunderstand me, I really don't think there is anything wrong with that. In Access Services alone we have athletes and actors, film makers and illustrators, musicians and music aficionados, photographers and textile artists, painters and parents, writers and scholars, all of whom feed their soul by something other than library work.

As day jobs go, it's not so bad. Despite the building's HVAC problems for the most part we work in air conditioned comfort. We get paid breaks and paid time off. We get tuition benefits and health insurance. Heck, we sometimes even get small discounts at local merchants for showing our IDs. Oh, and don't forget my former favorite benefit, those movie passes from ticket central (and, if they ever offered free babysitting perhaps I could use them again--wait, they do have that babysitter referral service...).

I wonder if other industries employ people with such a huge diversity of interests and such a huge pool of talent.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I don’t know many people that would say ‘not me’ to that question. The harder question is what are you willing to do to get it? This past week I took a step outside my regular routine and explored my options. Specifically, I had an ‘audition’ to be on the day-time TV game show with the above name.

It was a very simple process and anyone who feels they know a decent amount of trivia ought to give it a try. I simply went online and visited the Millionaire web site, filed out a quick form, and selected my preferred days to attend an audition. The next day I was notified by email when my scheduled appointment would be and where I should go.

On the day of the audition I went to ABC’s studio on 66th street and checked in with the cheerful intern waiting out front to greet people. After standing in line for a short while we were let into what looked like a cafeteria, handed a closed envelope containing a test, and directed to take a seat along with all the other participants in the room. Then, as a group, we were given 10 minutes to answer 30 multiple choice questions. Once the time had passed tests were collected and taken to be corrected. Those who ‘passed’ would be asked to stay for an interview. Those who did not would be asked to leave.

While waiting for our tests to be corrected a number of people asked questions about how the process worked of the intern overseeing the testing. Listening to her cheerful response to every questions, a ubiquitous “that information is on the web site”, I started thinking about how we have all become so reliant on the internet. Not just using it for our own information needs but also using it as a tool to provide information to our patrons.

As I watched the eye rolling around me at the lack of knowledge displayed by using this generic answer I wondered if I rely too much on the “check web site” answer. Have I allowed myself to take a knowledge short cut because the information is easy to access online? Is my staff undertrained because the information is available online? The short answer to that is no simply because I have a very knowledgeable staff. But there is a small piece of me who sees this as a cautionary tale about how we provide information to patrons and making sure we don’t assume that because information is available online people don’t still want good answers provided in person by well trained staff.

We are Library Professionals: we know stuff. Let’s remember to share what we know in all the ways that patrons want to receive the information.

The critical question for this blog though is am I going to be on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? For now I will say maybe… someday…

It is easy enough to try out if you are interested. All the information about how is available online at:
http://www.dadt.com/millionaire/

Renovation

This interesting video, an interview with Bobst renovation architect Jake Alspector, came up on my Google alert this morning. It's an interesting commentary on the previous and current library renovations. Worth watching when you have a spare 17 minutes.

Longevity

The Division of Libraries recently honored 32 of our colleagues who are celebrating milestone years of service at NYU. Five of those honored hail from Access Services, including Allan Frank, Ted Lawton, Liudmilla Hirsch, Sharon Thomas and Lakisha Woodford. First off, I would like to congratulate and thank our colleagues: Allan and Ted for 40 years of service, Liudmilla for 35 years of service, Sharon for 15 years of service and Lakisha for 10 years of service. That's 140 plus years of library experience among only 6 colleagues!

Access Services is such a large department that every

year we honor people for longer service milestones. This makes me think of the years of service put in by those who weren't honored

this year simply because their years of service don't add up to a nice round number. We have 41 regular employees in our department and 27 of them were hired before 2000. More of us have been honored at longer service awards than have not. Together we have over 650 years of experience at NYU!

While Allan, Ted, Liudmilla, Sharon and Lakisha deserve their special recognition this year, we all deserve recognition for our dedication to NYU and the Division of Libraries. Thanks to everyone for their dedication and hard work.

Illiteracy In the Digital Age

While on my way to work reading the newspaper I came across a word I could not read. Not because it was some obscure word that I had never seen before, but something that was written in a text messaging style. I could not finish reading the article as it contained many such acronyms. I started into my mental rant about how this younger generation can’t read, write, or use proper English, when I suddenly had an epiphany. The “they” that could not read, write or spell included me! You may be familiar with the phrase “Johnny can’t read” and now neither can Pat. They were illiterate in my eyes, but on the other side of the coin so was I. I no longer had the vocabulary necessary to read what had been written. OMG! I was illiterate also.

SMS (Short Messaging Service) language also referred to as “text language” or “textese,” has crept its way into a lot of what we read today. SMS is using acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols to create short and to the point messages. The speed of the evolution of language in the digital age is mind boggling. As more of this kind of writing style is entering its way into traditional communications formats, and more digital formats - i.e. WWW, YouTube, wikis, blogs, IM, gain prominence, the landscape is changing. The use of “textese” begs many larger questions. What does all of this mean to us as a society, and to us as individuals? How do we as individuals keep up with the changes? Have traditional classrooms been replaced by the WWW? Will print-based libraries still exist moving forward? Will we continue to learn to read and write on the basis of traditional rules of grammar? Will traditional rules of grammar have to change? These questions and more are being grappled with by many on different fronts.

As we communicate, we have to be aware that there is still a segment of the population that is lagging behind in acquiring these new skills and vocabulary. As always, care must be taken in the use of jargon and acronyms. As a reader, I must make a commitment to build my vocabulary and acquire the tools needed to be an effective writer and reader in the digital arena. Here are some of the tools I found to help me, and you, get started joining the word evolution:

• Netlingo http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php
• Techdictanary.com http://www.techdictionary.com/chat_cont1.html
• Digital landing http://blogs.digitallanding.com/
• Text messaging Dictionary http://tinyurl.com/2dsleu4