enthalpy

Saturday, July 07, 2007


I don't care how young the profession is getting, when I think "librarian" and "hip", I think "replacement surgery."
Librarians? Aren’t they supposed to be bespectacled women with a love of classic books and a perpetual annoyance with talkative patrons — the ultimate humorless shushers?

Not any more. With so much of the job involving technology and with a focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging — the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is “looking to put the ‘hep cat’ in cataloguing.”
Well, just because you're needed doesn't make you cool. Case in point: Lawyers, accountants, and engineers. Some of the most boring people on earth, yet they sometimes create a lot of knowledge that needs to be cataloged. Time to call someone even more boring.
How did such a nerdy profession become cool — aside from the fact that a certain amount of nerdiness is now cool? Many young librarians and library professors said that the work is no longer just about books but also about organizing and connecting people with information, including music and movies.
Wow. Let's combine the expertise of a technical librarian with the ineffectiveness of the flunky at Blockbuster. How could we lose!

Seriously, anyone that has ever needed a librarian (other than to find the latest copy of whatever Harry Potter drek has hit the shelves) knows they're worth their weight in flattened wood pulp. But cool? That's a stretch. Everyone that files their taxes needs an accountant, just like everyone that drives over a bridge needs an engineer, and need doesn't equate to cool.



Home