I agree. Of course when I meet people I don't just say, "I'm a
librarian" and leave it at that. And the sort of librarians people meet on
the other side of an enquiry desk should help. But I'm not sure it
does - how many librarians do you know who fit the traditional
stereotype? And yet so many people (e.g. film directors) persist in
thinking of us as dreary individuals with no social skills.
Incidentally, I think this is one area in which Ruth Moore's
criticisms of the LA might be justified. I was amazed to read Bob
Usherwood complaining in this month's Record that the ALA hadn't done
its PR work - I don't feel the LA's doing a lot to address negative
images either.
Rachel Margolis
Assistant Librarian
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Organization: DeMontfort University MK
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 11:44:51 GMT
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
Priority: normal
Subject: Re: Ashamed of the word "librarian"
From: "Alison Worthy" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:53:00 -0000
Subject: Ashamed of the word "librarian"
From: "Bye, Daniel J." <[log in to unmask]>
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
Re: the "calling yourself a Librarian" question and Daniel's
comments.
I think it is a bit unfair to say that librarians have 'completely
failed to communicate to anyone what the function of a librarian
is.' Before I became a librarian/assistant information officer I was
a careers adviser and I talked myself blue in the face telling
people what I actually did. In the end it was the clients that I had
served well and came back for more help that realised what careers
guidance is all about. Action does speak louder than words and I
believe that there are a lot of students at this university who have
received a good service and no longer see librarians in such a
negative light.
On the subject of putting CDs/videos in order I have got a fool-proof
system which I am very proud of:
Give each video a letter followed by a number eg. A1, A2, etc. Then
get a notebook with alphabetical tags. Allocate a page to each video and
write whatever you have recorded on the relevant page. When you tape
over the programme cross out the old title and put the new one
underneath.
I have been called sad for using this system but at least I can find
what I'm looking for!
Alison Worthy
Assistant Information Officer
Information Centre
De Montfort University
Milton Keynes
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: 01908 834826
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