Amy Disch emailed me a segment of National Public Radio’s Bryant Park Project that deals with the scarcity of black, male librarians via an interview with Julius Jefferson of the Library of Congress. He is attending the American Library Association conference and will be discussing the issue there.

Some of you will appreciate how they draw out the importance of librarians as culture keepers and how minorities can play a very important role in that, the discussion about what it takes to be a librarian (master’s degree, usually), and why there are so few African-Americans in the profession. One bit I didn’t catch in the story is whether the numbers apply to all librarians or just librarians who are likely to be or are members of the ALA. Does the same hold true for special librarianship?

I couldn’t quickly find the name of the interviewer, but it sounds a little like Tavis Smiley. *flashes back to radio days*

Thanks for sharing, Amy!

Addendum 7/3: Apparently, the fellow mentioned above left quite a positive impression on a few of our colleagues because I’ve gotten several emails from people confirming his identity. Thanks for the reminders. Maybe I should have spelled out that I was intentionally not naming him because I don’t generally name people on this weblog without their consent unless they’re named in a source to which I’m linking or have done something very publicly to which I’m referring, like Stephen Abram giving a speech at a conference. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who remembers him and has noticed his absence at subsequent SLAs.

LD, if you’re out there somewhere, feel free to self-identify and give us an update.

For more info about the film:

http://hollywoodlibrarian.com/

For more info on the screening at the Beverly Public Library:

http://www.noblenet.org/beverly

Posted by Rich

I saw this post on Library Stuff called I’m Scared. Hold Me., so I followed the link and found a post about librarians who blog.

"There’s an ENTIRE SUBCULTURE OF LIBRARIANS WHO BLOG out there. A sad, bizarre subculture. … LIBRARIANS. Who BLOG. What in the HELL could they have to BLOG about??"

What’s even cooler is the link to the retraction of those thoughts.

"I have to say, not just from the comments I have received, but from my time as a librarian (albeit not a REAL librarian, for it was just my job through university), that LIBRARIANS ARE COOL. And funny. And, you have to respect the fact that they can find a needle in a haystack for you when you really need it …"

* * *

"The days of the old lady with the tight bun who “shhhhhh”-es you all the time are GONE, man. These people are COOL. These people KNOW tons of stuff, man."

I just figured CinnamonOpus has a problem expressing sarcasm and humor online like me. I was actually a little surprised to find out the intial post was serious.

I’m a librarian. I blog. I’m proud of that. I have lots to say on my blog. (Although, apparently so do the spammers at the moment.) Some people find my work here useful.

I spotted this link on a discussion list and found the page a bit amusing. It’s transforming a kinda punky librarian into someone more along the lines of a lipstick librarian. For some librarians, the punky image is the better image. The lipstick librarian is one that’s closer to the traditional stereotype many dislike.

Shirl Kennedy, a librarian at MacDill Air Force Base and a contributor to the ResourceShelf, recently made Tampa Bay’s 10 News because she rides a motorcycle to work and wrote the book The Savvy Guide to Motorcycles. The news station presents the story as if it’s a surprise that a librarian would ride a motorcycle.

Thanks, TM, for sharing the story.

Hello, Adam. I’m j. I’m a software, well, information technology innovator and a librarian. If you don’t believe that, perhaps some of my friends can vouch for me. If your RSS dinner meshes with my crowded schedule, perhaps I can prove to you in person that some librarians do cool things with technology.

Y’all, let’s keep Steven’s thread going. If you’re a librarian and you do cool things with technology, chime in.

Addendum 3/29: I met Adam tonight. On the one hand, he kept saying he was kidding in his post, but on the other hand, he kept making negative, broad sweeping generalizations about librarians. I don’t think I was able to convince him that librarians can be technology innovators. Let’s keep this thread moving.

Completely counter to librarianship being an excellent career worth pursuing is this article about research showing librarians are stressed out and bored–another stereotype of the profession.

People on the discussion list for solo librarians, where a colleage in New Zealand shared the article, wonder which librarians or library workers the researcher asked and if the journalist is putting a negative perception of librarians into the article or if the researcher is really as down on librarians as the words indicate.

Sure, my job gets really stressful sometimes. But I certainly wouldn’t say it’s boring. There are boring tasks, but overall, it’s anything but boring.

Addenda 1/17: I saw an e-mail on a solo librarians’ discussion list saying more data about this research will be available from SHL after January 23, when Saqib Saddiq presents his findings at a conference.

The Press, a New Zealand newspaper, published an article countering The Times piece.

Marty Nemko of US News and World Report lists librarianship as one of the excellent career choices of 2006, falling in line with the common perception (and quite possibly fact) that being a librarian is a great job.

I’ve read several posts about Nemko’s comments. Steven’s thoughts are shared by others.

I heard a blip on an October Weekend America about a committee that’s part of the American Psychological Association that focuses on the portrayal of those professionals in films. It’s a way of monitoring the stereotype in order to counteract it. Is there something like that for librarians? Do we need one?

The radio show Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me jokes about radical, militant librarians early in the December 17 show and asks at the show’s end what librarians will do to get back at the FBI.