Totally irks me...

i was in library school sitting through some presentations by a couple of my juniors. There were several things that i didn't agree on with them during the presentations.. i guess alot has to do with the fact that they were actually full-time students with no library experience... they have a different concept of library operations and had so many loop holes in their presentations. But what totally irks me out was that given that these people are yonds younger than me and are supposedly to be the next gen's librarians... both of the presenters coincidentally put up the presentation using graphics of the same image depicting a librarian... a STEREOTYPICAL librarian (may i just add).. see the image used below...

(image was taken from animationfactory.com)

It's funny cos after the contact and interaction that they would have had with the professors and lecturers and fellow classmates who are working in libraries... they'd know that none of us look like that at all. Even my lecturer commented in class that there was (sorry.. it's IS) a stereotype of librarians.. My question to the presenters is.. "Do you think that you will conform and transform yourself to become that image once you get your certification and become a librarian?"

Years ago, when i just started on my job.. i came across this ad that i thought was the coolest ever... i craved for the car since then.. but given the high costs of car ownership in Singapore and my pay.... i had to abandon my dream... doesn't stop me from dreaming about this car or this car either. Maybe i'm strike lottery or something...



The ad for the Honda Accord V-6 Coupe described the car as : "The automotive equivalent of a really hot librarian. Good-looking, yet intelligent. Fun, yet sophisticated. All in a very eye-catching 200-horsepower package."

i would like that think that that's so very me!!! So i forwarded the ad to my friends.

One of my friends replied my mail and sent me this picture back.



i went "how did you get this picture?"... He replied, "Oh... it was the first picture that came out when i used google images for 'librarian'". Now... i tried to look for that image today.. and you know something... i had to go through 30 pages of results before finding this image again... and going through the results.. a lot of the librarians aren't like the stereotype at all.... Bespectacled with a chain link... hair in a bun.. grounchy.. middle to old aged woman. Instead.. they look happy.. smiley... youthful... just like anyone walking on the street... found this feature in a local magazine recently..

Guess who's a librarian here?

So why then this image still persists? i have no answer to that... one thing for sure is that if we didn't raise our objections to the images used in class during that presentation... maybe my fellow classmates might have continued using that template for the rest of their school term???? :P

if you are keen to explore more on the stereotype image of librarians.. here's a link, go to http://www.ibiblio.org/librariesfaq/sect7.htm

Meanwhile... if only 1 can get one of these tees to wear to work.. i'd go to work happy!!



This tee can be bought from www.estorescanada.com/librariangear/products/0503.html. Cute librarian tees can be bought from librariangear.com or here. Seems that the link is not working today though.. check it out some other time. they have really cool stuff there..

Hint: Anyone thinking of buying me presents.... go there!!! :) *i'm shameless*