Smashing librarian stereotype into a million pieces!

A blog about life… not everything in my life is work! 

This morning the Today show had a session where they presented the latest trend in fashion, “the sexy librarian look.” The what? Double-take to the TV set while eating my cereal and there they were, proclaiming the new fashion hit of the season. So, how the models looked? Well, all of them were women, so the producers of the show took that librarians were only women? Sorry cool, funny, handsome, brilliant library guys. Continuing with the models: all of them wore the hair in a bun, reading glasses, pencil skirts below the knees, and stilettos. It was all very chic, very cool, and really hot!

How so? I like a nice pencil skirt -they are sexy and fit so good that they make you look like a million dollars. Stilettos, oh yes! Love them. Reading glasses? I don’t wear them (not yet). Buns? er, I have not seen many of those at library conferences… but they might be back! Just like Justin brought sexy back

I am not going to discuss if librarians are sexy or not or the practicalities of wearing stilettos to shelve books. Nope, not here. I’ve read enough of those blogs. This post is about how librarians like any woman, can be sexy and I know many sexy ones.

I have not seen many librarians wearing a bun-reading glasses-pencil skirt-stilettos combo though. Maria, Jo, Sari, Liz, Robyn, shall we take note and run to buy one of those combos? I’ve seen sexy librarians wearing dresses, long and short skirts, jeans, tight pants, loose pants, boots, flats, stilettos, hair up, hair down, contact lenses, suits, and so on (the list is long!).  They come in all shapes and forms and they are lovely sexy librarians. News! One can be professional, intelligent, brilliant and unabashedly sexy!

So what? The world is bringing the sexy librarian look back and I love it. Even if they have put the stereotyped librarian style looking hotter than ever. What? My friends will totally fry me because they are sexy librarians and it is just plain funny (?!)  when the world ‘discovers’ that librarians can be and are sexy. We knew it!

Below, I share projects by librarians. I also have a section of this blog titled Like-a-Librarian with few curiosities. Of course, Parker Posey the queen of all things sexy-librarian is at the top of the list.

Wyoming Libraries  have developed the Mud Flap Girl Campaign

The Men of Texas Libraries

Know of any other example? Send it my way!

Ensuring equal access to information on the Internet in Latin America

News!    News!

Got computer w Internet? Tune in on Thursday, October 25 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. (New York Time– EDT) to participate of a webchat hosted by the US Embassy in Mexico titled  Ensuring equal access to information on the Internet in Latin America.

Speaker?  Loida Garcia-Febo

As per my experience presenting workshops in Latin America, I believe that this topic is still very new in the region and librarians are still trying to understand its importance. Therefore, it is a good time to talk about how to provide access to Information/Internet to all. As a member of IFLA/ FAIFE, I will (of course!) include the Internet Manifesto and its Guidelines on my talk.  The audience includes colleagues from Latin America, Spain, and the USA.  

I *will* send the link for the webchat in October… it is in Spanish, but you all have time to polish your Spanish to participate!

Brenda has a dragon in her blood

On my IFLA- Durban, SA post I mentioned a book about HIV/AIDS stigma announced at the FAIFE programme. The book impressed me and I thought of sharing more information with you all. I can’t wait to see this book or one about the topic in the States! Publishers, hello! Thanks to Ms Maria Cotera who sent me the title: Brenda has a dragon in her blood. 

In South Africa many people live with a stigma because of HIV/AIDS. This book is about Brenda an HIV positive girl who likes to play with her classmates, sit with them at school and share many things with them. She is just like any girl! The book was written by Brenda’s foster mother, both live in The Netherlands. It has been translated into 11 South African official languages, Dutch and French.

At the book launching in SA, the author of the book,  Hijltje Vink,  presented it with the following words:

All over the world, people have misconceptions about how someone contracts HIV or AIDS from someone who is infected – like thinking that it is not safe to drink something from the same glass as someone else. Most healthy people would rather stay away from someone with HIV or AIDS and don’t realize how very hurtful this attitude is for that person.

This book is intended firstly to support those children (and adults) with HIV and AIDS, in the hope that the prejudices about this disease will disappear. Both the information in this little book and Brenda’s story make this possible. Although Brenda lives in the Netherlands, there are many children in many countries, also in our country, who suffer from the same sickness.

