In this increasingly information-dependent world we live in, occasionally the world’s oldest information specialists get some credit. In this short article by Marty Nemko on the Kiplinger.com web site, being a librarian is listed as being one of the 7 great careers for 2007.:

Librarian. Forget about the image of librarian as mousy bookworm. Today’s librarian is a high-tech information sleuth, a master of mining cool databases (well beyond Google) to unearth the desired nuggets. Plus you’ll probably have regular hours and good job security. See the American Library Association’s Web site or The Librarian’s Career Guidebook, by Priscilla Shontz, and Straight from the Stacks: A First-Hand Guide to Careers in Library and Information Science, Laura Townsend Kane.

This kind of “coverage” is great for librarianship. Even if a million more people don’t come swarming the library schools, desperate for a piece of the action, is certainly will be “good for business” to be described as “high-tech information sleuth[s]“. It connects us with technology and detective work, two very favourable concepts in the popular sphere, and even goes so far as to point out that there is very often useful and wanted information out there that someone armed only with Google cannot find.

But it always begins with the “mousy bookworm”. Immediately images of horn-rimmed glasses, sweater sets, dusty bookshelves, and socially awkward (and therefore dateless) female staff with their hair in a bun, shushing and glaring at anyone who dares cough. Oh yes, he said forget about that image. Good luck. Try NOT thinking about a pink elephant. I just made you think of a pink elephant.

(And yes, I recognize the irony of pointing this out on a blog entitled “Buns & Shushings”. LOL)

Many thanks to The Shifted Librarian for posting this article.