Also, it's arguable that nothing signals unrest, division, lack of confidence, or an identity crisis quite like an established professional group changing their name. If we want to portray a confident, established and unified profession, do we really want to put ourselves through that?
There are valid points to be made on both sides of this issue, and there are, of course, many more factors involved than I'm able to cover here. But in general, if you're happy in the traditional library setting you're probably pretty content with the job title "Librarian". But if you're entrepreneurial in spirit or employed in the corporate sector then you might be feeling the need to break away from the name that has defined us for so long. After all, it was famed entrepreneur and Information Broker extraordinaire Sue Rugge*, co-author of The Information Broker's Handbook, who told us "you want the word librarian to stay as far away from this [your entrepreneurial endeavour] (and you) as possible, even if you happen to be one. It's nothing personal. . . .it is strictly a matter of image" (40).
For more on the image of librarians and related information check out:
Library Journal Digital - U. of Washington SLIS Drops L-Word http://www.libraryjournal.com/articles/n...
Image and the Librarian: An Exploration of a Changing Profession http://www.wam.umd.edu/~herodf/ImageHome...
Bizjournals.com - Web Overturning Image of Book-Filing Librarian http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/st...
Wear Lipstick, Have a Tattoo, Belly-Dance, Then Get Naked: The Making of a Virtual Librarian http://www.careerdevelopmentgroup.org.uk...
*Rugge, Sue, and Alfred Glossbrenner. The Information Broker's Handbook. 3rd. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
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