 

ALA New Members Round Table @ IFLA/ What NewLibrarians Want

One of the most exciting events in IFLA is the Poster Session. The ALA New Members Round Table (NMRT)  poster presentation, New Members Round Table: Mentoring New Librarians into the Profession, presented by Sally Bickley was a total success!

The 75 year-old Round Table which boasts 63,720 members, presented an informative poster encouraging new librarians to join a professional association and the benefits of doing so.

I am very interested in how library associations in different countries encourage and involve their new librarians in association’s work. So it was gratifying to see that at the top of the poster and under the subtitle What New Librarians Want, were results of a survey done by me during October 2006 and published in an article, International Perspectives on the New Librarian Experience, on a Feliciter issue dedicated to New Librarians.  Feliciter is a journal from the Canadian Library Association (CLA). The survey was posted in IFLA/ New Professionals Discussion Group listserv and it was answered by 176 individuals from 12 countries, of these, 64% were librarians with 5 or fewer years of experience.

The challenge for library associations is how they plan to address the needs of their new professionals? While the Australian Library and Information Association  has the strongest professional body dedicated to new graduates and ALA’s Emerging Leaders is starting its second year, there is still much work to be done.  CLA hosts a New Librarians Special Interest Group, and CILIP in the UK,  and the Italian Library Association include many new professionals in Career Development groups.  

I challenge library associations around the globe to work with their new librarians to develop Action Plans to meet the needs of their recently qualified professionals, who ultimately are the future – or the present?! – of the profession.

While I encourage everyone to read the article to find more complete information, below I share few points raised by surveyed librarians.

Points to work with:

Better communication between library associations and new librarians

Tools and materials to assist new librarians in developing leadership skills

Awareness about interest and skills, professionalism of new graduates

Appropriate pay, respect and planning

Want to help drive change

Few statistics include:

97% of participants want better/different library skills

61% want out of the library field: reasons- low pay, lack of stimulating work environment, lack of recognition, more opportunity in private sector.

Link to article: feliciterarticle.pdf

While the article is still not available on line, I do think that it is good to publicize results of the so far only international survey of this nature. Thank you, NMRT! 

Additions to Loida’s IFLA

Hello everyone,

If you read Loida’s IFLA – Durban, South Africa, take a look at it again. I’ve added a few things!

Loida’s IFLA – Durban, South Africa

The World Library and Information Congress: 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council took place last August 19-23 in the Zulu Kingdom , Durban, an interesting city with a population mainly composed by africans, whites and indians. It was a supernatural experience to walk the streets where not long ago, unfortunately, the apartheid ruled. It was absolutely electrifying to hear stories about so many heroes who fought hard to ensure  the right to education, recreation and simply daily-life activities for their fellow brothers and sisters.

Most of the IFLA people descended into Durban on Friday, August 17 and quickly got work. IFLA Core Activities and Standing Committees had their meetings on Saturday, 8/18 starting at 8:00 a.m. The FAIFE Committee of which I am a member met that early and I was there, sunglasses and all. The meeting was very fruitful.

Saturday night was the time for the caucuses to meet. As in the past, I attended the US Caucus and afterwards, the UK Caucus. For those of you who don’t know it, the Brits adopted me few years ago… or did I adopt them? ;)  Gotta love them!

Sunday, 8/19 was The Opening. In the best Friends’ fashion and in the style of Janice, I have to say “Oh…My…God,” the keynote speaker, Justice Albie Sachs brought down the house and tears to my eyes with his magnificent and moving speech. For a long time he has been an advocate of human rights and at one point while in solitary confinement -without trial- a librarian saved his life. Guards would bring titles of books Justice Albie wanted to read to a nearby library and this anonymous, unknown librarian will send him the books. Justice Albie said that that librarian saved his life. I can feel the tears coming to my eyes again. In 1988 he was blown up by a bomb placed in his car in Maputo by South African security agents, losing an arm and the sight of an eye. In 1994 he was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court.

I could’ve gone home after that speech. Instead I went to the Newcomers Sessions to talk about the New Professionals Discussion Group (NPDG) programme, Developing new professionals for the future presented on Monday, 8/20 starting at 8:30 am! This year all my IFLA committee meetings and programs started at 8:30 am. The world saw a lot of my very-dark sunglasses, uh-hum.

