You don't look like a librarian: Resources!

Welcome to the earlier resource list for You don't look like a librarian!, a collection of talks and resources relating to the image and perception of librarians in the Internet age. I would like to extend many thanks to both the SLA Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics division and Information Today's Marketing Library Services for their support.

We Can Find Anything!

This is a list of information, articles, talks, conferences, and online resources I've found that relate to the topic at hand, from 2002-2003. There is NO GUARANTEE that the links are still working, although I do my best; sadly, some sites just remove things after a few months....

December 30, 2003: Happy New Year! Ogden, Allison. Recataloging Librarians: We're not all "shh!" and no play!. Project for LIBR 500, University of British Columbia School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. December 6, 2002.
November 10, 2003: Ah, Internet Librarian. It does a mind good to spend three days with geeky librarians of all ages, colors and genders. I loved it!
November 10, 2003: Eliot, Jan. Stone Soup. Online comic dated November 2, 2003. "It's.... ACTION FIGURE LIBRARIAN!"
October 15, 2003: Overdue gets into the librarian doll thing! Overdue comic strip, October 13, 2003.
October 15, 2003: Order your Nancy Pearl doll from Archie McPhee!
October 9, 2003: Cederer, Claire. A Librarian is Making a Big Noise. New York Times, October 9, 2003. About more than just "the doll", this article talks about Nancy Pearl's "Book Lust" - and her "elementary function of the librarian: pressing a book into a patron's hands and saying, 'Read this.'"
September 29, 2003: I try not to get political in these pages but the statements made by this, erm, "gentleman" tell me that he's definitely in love with our stereotype and is not happy with the new image of librarians - especially not with our image as defenders of free speech. Sigh. The ideological librarians, Rich Lowry, Townhall.com, September 22, 2003.
September 12, 2003: EBay Sellers Opinions About "Librarian" Clothes: Frumpy or Bumpy?
September 12, 2003: Librarians are Sexy!
September 8, 2003: Figure of shushing librarian brings protests from real ones, Arizona Daily Star, 6 September 2003. Also, Librarians oppose shushing action figure, CNN Online, 8 September 2003. The discussion is heating up! All the more publicity and attention to the topic, as far as I'm concerned.
September 2, 2003: Librarians to the Rescue: New Action Figure Salutes Unsung Heroes. Yes, more on the librarian action figure; an NPR interview with Nancy Pearl, the model for the figurine.
August 22, 2003: Yet more on the Librarian Doll! On p. 15 of the August Library Journal (v. 128, no. 13) is a picture of the Nancy Pearl action figure, with the text "the figure pokes fun at an antiquated librarian stereotype; pushing a button raises the right arm with extended index finger into the classic "shush" position. Pearl told the Seattle Times it will determine who in the field has a sense of humor (some have already started carping). ....Pearl insists that "the role of a librarian is to make sense of the world of information. If that's not a qualitification for superherodom, what is?"
August 13, 2003: Meet the Butt-Kicking Librarian!
July 29, 2003: Tobias, Jenny. Ad Lib: The Advertised Librarian. Information Outlook, February 2003, p. 12-18. (Requires SLA login.) Jenny gave a really great presentation at SLA and gave me a lot of things to chew over!
July 29, 2003: Mach, Michelle. By Any Other Name: Job Titles Used by Information Professionals. Information Outlook, April 2003, p. 18. Quite the list!
July 29, 2003: Abram, Stephen. Dressing Up and Taking Our Show on the Road. Information Outlook, April 2003, p. 23-24. (Requires SLA login.) An insightful commentary on image issues in librarianship.
July 21, 2003: Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Not your typical librarian anymore!. Library Journal, June 15 2003, page 17.
July 18, 2003: Broom, Jack. Not all see librarian's finger to lips as tongue-in-cheek . Seattle Times, July 17, 2003. A librarian doll followup!
July 17, 2003: McGinnis, Michele. The Bodacious Library: No Sissies Allowed! Information Outlook, June 2003, pp. 21-22. (Requires SLA login.) Also see her April 2002 interview at NewBreed Librarian, where you won't have to log in. Does this sound like the coolest job, or what?
July 15, 2003: Broom, Jack. Toymaker finds librarian who's a real doll. Seattle Times, July 15, 2003. Good news or bad for our image? Tough to say - folks seem to be evenly split on this, and I'm torn myself. On the one hand, it's great to have an action figure doll! On the other, I'm not sure how I feel about the staid suit, sensible shoes, and shushing action. On the other other hand, as Ms. Pearl says, "She likes to believe that today's librarians are secure enough in their work that they won't take offense at the old cliché." I'm torn! Am I secure enough or does the same old sterotype bother me? Argh!
July 2, 2003: Casburn, Steve. Sex Differences in Propensity to Ask for Library Reference Assistance. A paper produced for a Psychology 100 class, May 1998.
June 30, 2003: Danner, Richard. Redefining a Profession. Online version of an article published in Law Library Journal v.90, 1998.
