Post the Last

Yes, readers (all two of you), I'm afraid this is my last post. You sad sappy suckers are just going to have to choke on* the previous posts, as there will be no more new posts. I urge you to read intensively, as well as extensively, in the grand tradition of Medeival scholars, who spent their lives poring over the same texts, extracting new insights from the same books. I firmly believe in this traditon, as quality writing not only deserves repeated reading--it often requires it. That's sometimes the only way to reap the rich rewards offered to the careful and dedicated reader. My blog is just that important.

Anyway, so my subject matter was the subversive image of librarians, and as I stated before, the material on the topic is pretty skimpy. Once you get away from the frumpy, spinster librarian, there really isn't much on the subject. The Naughty/Sexy Librarian is the only other popular image of the librarian, and you can only research that so long before you feel both bored by repetative readings AND a little dirty. I was sort of expecting a little more material--like the librarian as a hippie/liberal activist, or, conversely, an agent of repression (in rare, but plausible, cases).

So, what are my conclusions? Uh, none, really.

Well, no. Really, I think the next stereotype of the librarian is the one being cultivated by my generation--the Wild n' Crazy Library. (Oh, man, I hope that's the exact term used to describe that image, too.) The image of the librarian who is just so outrageous, and sexy, and hip, and exciting and interesting, and all that crap. The article I read for 2000 and later is all about the plethora of blogs and websites created by "wild" librarians, with titles like "AngryLibrarian," "Belly Dancing Librarian," "Punk Librarian," and such and so forth. It also points out that the majority of these websites lack depth and insight, because they're concerned primarily with cultivating the image of being cool AND a librarian. I don't think "ironic" is the right term for it, but my generation of librarians is actively--and unwittingly--on its way to cultivating a new image of librarians being kinda dumb.

I could go into a tirade about how this is not just a reaction to the old image of the stuffy, boring uptight librarian, but endemic of our culture's fascination with style over substance. I think the preoccupation with How You Look While You Live Your Life, as opposed to How You Live Your Life, has reached a distressing level of saturation, and librarians are the latest victims to it. I'm not against looking nice, or being fabulous/glamorous, but I have a huge problem with the idea that empowerment (especially for women) focuses this much on how one looks. I mean, really, think about the messages in things like "Chick Lit" books, or shows like "Sex and the City." The underlining messages for women are 1) Buy Shoes 2) Find Your Perfect Man In Order To Be Complete and 3) Be a Slut In The Meantime.

What does that little tirade about popular culture's hidden messages to our generation have to do with librarianship and its image? Mainly, I think that my generation is being pumped full of these messages, and even people attracted to a thoughtful, interesting, and important career like librarianship have been infected with said messages. I'd like to think that the same people who are librarians or are going to school to become librarians will be able to resist the lazy tempation that is sucumbing to the "glamour" of being SO sexy/interesting/hip/outrageous. Don't get me wrong--I'm not some hateful, trollish beast jealous of other people for wanting to be all those things. I'm just saying that I really hope that my generation of librarians will provide substance to go with all that style, and plenty of it.

Also, I would like it even more if the next popular stereotype of librarians is the "Got My Degree Through Mail Order Classes While Serving Out My Sentence" Librarian. Think about it. I have.

*Thank you, Modest Mouse

Annotations

Well, this is the post where I list some of my sources for my annotation assignments for LIS 505. Gotta tell ya, they were slim pickin's when it came to my subject matter.
Anyway, chew on these:

Sexism in the Library Profession
Library Journal
Ella Gaines YatesDec. 15, 1979

“Librarians in Pornography”
Dan and Gail Lester
http://www.riverofdata.com/librariana/porn/
Accessed Dec. 2, 2006

The Public Image of Libraries and Librarians as a Potential Barrier to Rural Access
Brad MacDonald
Rural Libraries
Vol. 15, no. 1 1995

“On the ‘Wild Librarian’ Websites”
No Author listed
Library Juice 5:33
http://libr.org/juice/issues/vol5/LJ_5.33.html#1
Posted Oct. 31, 2002
Accessed Dec. 6, 2006

Ernesto's Pick

I was chatting with Ernesto, my parole officer, about my blog project earlier this week. He asked me what print sources I've used about subversive images, and I had to admit, none. He wasn't too happy about this (well, I think he was more upset that I tested positive for herion), and chastised me about forgetting the character Henry DeTamble, from "The Time Traveller's Wife." (A book I highly reccommend, by the way.)

"The Time Traveller's Wife," by Audrey Niffenegger, is one of my favorite books, as well as Ernesto's. (Funny story--Ernesto and I actually met in a book club before the liquor store incident.) The main characters are Hentry DeTamble and his wife Clare Abshire. Henry is a librarian--in fact, on the back of the edition I own (2003, Harvest Books, Harcourt Inc.), Henry is described as "a dashing, adventuresome librarian."

It's definitely an interesting portrayal of a librarain: Henry loves punk music, abuses alcohol and drugs and is promisuous before meeting his wife, gets into fistfights, and is an accomplished cat burglar. He also speaks German and French, loves cooking, quotes Rilke and Heidegger, and can hold up his end of an argument over politics and philosophy with doctors and lawyers. So, he's a bad-ass, but a classy, educated bad-ass.

Anyway, I'd be remiss to not mention this book, as it manages to avoid the stereotypes of librarians (there are some scenes with Henry's co-workers, none of whom subscribe to any stereotypes), and also describes some of the inner-workings of a large research library; in this case, the Newberry Library in Chicago. Niffenegger has obvious done some thoughtful research into librarianship. She's also created a character I like to think of the Jungian Archetype of the Bad Ass Librarian.