“WESTMINSTER, Md. — Bryan Hissong is 31, happily married, and the father of a 2-year-old named Olivia. He seems quite content with his life.
But Marilyn Johnson, who is not his wife, loves him and has said so very publicly. It doesn’t matter that she has never met him. Hissong is a librarian.
He doesn’t look like the clichéd librarian of old. He favors plaid shirts and is sporting a beard on his babyface — but that doesn’t matter to Johnson, either. She’s well aware that librarians wear many disguises these days. Often they’re pierced, tattooed, punk with bright blue hair. She loves them all.
Who knew librarians had become so … cool?” asks USA Today (we did).
Johnson does an interview with Jon Michaud in this week’s New Yorker blog. Here’s a snippet:
Ever think of becoming a librarian yourself?
I worked as a page at my local library when I was in high school. I earned 95 cents an hour. After a year, I asked for a raise; I wanted to earn a dollar an hour. They turned me down, so I quit. And that was the end of my library career. I’m really sorry now I played hardball over a nickel. I’m never more at home than when I’m in a library.
How nice to have the reading public recognize the intrinsic value of your profession and the many marvelous examples of librarianship at work.
Recognition Finally??
It seems that librarians and libraries are possibly receiving the recognition that they deserve with Marilyn Johnson’s newest book entitled, “This book is Overdue”. Truly it is about time, but even more important than the tribute is the fact that Ms. Johnson is painting us as one of the keys to the future, being a librarian is suddenly “cool” and the many abilities we hold for sleuthing out information makes us rather magically to those around us. Yes, it is great that libraries are utilized even more with an economy that is at the very least in a severe recession, but what will happen when the economy turns around? Will librarians again find themselves on the outer edges of the professional realm? Not if we grasp the opportunity before us, now is the time to make our indelible mark on the future, we just have to imagine the possibilities that information technologies hold and be willing to let go of the past and outdated, allowing the future of information to take on its own life. If we can do that, we will be free to conjure up magical ways that we can relate to our patrons making their library experience something they are excited about repeating. Let’s not be afraid, rather let us focus on the future of information and get ready to make our mark!