Profession on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Abstract

The portrayal of the librarian as an uptight, stern, dowdy "shhhush"-meister is a popular Madison Avenue cliché. Recent advertisements playing off the stereotype sell everything from rum to cars. Reacting to this superficial image, actual librarians are fighting back, whether collectively by forming Web sites spoofing the stereotype of their profession, or individually by speaking up, as when a Web site posted insults by a Chicago law student. But the backlash against the stereotype is the outward reaction to a much more serious crisis of threats to basic library practice. The de-emphasis of trained librarians in a system with increased clerical personnel has left librarians feeling pushed aside. As library services have become outsourced and subdivided, there has been a dilution of responsibility for librarians, and with it, a rising tide of dissent toward stereotypes that in the new context of threatened careers feel not just silly, but dehumanizing, and an endorsement for change in myriad forms. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-Nancy Stout is a recent graduate of The Palmer School of Library and Information Science.