Volume 2 No. 10

ANTONY BREWERTON

I have a reputation. No, not as a naked, tattooed, belly-dancing librarian into facial decoration (well, a boy has got to have some secrets!). I have a reputation as someone ever so slightly obsessed with the image of our profession.

One of the key benefits of this reputation is that friends - and strangers - are always willing to give me fresh examples of (usually quite appalling) representations of libraries and library workers in the popular media. Work colleagues can always be relied upon to inform me of relevant programmes I might have missed from last night's television, or to cram clippings from newspapers I would never normally read into my pigeon hole. (I once even received a copy of the Daily Express from one anonymous donor.) And strangers? The Library World is such a wonderful community that if you write an article on the image of librarianship, you always (he hinted with hope!) get sent examples of good, bad and ugly librarians from the stage, screen and literature, within a week of publication.

Over the years, I have collected folders full of academic articles (containing footnotes and bibliographies pointing to more evidence); letters describing adverts, books and films; quotes from novels; annotated programme details from The Radio Times; and scraps of paper with hurriedly scribbled plot outlines from TV sitcoms or transcripts of the observations of 'hilarious' radio DJs, all referring (in one way or another) to our profession.

Now I am running out of space. But now (it seems) a solution has arrived to save the day. The Internet -that up-to-the-minute, space-saving, reference tool that we all adore- seems more crammed with images of librarians than the folders in my back bedroom.

So where should the image-obsessed, web-surfing library professional begin? A quick search on Alta Vista for 'librarian*' will uncover over a million hits [1]. It is the intention of this article to give some pointers to interesting sites and useful gateways, and to explore what types of 'image sources' and 'image representations' are available in cyberspace.

IMAGE SITES

'Image' sites on the World Wide Web normally fall into one of two categories:

1. Studies of the image; and
2. 'Image busting' sites.

1. STUDIES OF THE IMAGE
The sites concerned with studies of the image of the profession are sometimes in essay format, often as electronic versions of articles previously published in librarianship journals. Most sites, though, take the form of resource lists, indexes (sometimes abstracted) collecting and classifying examples of the image from various media. Although there is obvious overlap, such sites tend to concentrate on one of the following: fictional portrayals of the profession; media portrayals; or library/book world quotations.

1.1 FICTIONAL LIBRARIANS
A good starting point for anyone interested in the image of the profession in general - and negative stereotypes in particular - is Stacie Marinelli and Tim Baker's site Image and the librarian: an exploration of a changing profession [2]. As well as some analysis of the image, the key beauty of this site is that it includes an impressive collection of resource lists, cataloguing books, journal articles and relevant web sites (with hypertext links) concerned with the 'history of librarians', 'stereotypic images', 'professional status and image' and 'changing technology'. Both highly academic and more frivolous works are listed, and despite its American bias this is a highly recommended site.

More 'popular' in its approach is Libraries FAQ. Section 7 [3] covers culture and includes details of, and links to, library lyrics pages, materials on libraries in novels and a brief mention of librarianship and television. The latter two media seem to be surprisingly under-represented on the Web (unless I am missing something!) and the serious researcher may wish to check out more traditional sources [4]. Having said this, that bete noire of sitcoms, Sorry!, does have its programme details posted in cyberspace [5]. You might be surprised to discover that Timothy Lumsden actually survived for seven series before the BBC - or was it an irate librarian? - decided to kill him off.

Comic strip librarians
Also crammed in my folders are stray cartoons of librarians or comic strip characters in library settings. Many of these have been found by accident whilst reading newspapers and magazines. We all know that Bat Girl was a librarian and that Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) has a rather difficult relationship with his local library staff, but where can we turn for a comprehensive list of libraries and librarians in comic strips?

One of the sites indexed by Marinelli and Baker is Steven Bergson's Librarians in comics: sources [6]. Dividing his site into 'comic strips' and 'comic books', Bergson has provided useful abstracts to describe the comics' action in relation to the library world. One of the problems with (syndicated) comic strips is referencing, and although dates are sometimes included, some of the strips may still prove difficult to track down. (Far more reassuring is the comic books list where tighter bibliographic control can be exercised.) Less far-reaching, but in some ways more useful (especially for the novice comic strip searcher), is Library cartoons: an annotated bibliography [7]. This lists a small handful of titles (focusing on particular strips like Bloom County, Dilbert and Robotman), but quantity is made up for with quality. Each example is given its own page which includes a 'description' (with quotatable dialogue faithfully reproduced), 'source' and any additional 'comments'. Some examples (including Funky Winterbean's encounter with Internet filtering and - my personal favourite - Calvin discovering that his library book is overdue) even have hypertext links to copies of the strips themselves.

