From "Librarians" by Ambeth Ocampo (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9 March 2007):
It is unfortunate that people have prejudged certain types of work, like those of librarians, teachers and even historians, as "boring" professions. Worse, there is a stereotype image of an uptight, four-eyed woman like the comic book’s "Miss Tapia" who spends her time scolding, or silencing students and library users.What can I say? After writing about the need to hire librarians for libraries, I discovered that the highest-ranking friend of Filipino librarians just devoted a column to our profession. There are some gentle jabs and overly-optimistic generalizations, but overall, this column should be much more effective in promoting our profession than the one by the useless what's-his-name =)
I have known many eminent librarians, including our National Librarian Prudenciana Cruz who is several kilos heavier than Miss Tapia, or the University of the Philippines’ librarian Salvacion Arlante who has the same eyeglasses and demeanor but not the hair-do. Then there are the librarians at the Lopez Museum and the Ateneo Rizal Library, both young ones and “young once,” who do not fit the stereotype.
