User:Joca/Reader Joca/introduction

In the comedy Desk Set (1957) Katherine Hepburn plays a librarian in trouble. Her employer installs a computer to replace her. Spencer Tracy is brought in as the engineer who will take care of the transition.

With the arrival of information technology, there was the idea that ‘until libraries consist of a computer wall into which the user plugs into at home’ (Sable, 1969, p. 751), the librarian should guide the users with, in most cases, her people skills.

The notion of the librarian serving the users of the library, using female traits has been part of this profession since the start of the first library school by Melvil Dewey. In his vision librarianship was the perfect job for women who went to college (Dewey, 1886), and he shaped the profession to make it fit into the mould of typical ‘women’s work’. (Ilett, 2003) In popular culture this developed into the stereotype of librarians ‘as either effeminate males or old maid, bookish females.’ (Lowenthal, 1971, 2598)

On the other hand, the position of cataloging and managing information is a powerful one. We can't ignore the role of the librarian if we talk about book scanning for example. Projects like Google Books use existing libraries as a starting point for their efforts. And these new collections require a person, or a system, that takes care of these. This sounds like the classic task of librarians, but people in this field call themselves information scientists.

There is no explicit distinction between the librarian and the information scientist (Aharony, 2006, p. 244), but with another name, comes another public image. Information scientists are in a higher regard, their average salary is higher, and men are the majority in this profession.

What happened in the meantime? The selection of articles in this chapter shows the construction of the gendered image of the librarian, and how this influenced the profession in other parts of the world. The texts analyze the stereotypes, and draw the connection with the bad image of female dominated professions in general. From Librarianship as a Profession for College-bred Women, to Information Science: Not Just for Boys Anymore.

'Discussing the gender issues, (...) means to revaluate the work of the female librarian' concludes Maria Ferreira (2006) in her article concerning librarians in Brazil. So, who is the librarian? And who do we want this person (or system? ed.) to be in the future? It's up to us.

The texts in this reader might give some inspiration. Don't hesitate to ask your local librarian for more recommendations.