{"id":70331,"date":"2014-05-01T11:30:18","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T16:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=70331"},"modified":"2014-05-01T12:00:37","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T17:00:37","slug":"shifting-the-perspective-implementations-that-will-help-to-overcome-the-librarian-stereotype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=70331","title":{"rendered":"Shifting the perspective: Implementations that will help to overcome the librarian stereotype"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel Loria, Head Editor, INALJ Colorado<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Shifting the perspective: Implementations that will help to overcome the librarian stereotype<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Rachel_Loria\"<\/a>Boring. Long dresses. Quiet voice except when she is scolding the room to keep the noise\u00a0level down<\/em>. A \u201cfussy old woman of either sex, myopic and repressed, brandishing or perhaps\u00a0cowering behind a date-stamp and surrounded by an array of notices which forbid virtually every\u00a0human activity.” These are some of the stereotypes we face routinely as\u00a0librarians\u2014and yet\u2014I envision a day where I can sit at the Thanksgiving dinner table and enjoy\u00a0a meal with my family without them asking if I have been practicing the many ways in which I\u00a0say \u201cShhhh.\u201d I aspire to one day tell a stranger about my educational background, without him\/\u00a0her having a dumbfounded look of \u201cOh? Librarians need a degree to do that job?\u201d<\/em> <\/strong>I graciously\u00a0look forward to the day when I am no longer dating men who tell me that my career is \u201csexy\u201d\u2014\u00a0completely undermining the gritty, dusty, stressful and time-consuming labor I sometimes\u00a0subject myself to. But mostly I envision a day where the librarian stereotype is a distant memory\u00a0and a speck in the rear view mirror. Still, I must ask myself one simple question: how do I feel\u00a0that these visions are still possible?<\/p>\n

In the book You Don\u2019t Look Like a Librarian! Shattering Stereotypes and Building\u00a0Positive New Images in the Internet Age<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, author Ruth Kneal explains that the best way for\u00a0librarians to dispel the typical librarian stereotype is through marketing. Marketing, she asserts,\u00a0will allow for the spreading of ideas\u2014something that librarians can certainly do well. She\u00a0explains:<\/p>\n