1947

This is odd... it kind of seems like librarians haven't changed that much since 1947, aside from the technology aspect. And the director being a man with an army of women to command.

Good Librarian/Bad Librarian

I've been gone for four months, busy getting married and honeymooning and the associated. "My husband" added to profile interests... check!

Well, the campus closed at 1pm on Wednesday and was closed all day yesterday due to the snow. We haven't had this kind of weather in over ten years. Paul (aforementioned husband) drove me to work today and we saw one of those flashy billboards stating it was 9F/-12C outside. Good times.

AL Direct mentioned both a good librarian and a bad librarian in their last newsletter. Thought you would get a kick out of them.

Library Job Titles

This link will give you an idea of all of the jobs out there for someone with an MLIS degree--and perhaps also why librarians need to know more than just the Dewey Decimal system.

TS

This is like the place where I work, except that this is massively bigger. It looks like they have about twenty tech. serv. staff, whereas in our library we have two--me and my supervisor. Our library is a lot smaller, so my supervisor and I do all of the acquisitions, cataloging, processing, mending, and stacks maintenance (which you don't see in this video--consists of inventory, shifting the collection to make space, some shelving, dusting, etc.). Kind of a goofy video, but it gives a good idea of what we do.

April Fools' Day

These are the kinds of things librarians joke about on April Fools' Day.

Ms. Dewey

One of my co-workers introduced me to Ms. Dewey the other day. She is probably about the cattiest search engine you will ever use--pretty impressive. Is this an example of the new stereotype of the librarian as a sexy college grad. in a suit and glasses?

These are the days when information is "in" and geek is the new chic.

Be sure to ask her about country music.

This is what we do with state money.

We have fun with it.

Tonight I and four other library staff members participated in a concert at our college. We sang the Java Jive, which we have been snatching small amounts of time from our state overlords to practice over the past several weeks.

There was some struggle to come up with a name; we discussed ones like the Novel Lovers, Circulation in G, and Withdraw and Destroy (which was too metal for us). Eventually we settled on The Librettos (a libretto is the text of an opera and means "little book" in Italian . . . although I have to add that through Google I discovered the actual plural in Italian is "gli libretti." Yes, I'm a geek).

Although a libretto is probably too grandiose of an image for a bunch of librarians singing the jazzy Java Jive, it was all fun and we pulled it off surprisingly well.

The rest of the concert became progressively more and more amazing. It had Monteverdi, it had Brahms, it had us, it had a ginormous jazz band playing swinging songs, including a big band version of The Nutcracker Suite during which an alto saxophonist got up and passed out Jolly Ranchers to the audience from a Santa hat.

Before it all started I was a little resigned to be there since the original two practices had turned into five or six, and I felt like I was done. But, it turned out to be so much fun. There have probably been other singing librarians, but we had that audience snapping their fingers! Everyone did well. The evening put a smile on my face and helped me unwind after a stressful week (high workloads and term project and dentist, oh my!)

To anyone who would have wanted to be informed and/or invited, but wasn't, I do apologize. I thought it wasn't worth it to ask people to come to an hour and a half concert just to hear me sing for five minutes. My co-worker took a recording, so if you're interested in seeing it, let me know and I will see what I can do.

The only really bad news about the week is still pretty good--the library is having a book sale today and tomorrow. Your direct logical conclusion to this should be that I bought some books, and you're absolutely right. And tomorrow they're a dollar a bag . . . ! (Puts hand in mouth to stifle glee and runs away)

Love and peace! One more week gone by.

What is a Librarian?

To some, this question may have an obvious answer. Most people have an image of what a librarian is already firmly implanted in their heads.

It could be that old woman, her gray hair pulled back into a severe bun. Yes, you can see her. She has horn-rimmed glasses and wears a sweater with a long skirt, under which shuffle two loafer-clad feet. She loathes fun; one bony finger lifted to her lips will "shh!" anyone into submission.

It could be that man in your high school library. He won't let you print anything. Nondescript and boring, he barely talks. If he's there to help, then why are you afraid to ask him? If he hates students, then why is he working at a school?

Maybe it could even be that shy, bookish woman whom every man hopes is secretly dying to dance on a table wearing nothing but a smile. (Just for reference: I did know a belly dancing librarian once; she wore a lot more than a smile).

Most people who imagine these kinds of characters when they hear "librarian" would be shocked to find that librarians and other information professionals come from all backgrounds, all countries, all faiths, all ages, and in all shapes and sizes. In fact, the only things I've found most of the ones I've met to hold in common are warmth, intelligence, and a certain eccentricity that goes along with a love for learning.

In fact, that brings to mind one thing that librarians are: they are people who love to learn, and who love to help others learn. Contrary to popular belief, however, librarians do not know everything. They merely have access to (almost) everything.

During my short time working in various libraries, I have come to view a librarian as a conduit. A librarian does not contain the knowledge of the world (in this day and age, that is becoming increasingly impossible), but rather serves as a key to unlock the gateway to this knowledge, a dam to hold back and manage the information deluge, if you will. And with the amount of information available today, one must have a steady heart, not to mention a strong back to manage it.

A librarian is someone who works hard at tasks that may seem boring to the general populace. While the work can be repetitive, I have never been able to put it on the level of "boring." Librarians get to handle, or at least work around, materials that range in subject from mythology to gun control, from Omega-3 fatty acids to the dynamics of a spinning frisbee and everything in between. It's hard to be bored in a library unless one really tries.

Most of all, a librarian is of necessity a servant. Whether it is to the public, to academia, to a company, a church, a law firm or a hospital, librarians are there to organize someone else's information and then help others find it. Librarians are there to make sure that all information resources one could possibly need are at one's fingertips.

Librarians are a motley crew who don't quite belong anywhere else but a library. They are people of few or many words, male or female, young or old. They are black, white, brown, pinkish, and sometimes green (but we are not sure of this). They are passionate, with souls of ink and fire. Some of them don't wear glasses.

But I do. And I'm not really a librarian yet, but it will happen. Just a few years, and I too will be able to enjoy the title and join the ranks of some of the nicest, funniest, most interesting people I have ever known.

Here's to the journey.