New Member

[veronica]

Hello everyone!
I have recently joined Web4Lib and would like to introduce myself to list
members.  My name is Veronica Tastl and I am a mature-age student in the
second year of an Information Management and Systems Degree course at Monash
University in Melbourne, Australia.  My goal is to become a librarian upon
gaining ALIA accreditation.  I am very interested in public libraries and am
a member of a local Library Friends group.

As part of my library stream subjects, I am required to observe and
participate in a professional discussion forum, and to consider the role of
a listserv as a means of knowledge sharing and development for its members.
I have been reading through some of Web4Lib's excellent archive postings and
would just like to start by saying how much I enjoyed the Cartoon
contribution.

In thinking about the long-suffering image of librarians, two very different
unconventional examples come to mind:  Terry Pratchett's marvellously
bizarre Discworld
character, and our ABC television news held a pleasant surprise a few months
ago, when some young,
vibrant (and dare I say attractive!) librarians in Tasmania were busily
knitting thermal wear for
fairy penguins caught in an oil slick.

I wonder to what extent, if at all, IT has re-shaped the librarian
stereotype?

Veronica Tastl