[Web4lib] "They*re Everywhere You Go*: Hip and Cool Librarians

[Gerry Mckiernan]

"They*re Everywhere You Go*: Hip and Cool Librarians 

***APOLOGIES FOR RECEIPT OF DUPLICATE POSTINGS***

Colleagues/

The New York Times had a GreatArticle this past Sunday that has been
The Number One e-mailed NYT article for the past 24-36+ hours: *A
Hipper Crowd of Shushers.*

I blogged tantalizing [:-)] portions of the piece in my _Friends_ blog
on Saturday

[
http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2007/07/theyre-everywhere-you-go-hip-and-cool.html
]

<QUOTE>

Librarians? Aren*t they supposed to be bespectacled women with a love
of classic books and a perpetual annoyance with talkative patrons - the
ultimate humorless shushers?

Not any more. With so much of the job involving technology and with a
focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is
available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging - the kind that,
according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is *looking to put the
*hep cat* in cataloguing.*

[snip]

*We*re not the typical librarians anymore,* said Rick Block, an
adjunct professor at the Long Island University Palmer School and at the
Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science, both graduate
schools for librarians, in New York City.

[snip]

*I think we*re getting more progressive and hipper,* said Carrie
Ansell, a 28-year-old law librarian in Washington.

[snip]

Still, these are high-tech times. Why are people getting into this
profession when libraries seem as retro as the granny glasses so many of
the members of the Desk Set wear?*Because it*s cool,* said Ms.
Gentile, who works at the Brooklyn Museum.

*People I, going in, would never have expected were from the library
field,* she said. *Smart, well-read, interesting, funny people, who
seemed to be happy with their jobs.*

[snip]

Since matriculating to Palmer, Ms. Falgoust has met plenty of other
like-minded librarians at places such as Brooklyn Label, a restaurant,
and at Punk Rope, an exercise class. *They*re everywhere you go,*
she said.

[snip]

How did such a nerdy profession become cool - aside from the fact that
a certain amount of nerdiness is now cool? Many young librarians and
library professors said that the work is no longer just about books but
also about organizing and connecting people with information, including
music and movies.

[snip]

Jessamyn West, 38, an editor of *Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical
Librarians Speak Out* ... [snip] agreed that many new librarians are
attracted to what they call the *Library 2.0* phenomenon. *It*s
become a techie profession,* she said.

In a typical day, Ms. West might send instant and e-mail messages to
patrons, many of who do their research online rather than in the
library. She might also check Twitter, MySpace and other social
networking sites, post to her various blogs and keep current through
MetaFilter and RSS feeds. Some librarians also create Wikis or
podcasts.

[snip]

</QUOTE>

BTW: Just This Past Friday, I Told Two Patrons To *Stay Cool* As
They Left Our New RefDesk (Because of The HotHot Weather That Was/Is
Roasting/Toasting  Iowa as It Was/Is Much of The U. S.) 

Our Tech Support Person Who Was On Duty With Me  Found It Odd  * He*s
in His 20*s and Thought The Phrase Was Something That A Librarian
Wouldn*t Say. As We Left For The Day, I Reminded Him to *Stay
Cool* and We Smiled.

Little Did I / We Know: I*ve / We've Always Been "Cool"  [:-) [AND
... Hip] [:->

BTW: Don*t Forget To CheckOut The Associated Image in The Blog Post

[
http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2007/07/theyre-everywhere-you-go-hip-and-cool.html
]

Enjoy! And Happy Monday !!!

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

!!! Social Networking is People !!!
[ http://www.facebook.com/p/Gerry_McKiernan/16926735  ]

Iowa: Where the Tall Corn Flows and the (North)West Wind Blows ...
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