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We librarians have always had a bit of an image problem. Back in the days when I was starting out - think mid-1970s - it was mainly a case of being taken for granted or not being taken seriously. It was assumed that our work was essentially unskilled in nature - weren't we just a bunch of women marking time until a man swept us off our feet and promised to look after us, kind of like Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart a few decades earlier in It's A Wonderful Life?
Even in the 1970s, many of my contemporaries were quite incredulous on learning that I actually aspired to a career in librarianship, even though they were aware that it entailed earning a Master's-level degree in addition to the honours BA degree I had already attained. Added to a slightly modified attitude of "What's a smart girl like you doing in a place like this?" was the '70s-wave middle-class feminism mindset of "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" How can she expect to earn more than 66 cents for every dollar a man makes unless she's willing to do "manly" things like... well, just about anything except being a nurse or a primary school teacher or a nun or a librarian - and go to battle, move where the boss tells her to and put aside any thoughts of Kinder, Küche or Kirche? Never mind that jobs in the traditionally womanly fields are every bit as essential to our lives, and arguably more so, as the others.
So what has changed since then?
In the U.S., librarians and bookish people in high places are still misunderstood, but this time they're viewed as a threat - promoting their woke values, giving people ideas beyond their station, distributing pornographic and subversive literature, maybe even changing the whole social paradigm and making folks question the status quo!
Over the past few weeks, Trump has fired the National Librarian, the National Archivist and the Director of the Copyright office, all of whom are highly accomplished, experienced, educated women, replacing them with sycophants of his own choosing.
A few links here:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5295005-trump-fires-head-of-copyright-office-after-firing-librarian-of-congress/
https://apnews.com/article/trump-national-archives-firings-layoffs-historical-recordkeeping-559027fdd2f634263bea7774a78d66fe
https://apnews.com/article/trump-library-congress-todd-blanche-carla-hayden-cc2154fa8644a5c29d196e505e4faa51
Not that we can rest on our laurels here in Canada. Most federal government departmental libraries were gutted some time ago, along with the Canadian Book Exchange Centre. At least we do still have Library and Archives Canada, although career opportunities may be few and far between.
One story that's still very much in the news here is the liquidation of Hudson's Bay Company. A disaster for long-time workers and pensioners, not to mention historical indigenous artefacts that may be forever lost to foreign private collectors. In this regard, the Association of Canadian Archivists recently issued a Letter of Concern, which you can view on their site here:
https://archivists.ca
So back to the image of the librarian ... I do see our profile being raised, both through recent historical fiction about underground libraries in WWII, factual historical works like Book & Dagger by Elyse Graham, and works of both fiction and non-fiction set in the present day, like John Irving's In One Person:
https://john-irving.com/in-one-person-by-john-irving/
Even in the 1970s, many of my contemporaries were quite incredulous on learning that I actually aspired to a career in librarianship, even though they were aware that it entailed earning a Master's-level degree in addition to the honours BA degree I had already attained. Added to a slightly modified attitude of "What's a smart girl like you doing in a place like this?" was the '70s-wave middle-class feminism mindset of "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" How can she expect to earn more than 66 cents for every dollar a man makes unless she's willing to do "manly" things like... well, just about anything except being a nurse or a primary school teacher or a nun or a librarian - and go to battle, move where the boss tells her to and put aside any thoughts of Kinder, Küche or Kirche? Never mind that jobs in the traditionally womanly fields are every bit as essential to our lives, and arguably more so, as the others.
So what has changed since then?
In the U.S., librarians and bookish people in high places are still misunderstood, but this time they're viewed as a threat - promoting their woke values, giving people ideas beyond their station, distributing pornographic and subversive literature, maybe even changing the whole social paradigm and making folks question the status quo!
Over the past few weeks, Trump has fired the National Librarian, the National Archivist and the Director of the Copyright office, all of whom are highly accomplished, experienced, educated women, replacing them with sycophants of his own choosing.
A few links here:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5295005-trump-fires-head-of-copyright-office-after-firing-librarian-of-congress/
https://apnews.com/article/trump-national-archives-firings-layoffs-historical-recordkeeping-559027fdd2f634263bea7774a78d66fe
https://apnews.com/article/trump-library-congress-todd-blanche-carla-hayden-cc2154fa8644a5c29d196e505e4faa51
Not that we can rest on our laurels here in Canada. Most federal government departmental libraries were gutted some time ago, along with the Canadian Book Exchange Centre. At least we do still have Library and Archives Canada, although career opportunities may be few and far between.
One story that's still very much in the news here is the liquidation of Hudson's Bay Company. A disaster for long-time workers and pensioners, not to mention historical indigenous artefacts that may be forever lost to foreign private collectors. In this regard, the Association of Canadian Archivists recently issued a Letter of Concern, which you can view on their site here:
https://archivists.ca
So back to the image of the librarian ... I do see our profile being raised, both through recent historical fiction about underground libraries in WWII, factual historical works like Book & Dagger by Elyse Graham, and works of both fiction and non-fiction set in the present day, like John Irving's In One Person:
https://john-irving.com/in-one-person-by-john-irving/
