Muns, Raleigh. "The loveliest librarian"
The Current (University of Missouri-St. Louis) October 31, 2005 (vol. 38, no. 1166), p. 4
Historically,
teaching, nursing, and librarianship are the three major professions
in which predominantly women participated, mostly because of the societal
barriers that existed for women in other professions, such as law, medicine,
and organized crime. When I first came to UMSL way back in 1991 I was
regularly referred to as "that other guy librarian." Things
have since changed in the profession and our department - we now have
four male librarians - but the historical roots of librarianship are
undeniably female. I never
explored the "gender" aspects of my profession until a few
years ago when I ran across a book entitled Jinny Williams: Library
Assistant (Sara Temkin and Lucy Hovell, 1962). That humble tome
started my study of the storied history of my noble profession. Poor
Jinny. Will the boys still like her if she works in a library? Read
the book and find out! Searching
further I began to see historical attitudes towards librarians slowly
evolve and become more liberal. Looking at things chronologically I
followed up Jinny Williams with Cynthia, The Girl on the Bookmobile
(Natalie King, 1964). Whereas Jinny learns to shelve books and gets
the boy of her dreams, Cynthia actually gets to drive a vehicle: “It’s
darling! I had no idea you could get so much into such a small space.”
(p. 82-83) In The
Loveliest Librarian (Suzanne Roberts, 1967) we discover a young
librarian who "had long ago realized that being pretty helped her
to be a better librarian, actually stimulating interest in learning
and reading." This same year it must be noted that Yvonne Craig
was introduced as Batgirl, with (ahem) the alter ego of Barbara Gordon,
librarian. Librarians as spinsters with their hair in a bun were becoming
stereotypes of the past. More recently,
TNT aired The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004) wherein librarian
Flynn Carsen (whoa! a dude!) scrambles to retrieve the stolen "Spear
of Destiny" which was used by the Roman soldier Longinus at the
crucifixion of Jesus. Watching this
gripping tale I dare anyone to resist the charms of Judson, the Head
Librarian, played by Bob Newhart. Judson has a tattoo of the Marine
Corps motto, "Semper Fi," placed over his heart, just like
most real librarians. I'm still looking for the perfect librarian tattoo
myself and am open to suggestions. I'm leaning towards a picture of
Winnie the Pooh with a Gutenberg Bible on his lap, opened to the Book
of Genesis. There's
also a darker side to libraries and librarians in literature. I recommend
delving into Stephen King's short story, "The Library Policeman."
(Four Past Midnight, 1991) I must confess that at UMSL, we no
longer disembowel those who don't return their books on time. The spoil
sports at Missouri's Department of Higher Education apparently frown
upon such practices. In addition
to murderous library policemen in literature, there are librarians as
criminals. My personal favorite is the mutant named Wraith from the
George Martin Wild Cards science fiction series. Reference Librarian
Jennifer Maloy can "phase" or become insubstantial or ghost
like. Since she can only phase an additional 10 pounds, this string
bikini wearing cat burglar librarian normally only steals small objects
such as rare stamps and coins. After liberating valuable items, she
uses her powers as a Reference Librarian to assess the optimum value
to sell to her fence. It must be noted that, like Robin Hood, she donates
most of her stolen profits to charity. I never
thought I'd put the words "string bikini wearing cat burglar librarian"
together in a sentence. Groovy. |
Email Address: muns@umsl.edu
WWW Home Page URL:http://www.umsl.edu/~muns