The Hip Librarian

torispeak: Librarians have such access to information....

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:19:31 -0400

Librarians have such access to information. Knowledge is the sexiest - in my mind every librarian wears a stiletto heel.

The Canberra Times (Australian), 2004

"It is a bookstore, though, so she gets, like, I am looking for this book, it has a blue cover, a..."

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 22:56:43 -0400

“It is a bookstore, though, so she gets, like, I am looking for this book, it has a blue cover, a lot. It’s supposed to be the worst annoying thing you can ask a book seller, but she’s into it People always think they know less than they actually do about a book. She can usually draw it out of them and figure it out. When did you see it? Where did you hear about it? Is it a happy book? These conversations can almost be like a moment of actual human connection, except it’s basically a one-direction connection. Maybe in another life Maria will be a therapist or a social worker or something.”

"No matter how seriously librarians are engaged in their work, they are always glad to be interrupted..."

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:31:21 -0400

“No matter how seriously librarians are engaged in their work, they are always glad to be interrupted when the theme is books. it makes no difference to them how simple the search is or how behind on time either of you might be running—-they consider all queries scrupulously. They love to have their knowledge tested. They lie in wait; they will not be rushed.”

- anthropology of an american girl, pg. 164 (via decisionsandrevisions)

The ‘Shhh’ing Librarian vs. The Naughty Librarian/ The Origin of The Hip Librarian

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:33:02 -0400

There are conflicting clichés that come to mind when I tell somebody I am going to graduate school to become a librarian. “You don’t look like a librarian,” is usually the response I get. I’m never quite sure how to respond to that.

There’s the typical image of a librarian, what I like to call The ‘Shhh’ing Librarian—the gray-haired woman behind the desk, peering from behind her thick-rimmed glasses, ‘shhh’ing any patron who makes a noise. Let the record show that I actively try to refrain from ever ‘shhhh’ing people, however, I can rock a black pin skirt and a pair of glasses.

The opposing image of a librarian is The Naughty Librarian. I assume the Naughty Librarian is a star in some fantasies. She wears a white button-up shirt that shows just enough cleavage to be a tease; she wears those horn-rimmed glasses and a short little skirt. She bends over to put books on the bottom shelf so her skirt rises up and shows just enough thigh. This librarian is a slut, but I’d love to be her one Halloween.

I choose to take it as a compliment when someone tells me that I “don’t look like a librarian,” because I am neither a ‘shhh’ing prude nor a naughty whore. I am a book-loving, knowledge-craving, tattooed, pierced, with-the-times gal—or what I have coined The Hip Librarian.

Yes, we exist. There are librarians out there who are both nerdy with a lack of social grace and full of rhythm on the dance floor after our third drink of the night. There are librarians who spend their days reading books and searching LexisNexis and spend their weekends deciding whether or not to put a pink streak in their hair. There are librarians with loud tendencies, bookworms who will stay up all night to beat Castle Crashers. The Hip Librarian is a walking conundrum, a living oxymoron.

Say it loud. Say it proud. “I am a Hip Librarian!”

I do owe the librarian stereotypes a thank you, though. “I’m going to be a librarian,” sometimes seems like a pick-up line, because it’s gotten me a hell-of-a-lot of free drinks.