Reel librarians
The vast majority of the image resource sites on the Web are concerned with the portrayal of librarians in the theatre and film. Frederick Duda's Librarians on stage and screen [8], a chronological overview of (briefly abstracted) examples, is a good starting point. Shoji Ichimura's Librarians in film: a filmography [9] similarly offers a chronological approach, but only provides titles. The site also appears to have been last updated in 1995, so its use is limited, but it does contain a list of over 30 Japanese films that do not appear to be indexed elsewhere.

A different approach is adopted by Steven Schmidt, the author of the excellent The depiction of libraries, librarians and the book arts in film and television [10] and the forthcoming book, Librarians on film [11]. His web site lists his top ten films featuring libraries, librarians and the book arts [12]. Alongside negative images (Donna Read in It's a wonderful life), Schmidt selects humorous examples (Conan the Librarian in UHF) and several very positive portrayals (Desk set, Angel at my table and Salmonberries). On the essay front, Stephen Walker and V. Lonnie Lawson's The librarian stereotype and the movies [13] deserves special mention. This eminently readable piece considers the concept of stereotyping, the tasks undertaken by librarians on the screen, the qualities of typical male and female library workers in film, and librarianship in comedy, thriller and fantasy genres. This is an excellent study that focuses on 30 films. Why so few? Initial searches threw up limited references to librarianship as a central theme. As the authors rather drily point out: 'librarians make infrequent appearances [in films]. One reason for this rarity is the non-cinematic nature of a librarian's work. Answering reference questions is not the stuff of movie action.' 

The Daddy of all the film sites, though, has to be Martin Raish's brilliant Librarians in the movies: an annotated filmography [14]. I first became aware of this database in 1992 when Ann O'Brien sent me a print-out (a version of this with additional commentary was subsequently published in the journal Collection management [15]). Since 1992, the filmography has not only grown in scope, but the original A-Z list has been more closely classified. Now four groups appear: Group A - films including the portrayal of librarians/library staff; Group B - films including the portrayal of libraries; Group C - films in which unseen librarians or libraries are mentioned; Group D - about 115 films requiring further research to add them to one of the above groups. The filmography is extensive in coverage (over 300 films), well organised and abstracted, and bang up to date (I checked recently (2 August 1999) and The Mummy is included!). No serious researcher into the image of librarians in cinema could survive without this site.

1.2 'REAL' LIBRARIANS
It is not just my folders that are crammed with examples of the image. In my work office, above the filing cabinets, is a hoardings poster for the Oxford Mail that reads 'OXFORD: LIBRARIAN FOILS RAIDERS'. From my recollection, the actual story [16] was nothing to do with a library and made only one mention of professional status, but the stereotype was still played to good effect: 'meek and mild librarian becomes have-a-go hero'.

Finding real life stories about librarians that hint at the image has never been easy. Searches of newspaper databases under 'librarian' are invariably inconclusive as the stereotype tends to be played subtly, and (what often amounts to) lazy journalism is hardly indexed! Help - to a certain extent - is available on the Internet. The American Librarian.net [17] provides a daily news service with links to librarian-based stories. Although some of these are described as 'sensible' (a story from 21 July 1999, for example, considers DSE and office environments and the two entries for 1 July review US filtering initiatives), the vast majority are far from sensible. Some hint at established stereotypes (librarians and cats appear for 28 July), whilst others are just plain bizarre ('librarian misplaces ashes' (21 July) and 'TV star runs over librarian in his Ferrari, TV star sues librarian' (17 July) are my two favourites). In many ways, this is a site that needs to be seen to be believed!

1.3 QUOTATION SITES
In the past, anyone seeking an apposite quotation about libraries or librarians was forced to scan the indexes of guides like the Oxford dictionary of quotations or Stevenson's book of quotations. These always seemed to contain the same tired remarks and Emerson's meek young men growing up in libraries are now etched on my mind forever [18].

Web sites like IFCILIP's Quotations about libraries and librarians [19] and the ACILIP's Quotes about libraries and books [20] not only bring a whole host of quotations together by subject, they also seem to be providing an airing ground for lesser-known observations. My personal favourite is Sir William Osler's definition (from the IFCILIP site) of what makes a good librarian:

"The librarian of today, and it will be true still more of the librarians of tomorrow, are not fiery dragons interposed between the people and the books. They are useful public servants, who manage libraries in the interest of the public... Many still think that a great reader, or a writer of books, will make an excellent librarian. This is pure fallacy."

