Category: Librarianship

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Virgin/Whore = Librarian/Librarian

Ah the joy of working in a traditionally female profession around Halloween!

Take your pick, ladies and gentlemen, do you prefer your objectification in the form of Sexy Librarian, or Old Lady Librarian?

Here are the search results from yet another hunt for Librarian costumes. The first two you may familiar with, the last provides a charming alternative.

It has been pointed out in some circles (hi coworkers!) that I have a chip on my shoulder when it comes to the care and feeding of library professionals. Please allow the above image, as well as the profession’s appalling wages speak on my behalf.

 

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Librarian duped by electricity, physics

What have I always said? Over and over? Do the research, people. Look it up!

lightningstrikesimamoron.pngWell, the reason I always say this so I won’t keep making dumb mistakes. Like buying a USB cupwarmer that uses the wrong voltage.

I knew you folks in the UK have funky electricity, but I didn’t know you have a completely DIFFERENT sort of USB! How is this possible? Whose idea was this? Damn you Thomas Edison!!!

My mistake was helpfully pointed out by M-D November, who knows stuff.

M-D knows stuff because he works for the folks who make the S.A.T. test. Apparently, the trivia has worn off on him. Do not play Jeopardy! with this man. Do not invite him to your Trivial Pursuit parties.

Also, consult him on all electronic purchases. Thank you. That is all.

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The Rainbow of Librarian Haircolor

From a New York Observer Wedding Blog article on coloring your hair before the Big Day:

I’ve been trying to perfect my hair color for over a year now. My natural color is sort of a “meh” librarian brown.

In rebuttal, I direct you to this rainbow of librarian hair I made using librarian photos from flickr. Take that, forces of visual subjugation! We are multitude! We are legion!
librarianhair.jpg

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Plagued by reference questions…

I haven’t worked at a reference desk for almost ten years, but I still get reference questions.

I’m convinced that Librarians and Library Workers have some sort of radiant askability that compels people to ask us stuff.

Like this confused gentleman here:

I’m looking for photos of ‘The Avengers’…

Alas, my friend, it’s Librarian Avengers, not Avengers Librarian. I could sell you some photos of our cats, if it’ll help. They, too, wear catsuits.

 

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Another Extremely Accurate Librarian Costume.

This is the second sexy librarian costume I’ve found. One more and it’s officially a trend.

This one is especially flattering. They call it a “Sexy Secretary” SLASH “Sexy Librarian” costume. Because as you know, the two jobs are interchangeable. Or at least the outfits seem to be.

I love love LOVE that librarians are the subjects of our very own fetish. My mom would be so proud. We should form a labor union, all us sexy librarians, nurses, secretaries, and flight attendants, and charge a licensing fee every time someone wants to objectify us. Like the MPAA for disenfranchised traditionally-female professions. Quick, somebody call Dan Savage!

We do look all like this though. Seriously. Even the dudes.

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Reference Challenge!

I called in sick to work today, with a sore throat and general upper-respiratory grossness. I spent the day lying on the couch with cats floating on pillows around me. Our two cats are huge wooly monsters. Rescued from cat-jail, they resemble bobcats more than housecats.

chesscat.jpgFortunately, they don’t seem to know how huge and potentially ferocious they are. Curled up in sleeping cat-balls, they resemble furry manhole covers. Occasionally one will purr and try to shove himself up my nose.

Sick days for me usually involve DVDs, Tylenol PM, and tea. Recently however, I have discovered a wonderful website called eBay.

I’ve been online since 1994 and Mosaic. I was one of the first librarians to have a blog (Jessamyn at librarian.net was and always will be waaaay ahead of me!) I subscribed to A List Apart back when it was a list, and learned CSS by copying code from Webmonkey. I’ve been e-around for a long time. But I’d never gotten trapped by eBay until now.

rug50.jpgIt started innocently. We needed a rug. Rugs are expensive. I found an eBay seller with deeply discounted Pottery Barn rugs. I bought one and got it almost immediately. Then I found people selling Anthropologie clothes for crazy prices. I created a favorite search. It was all over.

Living in a rural area like Ithaca is almost ideal. There are mountains, gorges, parking spots, and very few car thieves. But the shopping is terrible. Unless you have a penchant for Old Navy, or hemp clothing, there are no recognizable stores within an hour’s drive. Since I refuse to buy my work clothes at the Farmer’s Market, I tend to shop in short bursts while I’m traveling. EBay has opened a new world for me. The combination of librarian ninja query skillz and quality stuff for a dollar has made online auctions dangerously profitable.

I’ve mostly gotten it under control. Now I just log in to explore new categories.

Your sickly, addicted, digital librarian friend, Erica

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Duck mating dance

anseriformes.gifHee. One of the nifty things about having my library’s Animal Sound and Video collection available online, is I get to stumble across hilarious things in the course of my duties. Like this video of Mallard ducks doing a mating dance.

Watching the ducks, I’m really reminded of this: Mah nah mah nah.

You’re welcome. Hope the speakers were on.

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Supervisor training

I’m heading out to my second day of Cornell Supervisor Training in a few minutes. We’ll be spending the entire day focusing on HR law. I anticipate a healthy round of “I’m not TOUCHING YOOOU!” from my coworkers afterward. Accompanied by jabbing index fingers.

I’m speaking from experience here, folks.