The Days & Nights of the Lipstick Librarian!

Librarianship: A Prescient Profession

Over the past few days I've noticed a disturbing trend within our profession over the past year: the need to incorporate Michael Jackson tributes at professional functions. Here's the National Library of Australia's"Thriller" tribute, incorporating book carts:

Here's Santa Monica Public's entry at last year's ALA Book Cart Drill Team competition:

How did they know? Or was it coincidence, driven by the fact that in our day-to-day lives, we who work in libraries always succumb to the opportunity to waive our hands claw-like over book carts for massive props?

Can This Librarian Blame it on the Boogie?

Even librarians are unable to resist commemorating a pop culture icon. Well, French librarians, anyway:

But What Do We Do When There's No Pole Around?

In post-millennial Hollywood, librarians are one-half of the Madonna/whore equation:

But Can They Make it Work in the Stacks?

What's Tim Gunn doing with a bunch of teenagers at The New York Public Library? He didn't make headlines on TMZ, but Tim and NYPL did help six aspiring fashion designers hone their fierceness with tips and resources for all things fashion:

Unfortunate Library-Related Headline of the Year (so far): Note to prospective editors: before printing a headline, make sure to run it through your mental what's-wrong-with-this-headline? filter first.

A Profession No One Understands

So why aren't people of color flocking to the profession? For the same reasons other folks aren't: low pay and a general lack of knowledge about what we do. According to a white paper published by ACRL on this very topic, the biggest factor for minorities applying to library school is prior work experience in a library--in other words, direct exposure to the work. This shouldn't be a surprise: for those of you in the bibliographic trenches, consider how many times some has expressed surprise when learning the person scanning their book at the circ desk isn't a librarian, or there are even graduate programs for the field.

But what concerns me are two things: why is it our profession is a cipher to the public, including long-time patrons? And why does my previous question continue to go unanswered? So much has been written about the public's perceptions of (or lack of interest in) what we do, but other than roll our eyes and chat endlessly about it during vendor lunches at ALA, we don't do a whole lot of explaining to the masses. Sure, we've been pretty decent at seizing the moment when it comes to library use, or publicizing our beliefs (intellectual freedom, digital divide, etc.), but we're not so hot at communicating about what exactly we do. Ask anyone outside a library to describe what a librarian does: the answer will inevitably be shelving and/or checking out books. Reference services? Maybe from a savvier user. Cataloging? Forget it.

So why do we toil and complain in obscurity? Posters of friendly, young and (at times) non-white librarians, library staff and patrons abound in our work spaces, but where are the posters that illustrate the job? We have plenty of scholarships in the hopes of enticing minority students into the profession, but how effective are they when the general public give us a blank stare if pressed to describe the work we do?

Maybe it's time for us to do a little educating....

A Profession White People Like

About a month ago I was discussing the phenomena of hipster librarians to a librarian-friendly individual with more than a passing interest in the topic. As I was running through my criteria of what makes a librarian hipster-like (knitting, iPhone, retro attire), I mentioned one criterion I thought might make her pause: being white.

She didn’t bat an eye (actually, this was over the phone, so it was the aural equivalent of no eye-batting). No disagreement at all--in fact, she understood me perfectly.We both knew that when it comes to describing (or portraying) the Brave New World of Librarianship, its denizens seem to be overwhelmingly Caucasian

Yes, I’m segueing into the perennial topic of diversity and librarianship.We all know the back story: the profession’s commitment to diversity when serving patrons as well as amongst its troops. We have ALA offices. We have awards.We even have conferences. So why is it when we (and more importantly, the public) think of librarians old and young, we think white? And judging from the literature, why haven’t we made much of a dent in the profession, much less the stereotype?

I have some opinions, of course, but they just might surprise you.

To be continued—

Video of the Week Dept: Note to library directors: this is what's going on with your baby librarians when you’re at those pesky off-site meetings:

Seattle Bound

Heading to ACRL in Seattle this week. In the interim, check out a demo of an iPhone application that tells people around you to shut up when you deem them too noisy. Want to guess the name of the app?

Love is a (Funny) Battlefield

A little late this year, but here's the SFGate's Leah Garchik's salute to All Things Valentine's Day:

• Love at first blunder
• The long haul
• Act III, or: It's been nice wooing you

Finally, something bittersweet.

Happy Valentine's Day, folks.

25 Random Things About Me, or: Facebook is Ruining My Life

It's official: Facebook is my new overlord.

After an avalanche of tags from FB friends infected with the "25 Random Things" meme, I finally succumbed and duly posted mine. I tried fending it off with the "Pointless Facts" entry, but the FB gods were not appeased, evidenced by the fact that every time I checked my e-mail account, there were at least ten tag notices for this little exercise.