Incidentally, this view that librarians should be people - rather than book - orientated (more later) was propounded in 1917.

2. THE 'IMAGE BUSTERS'
So - depending partly on the particular field of investigation - the researcher interested in the image of the library and information science profession is generally well-served by the Internet. Increasingly, though, new sites connected with the image are more concerned with busting the image than merely cataloguing it.

'Image busting' sites cover a multitude of interests and only a few of the more well-known sites can be covered here. Their primary aim is (it seems) to present an alternative image of librarians, a more vibrant, positive 20th (or 21st) Century view than the (19th Century) dusty, quiet world of Miss Bun and Mister Ineffectual. Given the nature of the Internet, some of these sites are rather leftfield to say the least.

The Bellydancing Librarian
An excellent starting point in any tour of the image-busting back roads of the Information Superhighway is The Bellydancing Librarian [21]. Eris Weaver's wonderful little site sets out to smash two stereotypes: the 'fashion-stunted, book-dusting librarian' misconception and the 'belly-dancers are really strippers if not whores' slur. As well as providing links to a Gallery of bellydancing librarians, the site also acts as a gateway to belly-dancing - sorry, Raks Sharki - sites and 'other fabulous, stereotype-smashing librarians'. Some of these sites will already be familiar to the image researcher: Image and the librarian: an exploration of a changing profession, Librarians in the movies and Librarians in comics are all listed. The rest are more typical image-busting pages.

Some of these are 'humorous' sites, proving that we are not all stuffy professionals. The Laughing Librarian [22] offers signs to put up in your library (office!?), quotations for sig. files and links to other 'funny' sites. Fun for bookworms [23] has similar objectives. Some of the attached sites are more successful than others, and (in my experience) the best tend to be the ones where you (as a librarian) end up smiling knowingly rather than laughing out loud.

Other sites are more serious. The Progressive Librarians Guild [24] stresses the social responsibility of library workers and produces a radical on-line journal. The more populist Street Librarian [25] supports similar issues and promotes the alternative media. The Anarchist Librarians web [26] ('Boring Mission Statement: We don't have one') is big on freedom of information/anti-filtering, and (along with the Anarchism, radical librarians, infoshops site [27]) provides excellent links to alternative information sources on the Web.

Naked librarians
Other image-busting sites are often more concerned with the image of individuals, rather than the interests of the profession as a whole. The Barbarian Librarian [28] is a rather strange little site merely content with showing a real-life librarian who likes to eschew 'normal' work attire to dress as a, erm, barbarian.

Some sites go further. The tense sexual atmosphere of the quiet library and the repressed sexuality of library workers are well established elements of the image [29]. As one might expect, the sexual side of the image is given much attention on the Web. Naked librarians abound. One of the resource sites - The Image of librarians in pornography [30] - presents a bibliography of adult novels featuring librarians, and Librarian.net seems to have three or four naked librarian stories each month. Most (in)famous of all, though, is Naked Librarians [31] which contains two screens of (mostly Art Deco or Pre-Raphaelite) naked people on tasteful bookplates, plus links to photo sites of 'the lovely Taryn from Nerve Mag' and 'Donna Does the Library'. At this point - in the tradition of the News of the World - your intrepid investigative reporter made his excuses and left Netscape...

Modified librarians
Until recently, the only reference I could recall to librarians and tattoos came in a copy of the cult comic magazine Deadline. In the December 1993/January 1994 issue, the character Dogmeat (half dog/half man: don't ask) gets excited at the prospect of photographing 'a coach load of young female librarians' with tattoos (of the Rolling Stones logo and Sonic the Hedgehog) in 'unusual places' [32].

The World Wide Web has showed us that the tattooed librarian is not mere fantasy. The Modified Librarian [33] provides 'a forum for the discussion of body modification in the context of librarianship'. It includes 'rants' and other writings from individual librarians, plus photographs of their various body modifications (like Sadie's pierced tongue and Andrew's tiger tattoo). This site has been widely reported and already another librarian is looking for recruits for a tattooed librarians web site [34].

The Lipstick Librarian
'She's bold!! She's sassy!! She's helpful!! She's... The Lipstick Librarian!'

