Want Your Own Action Figure?
Posted March 28, 2012 by Julie Steenson
All I have to do is look around a typical GSLIS classroom and any librarian stereotypes disappear. I dont know anyone who looks like this action figure (although I am guilty of wearing my hair up in a clip on occasion
who has time to style hair in library school?).
As I regard my peers on any given day, I see a mix of men and women, young and not-so-young, tattooed and pierced, in all manner of clothing and hair styles. Any doubters just need to peek at the Men of the Stacks 2012 calendar: http://menofthestacks.com/ or check out the Belly-dancing Librarian: http://www.sonic.net/~erisw/bdlib.html to know that these old-fashioned shushing librarian stereotypes have no place in modern librarianship. We are fun! We are tech savvy! We love helping people!
Librarians come in all shapes and sizes just like everybody else…so why do the stereotypes persist? And how will we change them? To learn more, check out this book by Ruth Kneale: You Don’t Look Like a Librarian: Shattering Stereotypes and Creating Positive New Images in the Internet Age. Together, we will change our image, one librarian at a time!