She soars through the air on a computer mouse. Her chin juts forward. She is powerful and determined.
No wearer of ancient tennis shoes, this one. Instead, clad in purple spandex, she is at the ready to help every adult seeking information, every teen with a research paper, and every child in every school.
New Jersey’s Super Librarian made her statewide debut in September 2003 at a press conference held at the East Brunswick Public Library and through 2100 cable television spots during the week of September 15. Read more here.
Quite a similar theme to the Australian Library and Information Association’s 1998 LIbrary and Information Week theme of The Incredible Librarian. Have a look.
Super Librarian
The Super Librarian on the Australian library publication looks like she has breast implants. Do we really want to sexualize the image of the librarian?
Re:Super Librarian
Yes we do!!!
Re:Super Librarian
As a comic reader I’ve seen bigger. She’s got big biceps and thighs to go with them so there is a look of strength not just ‘busty’.
If we’re going to promote an image it should be a healthy-body-as-well-as-mind one, as in ‘yes we do go outside and have fun not just sit inside and read and create new shades of pale with our skin.’
Re:Super Librarian
I think you misunderstood the question. I asked whether we want to sexualize the image of the librarian. I think you took the question as whether we want to have sex with the librarian.
Re:Super Librarians come in several varieties
Some librarians look like Nancy Pearl, some look like Xena, some look like your grandma, some look like me. (Some days I’m hippie flavored. Some days I just have a tired, overworked 40-something mom thing going on. On occassion, you might catch me looking like what someone might call “professional.”)
I don’t think you can get much ageement over how to represent librarians as a whole. For instance, I went to a reception with my pal Mimi at Annual. She was sporting 4 inch acrylic platform shoes, a short dress, and a nose piercing. As she went outside to smoke, someone else I was sitting with remarked, “She’s not a librarian!” Well, by golly, she is a librarian, and a damn good one. I’m okay with a buff, busty librarian, because, well, some librarians are buff and busty. There are even a group of devotees out there who find librarians porn-worthy.
And anyone who has ever heard poet/author Sherman Alexie speak knows about his librarian fetish.