The Queen of all the image-busting sites, though, has to be The Lipstick Librarian [35]. Possibly the most well-known of all these sites, the 'LL' is more Paris '99 than Dewey 21. 'Lipstick Librarianship', we are informed, 'is a state-of-mind, an outlook'. It is all about style in the face of adversity:

'What makes a Lipstick Librarian? Money? Fame? Beauty? A mastery of AACR2 and reference interview techniques? No! It's the ability to look fabulous while poking around a dot-matrix printer with a bent paper-clip.'

Linda Absher's multi-award winning site has been making librarians (and others) laugh since 1997 with its life-saving beauty tips, 'essential' bibliography and 'have you got LL tendencies' quiz. You can now even get a Lipstick Librarian T-shirt.

If the Lipstick Librarian gets her way, librarians will never be seen as dowdy ever again!

3. ANALYSIS
So what are we to make of these sites? The 'studies of the image' sites are less controversial, 'more scholarly' as The Bellydancing Librarian would have it. These provide a useful - and, in some cases, almost essential - reference tool, and reference tools (as we all know) are ideally suited to the electronic media. But what of the 'image-busting' sites? These are often viewed (at best) as mere whimsy: the Mediawatching column of the Library Association Record, for example, often starts with a review of these 'weird and wonderful' sites before getting on with the serious business of scanning the broadsheets [36]. At worst, they are seen as frivolous nonsense: although PICK provides a gateway on its LIS reference page [37] to 'jokes about librarians', the section is actually titled 'Jokes [not really recommended]'.

So do the image busters carry out any more positive functions? Do they show librarianship to be vibrant, vital and fun? Do they provide a positive image of the profession? Do they really talk about librarianship at all?'

Some of the more 'serious' sites are undoubtedly passionate about our profession. The more political Progressive/Anarchist/Street Librarians stress our responsibility as guardians and promoters of information, emphasising the commitment that takes librarianship beyond the mere status of 'a job'. Sites like Women in the history of American librarianship [38] provide inspirational examples from our past, and Great librarians on the Web [39] links us to the metadata pioneers of today.

Even the more 'frivolous' sites offer positive images. Pearson's humorous poem The Reference Librarian [40] and the more prosaic Reference encounters site [41] both convey the varied nature of enquiry work. Dan, The Ska Librarian [42], may be alternatively known as 'the librarian that looks like a big skinhead who will eat my child', but he still refers to his library (the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts) with affection as an 'amazing resource'.

Other sites are more explicit in their approach. Thwart not the librarian! [43] (which contains a cartoon of a barbarian librarian) asserts that librarians are not 'diminutive civil servants, scuttling about 'Sssh-ing' people and stamping things.' Oh no. 'Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule.'

But what of the belly-dancing, tattooed lipstick librarians? Are they not merely concerned with non-librarian aspects of librarians' lives? What is the point of these sites? As well as being just plain funny (any anyone who does not laugh at The Lipstick Librarian's bibliography - which lists such classics as 'The glasses/earring ratio: which should be larger?', 'Circulate THIS!! When Circ Librarians go bad' and 'Cataloguers who love AACR2 too much' from that popular journal Cataloguing obsession weekly- needs a vacation, help or a career change!) they can - I believe - fulfil a more serious role.

One of the main problems with the image is (it has to be said) that it is partly based on reality. It is also partly self-inflicted and partly self-perpetuating. Our profession is still viewed by many people as book-centred, the ideal refuge for the shrinking violet, for the 'reader'. We still get references for prospective members of staff (always written by non-librarians, of course) saying 'X is a quiet girl... ideally suited to library work'. We still get - some 80 years after Olser's observations - people in interviews saying that they want to work in libraries because they like reading books. When will they say that they are interested in library work because they like people?

As Andrew Stenson [44] recently pointed out:

'The continued viability of the profession is critically dependent on the recruitment and training of people who can meet future challenges. There is growing evidence from a number of research projects to suggest that this issue is fundamental and that professionals everywhere need to reflect on the implications.''

Recent reports like the SKIP Report [45] and the TFPL and Loughborough University studies outlined by Stenson have stressed the importance of recruiting staff with the appropriate personal qualities, particularly communication and interpersonal skills. It is relatively easy to teach technical skills. Changing personalities is less simple.

