Cool Factor

The Gothamist reported today about the recent articles that appeared in the NY Times and the NY Sun about hip librarians. I know this will be interpreted as a much needed publicity boost to the profession. I am not sure how many will read this article and run out to enroll in the nearest library school, however, there will be some surge in that cool librarian phenomena. Many attempts have been made over the years to change the perception of that image (we) embedded in our visual databases of a typical librarian- glasses, hair in a bun and long skirt.

Truth be told, I am not sure if I was considering the image of the librarian when I decided to pursue the profession? I was only reminded about the "historical" librarian image while I was in library school. None of my friends made comments or associated me with this image. What about the image of a male librarian? I could probably research what a male librarian use to look like back in the day, but I will let everyone come up with their own image of the male librarian.

Yes, there was the character from the TV mini-series The Librarian that seemed to be popular and probably, in some fashion, put the male librarian's image on the map. But, I never really thought about being an Indiana Jones librarian.

Does there need to be an image? I wonder how the image of a policeman, fireman or nurse has changed? Ok- that is comparing apples and oranges- or is it?

I like listening to all kinds of music, however, if I have my mp3 player or car radio, I am most likely listening to alternative/rock music--- AFI, the Cure, Muse, etc. etc. Does that make me a rock librarian? How cool is that? We can start this whole group of librarians into rock music! I am sure that already exists. What is a rock librarian anyway?

Social This and Social That

In libraryland, much talk is surrounded around the word "social". Social software, social book catalogs, social blog, social wiki's and even social librarians. Stephen Leary's Reflective Librarian blog has an interesting comparison of the social book catalogs- aka Library Thing- as an example.


I was originally planning on taking my books and using LibraryThing to "catalog" my personal collections of books. But, I decided on a slightly different angle and have used Swaptree to track my books. Swaptree is a trading site. You enter your books, CD's and DVD's and if someone wants what you have you can trade it- but it doesn't have to be a lateral trade. Got it? So if you want my Janet Jackson CD, you can ask for it. But, I don't need to get or trade anything from you.

LibraryThing is more a cataloging system of sorts. Your own personal library collection. It's social aspect is so popular. There is a good deal of interaction between users- whether blogs or personal reviews of books, etc. Literally social- no pun intended.

Years ago, when I first started working in libraryland, I collected so many books that were being trashed by the library. I also had the good fortune of working in the field of publishing- so I had access to books-a-million. My Park Slope apartment had floor to ceiling book cases- the kind that some would die for. Eventually, I chose to move and I couldn't take the shelves full of books. I couldn't very well donate them to the library since I had taken most of them from the library- many first editions. I decided to take as many as I could to the Strand Bookstore and sell them and also to a now non-existent bookshop in Park Slope. To my surprise, I did rather well on the book sale.

Now that social book catalogs such as LibraryThing have come along, it would be great to enter my books. However, I don't have any books to catalog or those that I do have, I have already entered into Swaptree. Plus, the work is somewhat tedious. Time has to be set aside for entering each book's ISBN number into the database.

I suppose after I have entered my books into one of the social book catalogs, I can then socialize with other social librarians and go out and do come social drinking...Starbucks of course.

Librarians invade DC

As a librarian, I am always on the lookout for news stories about libraries or librarians. Starting this blog, I know I am joining the soon to be crowded field of librarian bloggers. A few examples of bloggers would be the LibrarianInBlack, the Reflective Librarian, Library Bytes, etc. just to name a very few. There are plenty of blogs in our profession and most of these bloggers will be at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington DC beginning this Thursday. A week long conference of everything under the sun that has to do with public and academic libraries, technology, programming, design, administration, etc.

I will be attending this years' conference. My meeting schedule is overbooked, my social calendar makes me want to stay in my hotel room.

At the conference, I will be representing the PULSE program and Brooklyn Public Library- my current place of employment. On Sunday afternoon, I will be doing a poster session about the program at the CLENERT Training Showcase.

I inadvertently scheduled many of the program sessions during the showcase and realized that I would miss many of the programs I really wanted to see. As we say in the profession- C'est la vie!

It is anticipated that there will be about 20,000 librarians converging on DC this week. Plenty of interesting speakers include, Garrison Keillor, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Julie Andrews and Bill Bradley. An interesting mix for a diverse group of librarians in attendance.

It might seem that some of these celebrities, politicians, etc. might be unusual as speakers for a library conference. However, they usually surprise all of us and are often quite engaging.

I have not officially decided if I will blog at this conference. It will be my first time attempting to do so. The thought of sitting on the convention center floor and writing may be appealing but nevertheless time consuming.

In the meantime, grab a good book and enjoy!