Sunday, July 08, 2007

The NYT article....

So, as Meredith and Karen and others have pointed out, the NYT posted an article about how hip and trendy it is to be a librarian.

Okay, we've been beaten over the head with the stick. We're trendy and not "your grandmother's librarian." We're apparently still supposed to be uber-nerdy and only able to socialize with other librarians but we're young, hip and adding men to the rosters.

Except, apparently for me. I have hair long enough to be put into a bun (where it's often wadded with chopsticks through it so I don't have to think about it) and I've been known to don *gasp* comfortable shoes. Not often--I still seem to end up doing story time in three inch heels (and yes, grown ups, if I can do Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes in those shoes--you can do it in your sneakers, let's go!). I've even (choke) been known to shush. I work with children, the majority of whom come in unsupervised and who would otherwise turn my building into a rap concert/dance party/"Tagged" and MySpace free-for-all. I don't demand silence but a little indoctrinating of volume control as a virtue is not a bad thing in my opinion.

It's nice that they quote the statistic on salaries from ALA-APA but it's not realistic for the New York area. I just recently saw a full time job ad at one of the Manhattan universities for a librarian that was paying $32K. That's a far cry from $50K and it's a lot closer to the norm for that area, even though housing out there is $800-$1000 a bedroom/month, if you can find a cheap place. How one is supposed to eat on that was a little beyond me. Last I knew (2005), NYPL and Queens were paying about $35K to first years--I can only hope it's gone up.

I've met computer geeks who didn't have to be geeky, I've met models who didn't have to be rail thin. Can't I just be a librarian without having to be a prissy old maid or extremely edgy and trendy?

And why didn't they include Ruth and her fabulous site in all of this?

(PS...if you would like to consider me edgy and trendy, that compliment would be accepted most gratefully because I hope you know there's more than just trendiness.)

1 comment:

Karyn G said...

That's one of my problems with the hipster librarian image. I just don't fit it. Sometimes I feel like I'm letting the team down when I decide to wear a bun.

My other problem is that 'hip' comes with a time limit. What happens if too much effort is put into marketing librarianship as a hip career rather than a fulfilling/useful/what have you career and the concept of hip changes?

On the other hand, the idea of dewey cocktails does excite me. I can see them going over well as a librarian event in my area. So the article isn't all bad.