As a profession, we need to give out the message - in any medium available - that we are not the refuge of the quiet and scared, that we are not living in the 19th Century, but that this is a confident, go ahead, passionate profession with its heart on its sleeve rather than its hair in a bun. How else are we to ensure that we will attract out-going, communicative, 'people' people to librarianship? As we have seen, many of the image-busting sites convey the excitement and passion of the profession. And the other sites? We also need to demonstrate to vibrant, sparky individuals who might have librarian tendencies, but feel that this staid profession is not for them, that if they have a cute tattoo (or just an acute sense of humour) they will fit in.

And finally...
I hope this has given you a taster of what is available, where, and what is worth tracking down. I will finish now, so you can go surfing (or image-busting) yourself, but in the spirit of The Lipstick Librarian I will leave you with advice for the surfer:

1. always wear sun block
2. never wear Speedos
3. stick to the most stylish sites

Happy surfing!

Antony Brewerton
Subject Team Leader (Arts, Social Sciences & Health Care)
Oxford Brookes University Library

REFERENCES

Note: all web sites listed were accessible at the given addresses in August 1999.

[1] 1,052, 470 web sites (to be precise) at 10.00am on 5 August 1999.

[2] http://home.earthlink.net/~cyberresearcher/ImageHomepage.htm

[3] http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2161/libfaq7.htm

[4] See for example: Taylor, Alan (ed). Long overdue, Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1993; Black, Sharon. Checking out the librarian: the depiction of librarians and libraries on prime time television. Popular culture in libraries, 1 (4), 1993, p.35-62.

[5] http://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/sorry/

[6] http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2161/

[7] http://pw1.netcom.com/~dplourde/cartoons/index.html

[8] http://www.ala.org/editions/wlh/movies.html

[9] http://www.bekkoame.or.jp/~ichimura/libmvdb/libmvdbE.htm

[10] Indiana libraries, 15 (2), 1996, p.15-56

[11] Jefferson: McFarland & Co, 2000

[12] http://www.iupui.edu/it/libref/lib_film.html

[13] http://wings.buffalo.edu/publications/mcjrnl/v1n1/image.html

[14] http://www.lib.byu.edu/dept/libsci/films/introduction.html

[15] O'Brien, Anne & Raish, Martin. The image of the librarian in commercial motion pictures: an annotated filmography. Collection management, 17 (3), 1993, p.61-84.

[16] Oxford Mail, 19 April 1991.

[17] http://www.librarian.net/

[18] Nature addresses and lectures: the American scholar, quoted in Stevenson's book of quotations (10th ed.), London: Cassell, 1967, p.1108 (quotation 13).

[19] http://ifla.inist.fr/I/humour/subj.htm

[20] http://www.ala.org/editions/wlh/quotes.html

[21] http://www.wco.com/~eris/bdlib.html

[22] http://internettrash.com/users/lafnlibn/

[23] http://sussex.njstatelib.org/njlib/lbhumtoc.htm

[24] http://www.libr.org/PLG/

[25] http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423

[26] http://burn.ucsd.edu/~mai/librarians.html

[27] http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/radlib.html

[28] http://pages.hotbot.com/books/barbarianlibrarian/

[29] Brewerton, Antony. Sex, lies and stereotypes. Assistant librarian, 86 (2), February 1993, p.22-27.

[30] http://www.84.com/libraryporn.htm

[31] http://www.jessamyn.com/naked/choose.html

[32] Philip Bond. Dogmeat. Deadline, Issue 58, December1993/January 1994, p.38-41.

[33] http://www.bmeworld.com/gailcat/index.html

[34] See Tattooed? Librarian? at http://www.jessamyn.com/me/readthis.html

[35] http://www.teleport.com/~petlin/liplib/

[36] See, for example, columns from December 1998 (100 (12), p.676), January 1999 (101 (1), p.64) and August 1999 (101 (8), p.496).

[37] http://www.aber.ac.uk/~tplwww/e/ref.html

[38] http://www.pe.net/~ellerbee/wom_lib.html

[39] http://www.sau.edu/bestinfo/Library/libindex.htm#great

[40] http://www.ala.org/editions/wlh/reflibn.html

[41] http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Veranda/3035/q62299.html

[42] http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/3497/

[43] http://www.msu.edu/~olseneri/library.html

[44] Stenson, Andrew. Where is the passion to succeed? Library and Information Appointments, 2 (17), 13 August 1999, App 334.

[45] Garrod, Penny and Sidgreaves, Ivan. SKIP: skills for the new information professionals, Plymouth: University of Plymouth, 1998. See particularly para. 2.13.6

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