Library Legs!

Writing about web page http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/40/

A few months ago Antony Brewerton put together a set of short articles by new librarians, or those currently working towards chartership, to show what the apparent vision of the future of the profession might be from our point of view. This was published in Sconul Focus and can now be viewed online.

I was one of the people who contributed and sent him a piece about stereotyping, and how really, if we are to survive as a profession, we need to change the perception that seems to be so rife in the public eye, of librarians spending all day stamping books and saying "Sssshhhhhhhhhh!" and wandering about in pearls and twin sets with our grey hair up in very neat buns. I wont go into any further detail about the content as you can read the whole piece for yourself on the Sconul web site, but I am quite chuffed that I have now had something published outside of the relative safety of the Warwick Library internal staff newsletter "Off yer Trolley" (viewable by Warwick Library staff only). 

What made it even better was that the Cilip Gazette picked up on Antony's article too, so the whole thing got published there as well.  And this time they asked for photos of the authors. Well, clearly I couldnt send them a standard head-shot of me looking all Librarian to go with an article on challenging stereotypes, so, this is what they printed, and yes, they are my legs (unfortunately the fishnets dont come out so well here, the pic in the gazette is better quality). 

Some of my colleagues (who requested not to be named) also joined me for the photoshoot - I thought it best to give Cilip some choice over what they published as this was no ordinary picture, and the results were as follows (personally I like the one with the stripper shoes standing on the law journals (appologies to our Law Librarian, Helen Riley).

Katharine Widdows : 20 Sep 2007 13:49 |  Tags: Communication Culture Future Libraryprofile Marketing Publicopinion Stereotypes |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem