It is not enough to complain about the existence of librarian stereotypes; alternative images must be presented.
Note: Click on the arrow to watch the video. It will take some time to load, so I suggest you click on the "pause" button while waiting. The video will stop playing, but it will continue to load.When I started this blog, I hoped I could get away with being a "journalist" and write in the third person. I did not wish to be anonymous, but it was also not my intention that the blog would be about me. But there's really no way to avoid coming forward. As I wrote in a soon-to-be-published article, "Self-promotion is a necessary evil."
I found out about Cynthia Wilson's "I Am a Librarian" project after thinking of doing the video above, but we're basically thinking along the same lines:
The image of the librarian is currently portrayed as a homely woman or a sexy woman with glasses and a book in hand. Well, men are librarians too... When I meet people and tell them that I am a librarian, first they comment that they cannot believe that you need a Master’s degree to be a librarian and then they say well, you don’t look like a librarian. Showing pride in our profession and sending a positive image will help the world to realize that the stereotype is not true of all librarians.Wilson also has a blog and will probably eventually publish the photos she took. But I hope there will be others who will do what I've done. All you need is a digital camera or cell phone that can take videos, and the means to upload your video to YouTube. If there were more authentic librarian videos, then perhaps the relevance and view count results for "librarian" would not be so embarrassing (see "librarians are ugly" and "Naughty Librarian").
Finally, in case you've heard about "Marian the Librarian," but don't know where it came from, click on the link to watch the song from the musical The Music Man, as performed by Matthew Broderick.
Thanks to Hans Hwang for his technical expertise and the use of his equipment.
Categories: Stereotypes, About Vonjobi
