Illustration by Remi Geoffroi

According to the stereotype, librarians also shelve books, are straitlaced, uptight, wear buns and pencil skirts and sensible shoes, love card catalogues, and don't like people.

"Common perception is that librarians are introverted women who like to read and who believe in the preservation of their collection to the point of being overprotective," agrees Don Butcher, executive director of the Canadian Library Association. "But they're definitely less introverted than they used to be."

And generally, librarians aren't tight-fisted with their collection. The whole point of organizing the world is to help people get the information they need and want when they need it and want it.

In step with the times, librarians are as computer savvy as the rest of us. "Librarians have never met a technology they didn't love," laughs Butcher. "[But] it's not a geek love... It's always been that they could see the benefits technology brought to their core beliefs of access to information and freedom of expression." Librarians were talking about metadata long before techies thought up a fancy name for it.

People may not realize it, but Ottawa is absolutely seething with librarians - along with numerous branches and two universities, there is a large group of non-traditional librarians who are styled "information professionals." They manage paper and electronic resources in the government, corporations, law libraries, museums, medical centres and non-profit/non-governmental agencies.

If the idea of becoming a librarian is starting to sound more appealing, there are two main ways of getting qualified: Algonquin College offers the Library Technician diploma, and right now the University of Ottawa is awaiting senate approval to start a Master of Library and Information Studies program in September 2007.

While the degree points more towards management positions, a diploma can lead to more nitty-gritty work. But be aware: The difference in pay scale can be significant. Miss Hall's Personnel (www.misshallspersonnel.ca), a placement agency specifically for library and museum workers, currently pays $12 to $17 per hour for library technician positions and $20 to $30 per hour for librarians/information specialists.

Some people fall into librarianship, others are born librarians. Are your CDs alphabetized? Is your closet divided by colour? Consider using your powers for good to make the world a better-ordered, happier place to be.

 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

The Librarian: Quietly Changing Public Perceptions..............     The image that most people get of librarians is exactly what you describe in your article Megan. Films support that and certainly any of the librarians I've ever met fit the mould perfectly. Controlling, reserved and authoritarian. But the onset of technology, the Internet and how people gather information has taken some of the gloss and glean off of researching exclusively through books, reference manuals and microfiche. It is more common for people to walk in to the library with an idea already of the power they have in their fingertips to hit "Google" or "Altavista", "Ask Jeeves" or "Wikipedia" to open information worlds that could only be imagined as recently as 10years ago. Library users have become more savvy and librarians have had to adjust accordingly. No longer meek consumers of information, patrons visiting libraries come prepared with laptops in their carry-on luggage, highlighters in hand and armed often with online books stored in their hard-drives. The merging of technology expert with librarian has challenged preconceived presumptions of who can fill the often challenging position and changed the poker face of the nice-as-granny, stiff-as-grey-flannel that reminds us of return dates and library rules. Not such a bad change for an otherwise well-paid profession. Now, how about those Museum Technology grads!! Could they be the next to be retrofit?
Steve Landry	{25 votes}	January 8th, 2007
Not In the Movies I've Rented!!     What are you talking about?!! In every movie I've seen Librarians are repressed sexual cauldrons of passion that only require the removal of their horn rimmed glasses and a hair clip before the bass guitar starts pumping in the soundtrack. Go to your local bar and ask the local drunkard if he'd be willing to go on a blind date with a gymnast or a librarian? Hell, the gymnast has to be in bed at 9am and can't have any pizza. Besides, talk about pressure. Who wants to bed an athlete?! Now, consider the librarian. She has shelves of books that make the Kama Sutra look like Mad Magazine and most likely has boobs bigger than that of an 8 year old boy. Sure the money isn't great, but think of all of the bets you win with drunken know it alls. When two guys are fighting over whether or not Moscow is the coldest capital on the planet you bet them 20 bucks it's actually Ulan Bator and it's like shooting fish in a barrel. You get onto "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and take it up to a quarter million before you wisely take the cash and run. Now who's laughing that you have a National Geographic in your beside table? Besides, if all else fails there's always that next "Aerosmith" video to star in!!
James Harrison		January 30th, 2007
Libararians Have to Deal with All Kinds!     The makeup of who uses libraries these days has changed drastically and librarians have had to change with the times. Years ago the main people using libraries were avid readers, students and researchers. Today, if you walk into a library it is full of all types of people. You have the fore mentioned, but you also have those that come into the library to eat, those searching for DVD's and CD's, those who can't afford or are too lazy to use their own internet, street people sheltering from the climate and many others. Some people expect librarians to always be polite and helpful. I have stood patiently by while librarians have answered stupid question after stupid question. Many expect them to be a resource for everything including many things that have nothing to do with a library. Libraries are a resource and librarians are a tool to help one find information, but they are not there to fix your life for you. Use libraries for what they were built for and most librarians will be happy to assist you!
Dave McMurran	{3 votes}	January 19th, 2007
Haha...good article     I definitely saw things in this one that spoke volumes. In particular about My Audio/video collection being in such good order. But one can only speak from true experience and that I have. Librarians are like people anywhere else i guess. Just some of them unfortunately are very cowardly round-ripe assholes only fit for the pits of hell...oh well.
Ger Madden	{1 vote}	January 11th, 2007
What's the deal?...     What's the deal with these new "techno-savvy" librarians being all about the self-service? I noticed this most accutely at the U of O, where the librarians seemingly would rather beat you to death with your reference books than help you figure out the periodicals. What is it that makes people so angry? Particularly, if you don't like people or if you don't like answering questions, why would you go into the library sciences in the first place. I guess I'm wondering, as discussed in "Orange" in this issue, what's the motivation?
Chris Cloot	{6 votes}	January 10th, 2007

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