[WEB4LIB] Librarian Stereotype

[Daniel Messer]

veronica wrote:

> Sincere thanks to everyone who responded to my query about the modern image
> of librarians and helped to make my first posting such a positive
> experience.  The range of comments and further information/links provided,
> with a nice dash of humour, was a credit to your profession.  Please accept
> my apologies for the delayed acknowledgement, but I was offline for the past
> week with a head cold.
> (b) Our Melbourne newspaper "The Age" described a woman who had received a
> prison sentence as having been "...transformed from a mild-mannered
> librarian to a gun-wielding hijacker" and yes, she wore glasses!
> ("Helicopter hijack woman jailed for love" July 21, 2001, page 6). As per
> Daniel Messer's eloquent posting, the contrasting epitomisation of meek
> dedication to mankind's knowledge and anything to do with books.

    Now that I think about it, there was one thing I totally missed and didn't
see here in the list. I'm a huge fan of Hong Kong Action Cinema, stuff like
Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, John Woo, and the like. There was a popular
movie in Hong Kong that also did pretty well here in the states. It was called
Black Mask and it starred Jet Li as a biogenetically and cybernetically enhanced
cyborg. He kicks butt, is a crack shot, a martial arts master... and works as a
librarian. :) Perhaps there's hope yet in the Hong Kong area for librarians!


>   Would anyone care to
> comment
> on any negative user attitudes and reactions when electronic resources are
> provided instead of books?  Do (most) patrons still prefer to be directed to
> the shelves?

    In my experience, it depends heavily on the patron. More specifically it
depends on their age. I've noticed that a child or a teen won't even blink twice
when you say "Sure I have that information. Let me bring it up off the
Internet." However, middle aged people (whatever "middle age" is) tend to doubt
the authenticity or the reliability of electronic sources. Unofficially, I chalk
this up as watching far too many episodes of Dateline or 20/20 when they go into
15 year online "lawyers" and that ilk. Seniors seem to have a sense of wonder
about the whole thing. With seniors I've not had the doubting like I do with the
middle aged folks. They sometimes see it as a kind of magic. They came in with
what they thought to be an obscure question, something like wanting to know the
phone number of a Best Western in Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico. They seem
to be honestly amazed when you can get that information in less that a minute,
depending on network traffic. If they ask anything at all about the validity of
the source, it's usually something along the lines of "How did you get it so
quickly?"

Dan

--
Mondai wa
The subject in question...
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Daniel Messer, Technologies Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
(509) 452-8541 x712
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
                     -Hunter S. Thompson