[AMIA-L] Librarians have STYLE in today's Sunday NY Times!

["Rubin, Nan" <RubinN@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey hey hey!

Librarians make the front page of the STYLE section in today's Sunday NY
Times!

Nan

Nan Rubin
Project Director
Preserving Digital Public Television
Thirteen/WNET
450 W. 33rd St. 
New York, NY  10001
212-560-2925
www.ptvdigitalarchive.org


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New York Times
July 8, 2007
A Hipper Crowd of Shushers 
By KARA JESELLA
ON a Sunday night last month at Daddy's, a bar in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, more than a dozen people in their 20s and 30s gathered at a
professional soiree, drinking frozen margaritas and nibbling
store-bought cookies. With their thrift-store inspired clothes and
abundant tattoos, they looked as if they could be filmmakers, Web
designers, coffee shop purveyors or artists. 
When talk turned to a dance party the group had recently given at a
nearby restaurant, their profession became clearer. 
"Did you try the special drinks?" Sarah Gentile, 29, asked Jennifer Yao,
31, referring to the colorfully named cocktails. 
"I got the Joy of Sex," Ms. Yao replied. "I thought for sure it was
French Women Don't Get Fat." 
Ms. Yao could be forgiven for being confused: the drink was numbered and
the guests had to guess the name. "613.96 C," said Ms. Yao, cryptically,
then apologized: "Sorry if I talk in Dewey."
That would be the Dewey Decimal System. The groups' members were
librarians. Or, in some cases, guybrarians. 
"He hates being called that," said Sarah Murphy, one of the evening's
organizers and a founder of the Desk Set, a social group for librarians
and library students. 
Ms. Murphy was speaking of Jeff Buckley, a reference librarian at a law
firm, who had a tattoo of the logo from the Federal Depository Library
Program peeking out of his black T-shirt sleeve.
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."
When the cult film "Party Girl" appeared in 1995, with Parker Posey as a
night life impresario who finds happiness in the stacks, the idea that a
librarian could be cool was a joke.
Now, there is a public librarian who writes dispatches for McSweeney's
Internet Tendency, a favored magazine of the young literati.
"Unshelved," a comic about librarians - yes, there is a comic about
librarians - features a hipster librarian character. And, in real life,
there are an increasing number of librarians who are notable not just
for their pink-streaked hair but also for their passion for pop culture,
activism and technology. 
"We're not the typical librarians anymore," said Rick Block, an adjunct
professor at the Long Island University
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/l/lon
g_island_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  Palmer School and at the
Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science, both graduate
schools for librarians, in New York City. 
"When I was in library school in the early '80s, the students weren't as
interesting," Mr. Block said. 
Since then, however, library organizations have been trying to recruit a
more diverse group of students and to mentor younger members of the
profession. 
"I think we're getting more progressive and hipper," said Carrie Ansell,
a 28-year-old law librarian in Washington. 
In the last few years, articles have decried the graying of the
profession, noting a large percentage of librarians that would soon be
retiring and a seemingly insurmountable demand for replacements. But
worries about a mass exodus appear to have been unfounded. 
Michele Besant, the librarian at the School of Library and Information
Studies at the University of Wisconsin
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni
versity_of_wisconsin/index.html?inline=nyt-org> -Madison, said the
Association of Library and Information Science statistics show a steady
increase in library information science enrollments over the last 10
years. Further, at hers and other schools there is a trend for students
to be entering masters programs at a younger age. 
The myth prevails that librarians are becoming obsolete. "There's
Google, no one needs us," Ms. Gentile said, mockingly, over a drink at
Daddy's.
Still, these are high-tech times. Why are people getting into this
profession when libraries seem as retro as the granny glasses so many of
the members of the Desk Set wear?
"Because it's cool," said Ms. Gentile, who works at the Brooklyn Museum
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/b/bro
oklyn_museum/index.html?inline=nyt-org> . 
Ms. Murphy, 29, thinks so, too. An actress who had long considered
library school, Ms. Murphy finally decided to sign up after meeting
several librarians - in bars. 
"People I, going in, would never have expected were from the library
field," she said. "Smart, well-read, interesting, funny people, who
seemed to be happy with their jobs." 
Maria Falgoust, 31, is also a founder of Desk Set, which took its name
from the 1957 Katharine Hepburn
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/katharine_
hepburn/index.html?inline=nyt-per> -Spencer Tracy romantic comedy. A
student who works part time at the library at Saint Ann's School, she
was inspired to become a librarian by a friend, a public librarian who
works with teenagers and goes to rock shows regularly. 
Since matriculating to Palmer, Ms. Falgoust has met plenty of other
like-minded librarians at places such as Brooklyn Label, a restaurant,
and at Punk Rope, an exercise class. "They're everywhere you go," she
said. 
Especially in Greenpoint, where Ms. Murphy and Ms. Falgoust live about
10 blocks from each other and where there are, Ms. Falgoust said, about
13 other librarians in the neighborhood. 
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. 
And though many librarians say that they, like nurses or priests, are
called to the profession, they also say the job is stable,
intellectually stimulating and can have reasonable hours - perfect for
creative types who want to pursue their passions outside of work and
don't want to finance their pursuits by waiting tables. (The median
salary for librarians was about $51,000 in 2006, according to the
American Library Association
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/ame
rican_library_assn/index.html?inline=nyt-org> -Allied Professional
Organization.)
"I wanted to do something different, something maybe more meaningful,"
said Carrie Klein, 36, who used to be a publicist for a record label and
for bands such as Radiohead and the Foo Fighters, but is now starting a
new job in the library at Entertainment Weekly. 
Michelle Campbell, 26, a librarian in Washington, said that
librarianship is a haven for left-wing social engagement, which is
particularly appealing to the young librarians she knows. "Especially
those of us who graduated around the same time as the Patriot Act," Ms.
Campbell said. "We see what happens when information is restricted."
Ms. Campbell added that she became a librarian because it "combined a
geeky intellectualism" with information technology skills and social
activism. 
Jessamyn West, 38, an editor of "Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical
Librarians Speak Out" a book that promotes social responsibility in
librarianship, and the librarian behind the Web site librarian.net (its
tagline is "putting the rarin' back in librarian since 1999") agreed
that many new librarians are attracted to what they call the "Library
2.0" phenomenon. "It's become a techie profession," she said. 
In a typical day, Ms. West might send instant and e-mail messages to
patrons, many of who do their research online rather than in the
library. She might also check Twitter, MySpace
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/myspace_com/index
.html?inline=nyt-org>  and other social networking sites, post to her
various blogs and keep current through MetaFilter and RSS feeds. Some
librarians also create Wikis or podcasts.
At the American Librarian Association's annual conference last month in
Washington, there were display tables of graphic novels, manga and comic
books. In addition to a panel called "No Shushing Required," there were
sessions on social networking and zines and one called "Future Friends:
Marketing Reference and User Services to Generation X."
On a Saturday, after a day of panels, a group of librarians relaxed and
danced at Selam Restaurant. Sarah Mercure nursed a blueberry vodka and
cranberry juice and talked about deciding on her career after hearing a
librarian who curated a zine collection speak. Pete Welsch, a D.J., spun
records and talked about how his interest in social activism, film and
music led him to library school.
But some librarians have found the job can be at odds with their outside
cultural interests. 
"I went to see a band a few weeks ago with old co-workers and turned to
one and said 'Is it just me or is this really, really loud?' " said Ms.
Klein, the former publicist. Her friend, she said, "laughed and said,
'You have librarian ears now.' " 

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