Missed Part One?
A few more questions that I'm commonly asked about librarians and librarianship...
Where can I find a job as a librarian?
Many great job-hunting resources exist for librarians and information professionals. I have a preference for Web resources because they tend to be the most current, as well as most convenient. Here are a few:
· Library Job Postings on the Internet
· LISJobs.com
· Librarians in the 21st Century: Finding Employment
· LibraryHQ.com Job Hunting: Just for Librarians
For more information and links on job hunting have a look at my article Job Hunting for Information Professionals and the Employment Links category of this topic.
What do you think about the librarian stereotype? (You know -- bun, glasses, uptight...)
Sometimes, I think we as librarians make too much of this stereotype. We give it too much credence. In other words, I'm tired of it!
I recently read a very interesting article in the August 2001 issue of NewBreed Librarian that takes a different and refreshing look at the whole librarian stereotype/image thing. In The Perception of Image and Status in the Library Profession, by Deirdre Dupre, Ms. Dupre argues that it is librarians' professional insecurity -- not the negative image sometimes perpetuated by the media -- that is the real offender and perpetuator of low image and status in our field.
She writes of her introduction to librarianship via library school:
"When I began my education in Library Science at San Jose State University and started reading the literature of the field, I was greatly dismayed to repeatedly read that librarians believe they are not respected as a professional group. The reading material I was exposed to was designed to educate new library science students on the history of libraries and librarianship, their connection to society, intellectual freedom, and the future of information dissemination. Yet while reading, I noticed a disturbing theme: librarians are very insecure about their profession - so insecure that it has become a pervasive anxiety throughout the field of librarianship. While some insecurity results from the undesirable physical stereotype of librarians perpetuated by the popular media, library literature is the real offender as it portrays the more serious crisis of professional insecurity, i.e., the feeling of not being valuable or valued by others. To make matters worse, newcomers to the library profession adopt this insecurity through their exposure to the literature of the field, thereby creating a vicious cycle".
I highly recommend reading her entire article, it's a refreshing change and unique way of looking at this issue. Definitely worth a read.
A few more questions that I'm commonly asked about librarians and librarianship...
Where can I find a job as a librarian?
Many great job-hunting resources exist for librarians and information professionals. I have a preference for Web resources because they tend to be the most current, as well as most convenient. Here are a few:
· Library Job Postings on the Internet
· LISJobs.com
· Librarians in the 21st Century: Finding Employment
· LibraryHQ.com Job Hunting: Just for Librarians
For more information and links on job hunting have a look at my article Job Hunting for Information Professionals and the Employment Links category of this topic.
What do you think about the librarian stereotype? (You know -- bun, glasses, uptight...)
Sometimes, I think we as librarians make too much of this stereotype. We give it too much credence. In other words, I'm tired of it!
I recently read a very interesting article in the August 2001 issue of NewBreed Librarian that takes a different and refreshing look at the whole librarian stereotype/image thing. In The Perception of Image and Status in the Library Profession, by Deirdre Dupre, Ms. Dupre argues that it is librarians' professional insecurity -- not the negative image sometimes perpetuated by the media -- that is the real offender and perpetuator of low image and status in our field.
She writes of her introduction to librarianship via library school:
"When I began my education in Library Science at San Jose State University and started reading the literature of the field, I was greatly dismayed to repeatedly read that librarians believe they are not respected as a professional group. The reading material I was exposed to was designed to educate new library science students on the history of libraries and librarianship, their connection to society, intellectual freedom, and the future of information dissemination. Yet while reading, I noticed a disturbing theme: librarians are very insecure about their profession - so insecure that it has become a pervasive anxiety throughout the field of librarianship. While some insecurity results from the undesirable physical stereotype of librarians perpetuated by the popular media, library literature is the real offender as it portrays the more serious crisis of professional insecurity, i.e., the feeling of not being valuable or valued by others. To make matters worse, newcomers to the library profession adopt this insecurity through their exposure to the literature of the field, thereby creating a vicious cycle".
I highly recommend reading her entire article, it's a refreshing change and unique way of looking at this issue. Definitely worth a read.
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