On the end of the semester

So the semester is almost over and I still need a couple more posts. I can do one short one so this will be it before the really long ones that will probably bore everyone. Maybe I can amuse people with this one.

So I have been talking to several people this last week about librarians and stereotypes and their portrayal in the media. This kinda started in 502 but also at work where some of the undergraduates I work with wanted to dress as librarians for a semester ending party. Their ideas of what would constitute a librarian outfit were interesting, to say the least. Of course I stopped that immediately; we can have none of that at all.

But in all seriousness, it can be difficult to overcome that stereotype, especially among teens. This class is about media literacy and librarianship, but I think the traditional image of the librarian hurts our efforts in the real world. I think GSLIS prepares us in many ways to challenge many of those notions and that things have changed in the past few years. But hearing the comments from these undergraduates and watching many librarian clips on youtube for 502, I think the image is still fairly ingrained in our society. While that disturbs me somewhat, it does cheer me that there are so many people in GSLIS that want to and are challenging those assumptions and we have classes like this that helps us accomplish that. I just hope it is the same at other library schools.

More to come later this week, as I have been lazy most of the semester and would like to graduate.