Page 11 - Buletin Dis 2012_2

Bil. 15/Disember 2012
Librarians, professionalism and image: stereotype and reality

The Library Association certificates could not guarantee a reasonable salary, the library establishment had sought to raise the status of the profession by creating
intellectual and technical hurdles, which new entrants had to pass, but the rewards remained poor, and attracting the truly able remained difficult (Smith, 2006, p.
67).

The issues facing library professionals at the turn of the century reflect similar fears to those a century later, specifically the strug-
gle to gain recognition for the skills required. A membership survey conducted by CILIP in 2006 quotes the following answer, one
of many similar responses, to the question “What one thing could CILIP do to improve your professional standing?”:

Put more effort into fighting for better salaries comparable with other professions. The fact that we are paid so little makes us look to be of little worth compared
to other professionals that work in local government and beyond (Creaser, 2007, p. 125).
The quest for professional status has been an area of insecurity since the beginnings of the modern profes-
sion, particularly for those relying on local authorities for remuneration. Professional literature from the turn
of the century reflects these concerns, and acts to illustrate the familiarity of the contemporary situation.

The stereotype and the reality: contemporary public and media perceptions

The librarian stereotype is an older, single, white woman, generally accoutred with one or more of the following; cardigan, pearls,
tweed skirt, hair in a bun and spectacles perched on the nose. The majority of librarians are older white women, so some aspects
of the stereotype are not, one would think, hugely unrepresentative. The professions’ complicity is keeping this image valid is cer-
tainly relevant, both through a lack of workforce diversification and a certain sensitivity over self-image.

Examinations of the media's presentation of librarians reveal a considerable variance from this stereotype. A content analysis of the
Australian print media over a period of four years from 2000 to 2004 revealed for example that the majority of reporting was posi-
tive. The profession was praised for being innovative and future-focused, dedicated, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and organised
(Robinson, 2006, pp. 10-11). The clichéd images that Robinson had set out to search for were found not in the mass media, but did
exist in professional literature:

The clichéd images found in the [professional] literature review did match the statistics of the typical practitioner: a middle-aged female working in a public library.
In contrast… many [print media] stories concerned younger and male information professionals (Robinson, 2006, p. 11).

This evidences the complicity of the profession in perpetuating the stereotype themselves, and also raises the issue of gender and
professional representation. A study of the portrayal of librarians in obituaries in the New York Times found that in a profession
dominated by women the majority of obituaries, 63.4 per cent, were of men and disproportionately from the academic sector. The
traits most commonly praised within the obituaries included collection building, scholarship, international outreach and helpfulness,
and the profession is portrayed as a glamorous one “offers individuals a fulfilling, exciting, worldly, and eventful career” (Dilevko
and Gottlieb, 2004, p. 174).

These studies of the print media suggest that the media portrayal does not necessarily conform to a stereotype, yet neither are
they fully representative of the profession, focusing more on male professionals. Robinson suggests that:

This could be attributed to politicking and power issues, such as a belief that men are considered to be more newsworthy, and it may be an attempt to hide the
number of women in the profession, perhaps to attract more male workers (Robinson, 2006, p. 11).

The negative stereotype of a librarian is clearly associated predominantly with women; however, a more positive focus on female
practitioners rather than a negation of their presence may be more productive. The “big librarianship” often reported on in the
press often eclipses the everyday practice of librarians across the country. It is this “small librarianship”; recommending a good
book, reading at story time, efficiently finding the right information, that is often negatively gendered:

There seems to be very little middle space or will to define librarianship in a positive way an amalgam of small and caring acts that, summed together, positively
affect the lives of ordinary and marginalized individuals (Dilevko and Gottlieb, 2004, p. 176).

….to be continue in next issue...

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