June 30, 2003: Mills, John and Marion Bannister. Library and librarian image as motivators and demotivators influencing academic staff use of university libraries (note this is a PDF file). Performance Measurement & Metrics, Vol. 2, No. 3, December 2001, pp. 159-171.
June 30, 2003: Schneider, Karen. The Librarian's Image, Unrevised. New York Times, October 29, 2000.
June 30, 2003: Gillespie, Kerry. Librarians turn a new leaf. Toronto Star Online, June 15, 2003.
May 28, 2003: Tetley, Deborah. Move over, Playboy ... these librarians are latest pinups. Canada.com, May 26, 2003. (Sadly, their story about "Hot Picks @Your Library" is now gone. But... you can read more in the next item!)
May 28, 2003: Hot Picks @Your Library - getcher calendars here!
May 7, 2003: Siles Martín, Fernando. Barbol Blog. May 6, 2003.
May 1, 2003: Carroll, Sean. How to find anything online. I particularly like the subtopic in the posting titled Search Better: Go Back to the Library. Worth a read! PC Magazine, May 27, 2003.
April 14, 2003: WordSpy's definition of "librarian chic".
April 8, 2003: Fulsang, Deborah. Dorky shoes step out. "What's the latest runway look? Librarian chic!" Well, heck.
April 7, 2003: Acerro, Heather; Allan, Adriane; Bartel, Cheryl; Nemitz, DarLynne; Vincke, Dana. Image of Libraries in Popular Culture. UCLA GSEIS course presentation. Includes presentations titled The Librarian with an Alterego Convention; Image of Libraries and Librarians in Literature; Librarians in Children's and Teen Literature; Librarians in the Movies; Male Librarians: Stereotypes and Role Models; Past and Fuure Images Versus Current Actuality; Terror in the Library; Unconventional Librarians. Last updated November 28, 2001. There's some good stuff here, folks!
April 7, 2003: Davis, Gillian. The Image of the Librarian: What's in a Name?. Suite101, published October 22, 2000.
April 7, 2003: Blue, Anthony. Stamping Out Negative Stereotypes One Letter at a Time. Information Outlook, v. 6, #12, December 2002, pg. 38.
January 27, 2003: Atkins, Holly. The library's fresher than you think. St. Petersburg Times, January 20, 2003.
December 18, 2002: Neutron, Jonny (aka the Rockabilly Librarian), blog entry for December 17, 2002. He's a librarian, get used to it!
November 12, 2002: Whaley, Monty. Librarian slots stack up in state. Denver Post, November 11, 2002.
November 5 2002: Litwin, Rory. On the 'Wild Librarian' Websites. Library Juice 5:33, October 31, 2002.
October 21 2002: Hubbard, John. Librarians: we're not what you think, October 20, 2002. I first saw it on Slashdot in the thread Librarians are 31337. Read the postings if you have a chance - there's some wildly-varying opinions about librarians in there. (Personally, I had to restrain myself from firing off some rather annoyed replies after reading some of the postin s...especially the one consisting of two lines, one saying librarians are completely technically incompetent and the second saying most librarians can't read. I will be calm, I will be calm...)
October 18 2002: Standley, Jane. NYC librarians reject 'prim' dress code. BBC News, August 3, 2002.
October 17 2002: OK, so I'm a little behind in reading Library Juice. This talk was mentioned in Library Juice 5:24, July 11, 2002. Thanks, Rory! (And whoever sent in the link, too!)
October 17 2002: from LISNews.com, A look at the secret lives of librarians. Story Posted by Blake on Monday April 10 2000, from a no-longer-available story from the Chicago Daily Southtown (which I would love to get my hands on!).
August 23 2002: Poling, Nikki. A Testimony to the Non-Stereotypical Librarian: Meet Sandra Kitt. Information Outlook, v. 6, #7, July 2002, pgs. 34-36.
August 23 2002: Lane, Mike. Political cartoon from the August 10, 2002 Baltimore Sun.
August 7 2002: Zimmerman, Michael. The Librarian Image: A Battle Plan for Change. MLS: Marketing Library Services, v 11 # 6, September 1997, pgs 3-5.
August 7 2002: Dempsey, Kathy. Does Your Manager Know?. Computers in Libraries, v. 21, #8, September 2001, p 6.
August 7 2002: Lenzini, Rebecca. Winning a Political War: the Washington State Library's Recent Battle. MLS: Marketing Library Services, v. 16, #4, May/June 2002, pgs 7-10.
August 7 2002: Dempsey, Kathy. Visibility: Decloaking 'the Invisible Librarian'. Searcher, v. 10, #7, July/August 2002, pgs 76-81.
August 7 2002: Shamel, Cynthia. Building a Brand: Got Librarian?. Searcher v. 10, #7, July/August 2002, pg. 60-71.
July 25 2002: New Librarian's Symposium, in Brisbane Australia, December 6 and 7, 2002. Be a bright and funky librarian!
July 22 2002: Ford, Paul. Librarians and Tigers - "a hypothesis regarding portrayals of librarians, intermixed with images of tigers in libraries. A fiction, sort of." July 11, 2002. Read this.
June 28 2002: O'Dwyer, Jack. WEPR see bias; others disagree, from Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter, January 24, 2001.
June 28 2002: Prime, Eugenie. Eugenie Prime: Librarian for the Digital Age. Unknown date; and sadly, it's no longer on the HP site.
June 28 2002: ALIAnet greeting cards for Library Week - these are great! Check them out!
June 28 2002: ALA. Library profession faces shortage of librarians. Last updated October 29, 2001.
June 27 2002: Manley, Will. And Then There Were Nuns. American Libraries, May 2002, p. 108.
June 26 2002: Kalan, Abby. Are We Sabotaging Ourselves with our 'Professional' Image? American Libraries, May 2002, p. 42.
Ruth A. Kneale, ruth@librarian-image.net, . No, I don't look like a librarian.