So in the interest of laying this to rest, I'm posting my official random things list to the yawning content maw that is social networking.

Oh, and by the way? Consider yourself tagged.

1. I have a series of moles that, when connected by lines, create an exact image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I hate it when people insist having a pix taken of them propping it up.
2. I am waaay cuter than China Kantner. Or the country China.
3. I once wore my blouse inside out and backwards throughout an entire reference shift. Due to a series of improbable events, I received a grant for this.
4. Chickens scare me. Particularly the extra-crispy ones.
5. I always find tiny pieces of wax paper stuck to my car door handle every time I visit Krispy Kreme. I view this as an omen.
6. I save the adhesive-cover strips from Netflix envelopes and no you can't have any.
7. I am waaay cuter than Hugh Laurie.
8. All the aliens who have abducted me say I'm their fave.
9. The one thing that keeps me awake at night: armed zombie squirrels.
10. The word "escrow" makes me giggle.
11. I have a pillow made of bacon.
12. The shelled peanut sitting on top of my computer monitor is my hero.
13. I only read the odd-numbered pages of books. Articles are another matter entirely.
14. I am waaay cuter than Donald Rumsfeld.
15. I sing "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" before I answer any reference question. Needless to say, reference stats have plummeted at my library. Except on Tuesdays.
16. I have a humongous pile of flip-flops in the trunk of my car, but only the right-foot ones. You'll thank me for this one day.
17. Every night in fifth grade my sister would wish for a twin sister before she fell asleep. Her wish was granted in seventh grade and now both of them won't speak to me.
18. I get annoyed when the lobsters at the supermarket leave post-it notes for me outside their tank. It's hard enough to run my own errands.
19. The chickadees in my backyard talk smack about me while I'm at work.
20. The people at Blockbuster get mad when I tell them I only want to rent the DVD cases.
21. I am waaay cuter than Cthulhu.
22. Not to get too much into my medical condition, but technically I'm a 67-year old Malaysian male accountant. With two kids.
23. I burst into tears whenever I hear the world "supersized". I've been banned from every drive-up window in three states.
24. Wearing bubblewrap while giving your cat a bath is not a good idea. They get jealous.
25. I collect the little plastic tabs that come with store-bought bread. I do this because if, given the chance, they'd collect me.
Posted by absherl at 3:22 PM

To All My Facebook Friends and Fans....

Just posted this tonight on my Facebook page after getting one too many invites/tags/pokes (superpokes, no less). If you have a Facebook page, you might just relate.

(Note: some of these are true--can you guess which ones?)

10 Pointless Facts About Me

It's finally happened--you've been tagged, probably from some Facebook friend who picked you because they didn't want to piss off their real friends. Now you're stuck with a task that's more annoying than trying to shoo Amy Winehouse away from a tepid beer sitting by your elbow.

At this point I'm supposed to say you need to list 10 facts, habits or goals you may have. Personally, you can list anything you damn well please, just as long as you don't disillusion me. But then again, I have very low expectations of my friends, not to mention the attention span of a distracted jack terrier.

To post your unhealthy self-obsessions, go to “notes” under tabs (or the + sign) on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 10 pointless facts. If you feel like tagging people, go for it-- after all, would you even notice that ten people de-friended you?

1. I spent my entire eighth-grade year waiting for my right arm to spontaneously combust.
2. I do a mean imitation of a Windex bottle.
3. My library books are always overdue.
4. Everything I knit ultimately turns into a mobius strip. Even sweaters.
5. Every time I see a cow on a car trip, I psychically moo at it and hope it looks up.
6. I have double-jointed knuckles, which scares little children.
7. I have pictures of Mario Lanza taped under my office phone.
8. Netherlands, Denmark, Holland--what's the difference?
9. I eat sardines in mustard because I'm convinced god hates me.
10. I'm afraid of cows because one did look up when I mooed at it.

Feliz WTF?

I'm back. Finally.

Yes, I know it's been a while, but it's funny how life insists on getting in the way.

I promise I'll resume posting soon, but in the interim, why not make it a fabulous new year for the good people of Dafur? The folks at Book Wish have a holiday campaign to for books for Darfur refugees. Give $1 for each book received as a holiday gift and help raise funds for library construction, English textbooks and primary school textbooks. So why not lie a little and inflate your holiday book gift total? After all, haven't we all have practice inflating numbers when it comes to gate counts?

The website is: http://holiday.bookwish.org.

Next time: why 2008 sucked. Big time.

What I'm listening to: 24 Hours by Tom Jones. Seriously.

The Results Are In...

...and it's official: I am an American.