Some years ago now, I wrote a piece on the emergence of the anti-stereotype-stereotype in librarianship. There was an increasing number of articles in the mass media describing librarians as cool, hip, tattooed etc.
Everything old is new again with the latest piece in a long line in the New York Times, A Hipper Crowd.
My feelings on the subject are the same as ever.
I read the NYT article on young librarians and found it to be quite offensive.
I’m middle-aged (47) and I don’t want to be typecast as part of the “older generation” of librarians who are cranky and hate people. The problem with articles like this is they continue to perpetuate the stereotype for all but the very youngest in the profession. Since the majority of workers in our (or any) profession are older than 35, this type of drivel only serves to make most of us feel like pariahs.
I have tattoos, I listen to progressive music and I’m technologically savvy. I sincerely doubt, however, that an article will ever be written about how “cool” I am!
Exactly! We welcome every member of our community to our libraries, so we should be just as inclusive of every member of our profession.
I read a statistic last week from The Age newspaper that only 12% of librarians are under the age of 35 (at least in Australia). Although it is important to promote the profession to encourage new entrants, it is important equally to remember the other 88%.
I think librarians have always been cool, just quiet about it.