Kill Marian (the librarian)

All professions have stereotypes, some of them warranted, most of them not. Computer experts are “geeks”, engineers are “nerds”, accountants are stingy and boring, and lawyers are well… lawyers. I am a librarian. I have a masters of science degree in library science. I have a bachelor’s degree in business administration from one of the top business schools in the country. I work in a hospital. I can script html and css, know enough about RSS feeds to be dangerous. I'm comfortable around a computer, I have a cell phone and a PDA. I do NOT say shhhhhh, I do NOT wear my hair in a bun and I dress well.

The librarian stereotype I never understood was the librarian fantasy. You know, the fantasy that most heterosexual males have about deflowering the repressed librarian enabling her to let her hair down so to speak. This is one of those double-edged stereotypes. If forced at gun point to chose, I'd rather be an object of the fantasy than thought of as timid and quiet. In my ideal world though, librarians will be judged as individuals not as a stereotype. And if that means I have to change minds one patron at a time, then so be it!