Librarians as sex objects 14 July 2009
Posted by Matthew in Marketing & Promotion, Stereotypes & Prejudice.add a comment
There are a wealth of images portraying librarians (at least female librarians) as inherently sexually attractive. This is usually not the first characteristic the public thinks of when conjuring up a mental picture of a librarian. The common stereotype is an older, stern, matronly woman with a bun and glasses who does nothing but work in the library and keep to herself otherwise. This is not a typical sexual image but take several of the key features: glasses, introverted but capable when motivated, focused on a narrow subject, and given a certain level of power in a specific environment, and place them in the body of a young attractive woman, and you’ve got the making of a rather common male fantasy.
I am certainly not qualified to discuss the reasons why such a fantasy exists although it is an interesting juxtaposition of stereotypes. On the one hand the profession of librarianship is seen as an anachronism or useful in only very practical and rare occasions. And on the other hand you have a very real visceral reaction to the interpretation of these characteristics: the introverted person becomes mysterious, the almost foolish rule-keeper becomes a dominant figure, the nerdy book-worm becomes an intelligent and creative charmer.
Although I’m not sure whether we could or would even want to, it would be valuable to consider how stereotypes like these could be used to convey messages that we want to communicate. Let’s face it, sex sells. And we have a service that we want, for the greater good, to stick in the public’s mind, at least for when they are in information-related situations; a service that is sometimes not thought of as ’sexy’ enough to compete with the likes of Google or even for-fee look-up services. Perhaps we can use our (again, not MY) perceived ’sexiness’ to our advantage. Just a thought. What’s yours?
Here are some related works on this topic:
- “Librarians are SEXY” by Holly Black.
- “Librarian fantasy promotes librarian bar” by Steve Hall at AdRants.com.
- “Loveless Frump as Hip and Sexy Party Girl: A Reevaluation of the Old-Maid Stereotype” by Katherine C. Adams at The Library Quarterly, July 2000, 70(3):287-301 (via JStor)
Careers and crisis 12 May 2007
Posted by Matthew in Marketing & Promotion.add a comment
LibraryJournal.com had a short article entitled “In Toyko, Librarian Retirements Don’t Bring Replacements” on 28 Feb 2007 referring to an article in The Japan Times Online entitled “Tokyo librarians to vanish by attrition” on 21 Feb 2007. They speak of major budget cuts preventing the hiring of replacements for the large wave of retiring professional librarians soon to come.
Well, it’s good to read that this same problem is happening around the world, as it is here. When I graduated from library school in 2000, I had to move to the United States to find a job, in part due to the slow hiring rate here in Canada. I was lucky to find a public library system in the US that was hiring librarians regularly (although now I know that it was primarily due to a high turnover rate…) and was lucky a second time to find an academic library in Canada that had managed to begin hiring librarians to fill old empty positions as well as newly created positions. I was lucky. And now that I’ve got several years of experience under my belt, I’m an an okay position. But it still seems to be a rather difficult market for new graduates. There are simply not a lot of entry-level librarian positions being advertised.
And whether it’s an indirect cause or not, the other side of the equation seems to be wavering as well. There are simply not a lot of people entering library school these days. That may be good for the job market — less competition for the few positions out there — but it’s certainly not good for libraries or the people who need us.
The primary cause, I think, of both sides of this problem is perception of librarians and librarianship. Too few people recognize the value and necessity of the services libraries provide, too few understand or appreciate what librarians do for their customers, and too few look to the field as an interesting or fulfilling path to follow themselves. If this misunderstanding and oversight continues, the trend of fewer librarians will probably continue as well. As fewer officials recognize the need for these information professionals, the number of filled positions will dwindle, the students graduating from library schools will drop, and service will suffer and disappear.
Shining a good light on librarianship will not only make librarians feel better about themselves, allow them to do their jobs better, and result in more user satisfaction, it’s necessary to its survival.
