The Librarians are Coming!
The New York Library Association (NYLA) is meeting in Buffalo this week, from October 17 to 20. The 1,000 plus librarians will be staying at area hotels, with the Hyatt being their headquarter hotel, and attending daily activities at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center.
Alerting us to the convention, Sally Snow, a UB alumna and librarian wrote:
Librarians from all over the state will be roaming downtown to meet and greet, network and learn. It’s not only interesting to see herds of librarians wandering around your fair city, (so many jumpers, so many sensible shoes!) they will also be spending tourist $$$ and taking their impressions back to their own cities. Librarians dispense a lot of travel information to their customers.
That having been said, I think it's our duty to make the librarians feel welcome. They can start by checking BRO for late night events and checking YUM! for restaurant news...but commenters, wouldn't it be great to amass a little 'best of' list with our library scientists in mind?
NYLA has made up a list of cultural centers, and page 42 of their online conference program booklet tells about different offerings around town, including the fact that our bars don't close until 4AM! Throw that stereotype away...
Snow said the librarians, about 3 to 1, female to male, will be kept busy for the duration, and added that the swag is a huge draw, "You can outfit your desktop for a year at this convention!" She also shared this video with us, a librarian take-off on March of the Penguins.
Snow also mentioned how the cuts in Erie County affected the rest of NYLA. "It scared the heck out of us," she said. "We're at the mercy of the government. A lot of politicians are not readers--they think everything is on the Internet. But really good information is generally not free. And there's some interesting stuff, but it's not all true. Look at Wikipedia--people like playing jokes."
All joking aside, please leave comments about where the librarians should visit when they venture out of the Convention Center to mix with civilians.
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librarian
I have to congratulate BuffaloRising, without much enthusiasm, though, for only once succumbing to demeaning librarian stereotypes (jumpers, sensible shoes) while writing this story. People "get" that every occupation has the usual range of humanity in it: young and old, hip and dowdy, clueless and brilliant, radical and apolitical, and people of all colors--except when it comes to professional librarianship. Then people use "librarian" as a synonym for "dumpy," break into choruses of "Marion the Librarian," and think they're being amusing.
Sorry for the rant, but never in my decades in this field have I seen any media mentions of us that DON'T cite at least one of the usual stereotypes. Not long ago, women in the performing arts were considered "easy," or sluttish. "Good" families were appalled if their daughters went on stage. Now picture every article about actresses today somehow mentioning stereotype. If you were in theater, you'd come to resent it in a New York minute.
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LivingForge
In summer 2006, the American Library Association was the first conference to return to the post-Katrina New Orleans convention center. My professional organization, the Modern Language Association, relocated its December 2006 convention from New Orleans to Philadelphia, but ALA brought all their librarians and all their money into New Orleans in June of that year.
And for those of you who think that librarians are a dowdy boring bunch, check this out: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/fashion/08librarian.html
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al-alo
i was kind of hoping that these were the other kind of librarian sterotype. you know the kind in an 80's movie? hair up in a bun, dark rimmed glasses.
then in a sudden burst of passion, glasses are flung away, hair let down, and, and . . .oh wait, family site.
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Frankster
I remember that NYT article, Lviing Forge. Close, but no cigar. It followed the usual template: a mainstream media organ is stunned to learn that librarians do not conform to ancient stereotypes. In fact, the librarians are pierced and tattoed, or are skilled technojockeys, or are Harley owmers. Whatever. But an essential part of the media recipe is to cite all the stereotypes and act like the writer is bravely breaking ground by refuting them. It's been going on for decades.
I'll use the actress analogy again. Picture the media repeatedly discovering that actresses are diverse and interesting in their own right, and aren't necessarily sleazy. Like: "Reese Witherspoon: Not a Slut!" Or, "Katharine Hepburn: My Virtue is Has Never Been Easy."
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Frankster
P.S. When you're in a LTR with a librarian, you get sensitized to the silly stereotypes that Librarian is ranting about.
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Keith
Please, please let me hold on to that same stereotype that al-alo described. I believe it came to prominence with the Van Halen "Hot for Teacher" video. If librarians are any different, I don't want to know.
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RisingDamp666
Let's hope nobody drops a nuclear bomb on Buffalo during the Laibrarian's Convention. An entire nation would waste endless hours trying to figure out the microfiche readers.
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nicoleshoe
how can i get tourism information to the librarians?
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snoluv
Librarian, you didn't congratulate BRO for plugging the conference and requesting helpful citizens to point the way for the visiting librarians. The fact that they would even mention a library event,let's me know they are good library supporters. I doubt it'll get a mention on Channel 2.
I'm a librarian and I wrote the line about jumpers and sensible shoes. Why,because it's so true and it's a funny image. If we as a profession worried less about our image and more about our future maybe libraries wouldn't be closing.
al-alo - many hot librarians will be in attendance. If you can recite the Dewey Decimal classification system by heart, you're sure to get lucky! Putting a little book paste behind your ears doesn't hurt either.
al-alo - Don't worry there will be plenty of those other librarians at the conference too!
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snoluv
I apologize for bad editing of the previous post. People keep asking me questions.
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al-alo
im more of a library of congress classification kind of guy anyway.
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