Besides being a hunky looking guy with a red goatee, Senior Assistant Librarian David Hellman of San Francisco State University points out that the stereotype doesn’t always fit. But he does love books, so much so that it’s going to be hard to decide which to keep and which to toss to make room for the new baby.
“Librarians are not quiet, staid types who read all day, only putting their books down to remind customers to keep their voices low. A librarian’s job is actually much more complex and busy” he says, noting the many hours spent in teaching roles. He also writes book reviews for Booklist, LJ and the San Francisco Chronicle and coordinates a reading group for his library.
Part of his work these days is also planning for the upcoming renovation and expansion of the Library. During construction, collections will be housed in a Library Retrieval System that uses a robotic crane to retrieve requested materials. Once the project is complete, hundreds of thousands of volumes will be returned to open shelves. What, no robot for that part?
Just please don’t…
call him a Guybrarian….
What is a Librarian?
The world does not understand what we do? On the contrary we suffer an endless stream of stereotypes. Why does our profession get such a bad rap? Even Mrs. Kerry said that Laura Bush never had a real job when in fact she was a school librarian from 1973-1977. People also believe that the profession is only for women. When I got my degree someone asked me why I am in a women’s profession. It would seem to me that since other professions don’t have such stereotypes we need to do something about it. Professional organizations take on causes, often of political nature and ignore the political problems we endure. Shouldn’t this be an agenda item. We haven’t progressed from Marian or Mary from Its a Wondeful Life. In the dream Mary never married George Bailey and became a spinster librarian in Pottersville. ALA should table foreign policy and address a domestic issues that impact on our profession as well as the public perception of libaries in general.
Re:What is a Librarian?
“It would seem to me that since other professions don’t have such stereotypes we need to do something about it. Professional organizations take on causes, often of political nature and ignore the political problems we endure.”
And salaries. Don’t forget how ALA et al ignore the salary issues.
Re:What is a Librarian?
The harder you try to break a stereotype the more you either a. lock it in place or b. cut off your nose to spite your face.
Part of being a small ‘c’ conservative librarian means going around and shushing people. Not because its fun but because in certain parts of the library people are there to actually study and work in peace and quiet. Instead of getting defensive about the shushing, explain it.
As for the women thing, that’s just the way it is. I’ve met male nurses, doesn’t mean I don’t do a double take when a man tells me he is one. There are women construction workers, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do a double take if I ever met one.
Other careers and stereotypes? Comedians would be out of business if stereotypes didn’t exist, that or they’d create new ones. A funny joke can doom a block of society for decades. Look at the Polish!
Au contraire (ALA and salaries)
ALA is trying very hard to deal with salary issues, via their relatively new advocacy organization, the Allied Professional Association (APA). ALA, because of its tax status cannot advocate for salaries, librarians, etc., so the APA was created for just that purpose. It is, however, poorly funded and poorly supported, and apparently, unknown to many ALA members and others in the profession. I really don’t understand what the problem is with promoting it and making it a healthier, more visible part of ALA, since one of the bigger criticisms of ALA is that they don’t do enough for librarians. Anyway, here’s the page for ALA-APA. When you renew your ALA membership, there’s a check-off box to give $2.00 to APA. Please consider doing this!
Re:Au contraire (ALA and salaries)
“Please consider doing this!”
Please don’t. The APA’s solution for better salaries? Create a certificate program for Directors. That’s right, they want to increase a person’s pay by increasing the amount a person has to pay for education. Brilliant.
This little idea needs to be cut short before it does any real damage.
Re:Au contraire (ALA and salaries)
Good idea, but too bad they took an already widely used acronym, American Publishers Association. And PUBLISHERS (if the ALA knows how to approach them) might be their actual BEST source of income…the booksellers know that and encourage publishers participation in the ABA–American Booksellers Association).