Apparently, the announcement at the Newcomers Session was what the NPDG needed to boost the attendance to more than 300 people!! Some sources say close to 400 people. Yay! NPDG convenors, Joanna Ball, Mr A (I should say, Andrew Cranfield) and I were ecstatic. There were people seating on every available space on the floor. Others stood at the back of the room for the duration of the program- 2 hours.

This program was my baby, the NPDG baby but since I am a convenor…  We had energetic Tracy Hall, former Director of the ALA Office for Diversity, and Assistant Dean at the LIS program of the Dominican University; amazing Veronda Pitchford, Program Officer of Urban Libraries Council; international lecturer and South African herself, Ujala Satgoor, Director of a library at the University of Pretoria, and the one and only Mr A, Director of EBLIDA.

The program was a huge success. People talked about it for ages. I still receive emails about it. We got invitations to work in conjunction with other IFLA committees and that is soooo good! I will let you know what are the final results… in the meantime, join the NPDG-L which currently has -the last time I looked at it- 451 participants.

I could say that after the huge Monday success the rest of the week was a blur but Not! South Africans had a wonderful surprise for IFLA delegates- a Beach Party! Oh, yes it is exactly what you are thinking… it was so much fun. There was yummy food, music, dance and really cool conversations. We loved the sand in our shoes. Some went barefoot; others got their feet wet in the Indian Ocean. One of the best Beach Parties ever.

The FAIFE programme on Tuesday, 8/21, Access to HIV/AIDS Information in Africa and Intellectual Property Issues was excellent. The speakers were terrific, but I remember the Q&A section where a librarian from India spoke about the campaign they have started in that country to create awareness of the disease among wives and older adults. Another highlight was the mention of a just-published book about children dealing with the HIV/AIDS stigma. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the title. I’d appreciate if someone can send it to me, pls.

On Wednesday, I visited the library at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in the University of KwaZulu-Natal. There, we visited a theater named after Steve Bantu Biko.

Thursday, 8/23 we witness how the new Women, Information and Libraries Discussion Group successfully presented their program, Women, Information and Libraries in relation to the UN Millennium Development Goals. I was very glad to see the new set of convenors and the program they coordinated. It was great! Kudos to my friends, Maria Cotera and Em Claire Knowles, convenors of the DG.

During the closing session on Friday, 8/24, we said farewell to wonderful Alex Byrne, IFLA President 2005-2007. I must add my thanks to Alex who always supported the NPDG and was a really brilliant President.

IFLA- Durban findings:

Zulu Jazz Lounge -across City Hall and near the Royal Hotel (no website!). We found the place by serendipity when we ran into a bunch of people from the ALA Black Caucus and they invited us to go with them to ‘this Jazz place.’ What a Jazz venue! Little we knew, that we will experience an explosion of Jazz. Contemporary and local. Everyone danced- the visitors, the locals and the staff! What a fun place. At some point I looked around and the staff was all dancing on the steps to the bar, the visitors were dancing in front of the stage, and every one else still seating at the tables were moving arms, legs and head- all to the rhythm of Zulu songs by a fantastic singer with a powerful and sweet voice. We loved it so much that we returned.

Last but not least, the IFLA people were lovely as ever.  The Gang: Maria, Jo and Mr A were unbelievable. As always, Paul and Bob were terrific! and we got a new member, Liz We had fun, drama and Amarula. All combined is not bad for the health, if it is done once per year — smile, smile; wink, wink. Kidding aside, you guys are the best. Lots of love!

For pictures look at the Flickr section on this blog or look at this http://www.flickr.com/photos/45964032@N00/sets/72157600159912062/

I survived the 2007 Harry Potter locked in the Library — Not!

I traveled almost non-stop during the summer. Harry Potter, what Harry Potter? Kidding aside, I plan to read the last book this December. I now know that dear Harry survived (phew!) and can calmly wait until my school break during the holidays to read all 784 pages.

Where I traveled? My traveling summer started in late June with ALA in DC but I already wrote about that (June postings). I’ve covered July travels too. Now, I still have to let you know about the big event: IFLA annual conference in South Africa.

I will post a series about IFLA, ready? set, go!

P.S.

Look for next postings. If you are subscribed, you will receive a bunch of alerts and if you are not subscribed… what are you waiting for    Either case, I wouldn’t know when you subscribe or unsubscribe– technology is like that!