WHAT ARE THE ISSUES AFFECTING THE IMAGE OF LIBRARIANS?

  • What are some common stereotypes of librarians?

  • Does the public and private image of librarians affect their professional status (and vice versa)?

  • How will changing technology impact the image of the profession?

    • Stereotypes

     What are common images of the librarian?
  • Summaries of literature & web pages
  • Tim & Stacie go to the Movies!
  • How do these images affect professional self-image?
  • Do they represent who we are today?
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    The Stereotypes page provides summaries of some of the literature about image over the past 20 years, as well as descriptive summaries of web pages on media images. Stereotypes range from the "librarian with glasses and a bun" to the shy male librarian. What efforts have been made to change these images? Is there any truth to the stereotypes? How is gender connected with the stereotypes problem? How does media contribute to the problem? We will "review" some movies that include librarians as characters. The page includes scanned cartoons and ads from American Library's "Image Column" and other sources.

    Professional Status

  • Desire to be recognized as professionals
  • Changes in the model of library service
  • Lack of information about what librarians do
  • Faculty status for academic librarians and other issues
    • The Professional Status page discusses research that looks at how salary, gender and professional status affects self-esteem and image. Changes - such as giving academic librarians professional status, the trend towards contract labor, and other issues - presently taking place in the profession are discussed, along with their implications for status and image.

    Changing Technology and Image

  • Are we Librarians or Information Specialists?
  • How will technology affect our status?
  • Is technology good or bad for job security?
  • Will book lovers become obsolete?
    		•  Cartoon of a book and a computer fighting to the death.
    The Changing Technology page discusses the current debate over whether online database searching will render librarians obsolete or essential. Some fear that users will not look to professionals when most people gain computer skills. On the other hand, many librarians believe that our skill in electronic retrieval will improve our status as we become cyberguides to the Information Highway. Some issues to be considered: Are we "librarians" or "information specialists"? Will more men enter the field with increasing dependence on technology? Do we expect our image to change as our professional functions shift?

    Turn the webpage and explore these issues with us!