[Publib] Librarian Style

[Polly Bonnett]

I guess I'll throw in my .02, these posts have reminded me (a Gen X-er
on the tail end of the Gen X scale.) what my Mom ( a Boomer ) told me in
response to my casual and more trendy style."dress like you have a
Masters degree", I'm not sure I completely agree, but I do believe that
many in the Boomer generation allocate respect with appearance. Is that
assumption right?
 
Polly
-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Corner, Dean
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 11:36 AM
To: Meghan Miller Brawley; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Librarian Style
 
I love this post!  The most important phrase that all library staff
should think about is "I also tend to dress more formally than my
coworkers so patrons don't mistake me for another patron,....."  In
another library in a small town in Maine, the public could tell very
quickly that the guy with the jacket and tie was the reference
librarian.  When the patrons cannot tell who are members of the
library's staff, we're in trouble.
 
Dean
 
 
 
Dean Corner
 
Director of Reader and Information Services
Maine State Library
64 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0064
207-287-5604
207-287-5615 fax
 
 
  _____  

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Meghan Miller
Brawley
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 1:31 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Librarian Style
On 7/11/07, Sharon Foster <fostersm1 at gmail.com> wrote: 
Sounds to me like we're not doing our part to boost the makeup industry!



Speaking of rings, I've noticed that some librarians who are married
do not wear their wedding rings to work. Why is that? I think this is 
an important topic that needs to be explored further.


ooh, i *always* wear my wedding ring. when i had to send it to get
resized, i got too many unwanted comments from patrons, so i started
wearing my engagement ring backwards so it looked like a wedding ring.
even with my ring i had a "fan club" as my coworkers called them (and i
don't often wear makeup, either). that's not to say i'm super-hot --
just that the patron base was ... forward. luckily (for them) they
usually made their comments to my male coworkers rather than to my face,
and the guys were quick to fend them off for me (all this at my FPOW --
i'm about to start a new job, so we'll see how things go there). 

other jewelry includes 4-6 earrings (depending on if i take the time to
put the last 2 in or not -- the others stay all the time), a nose
piercing and my college class ring. i wear makeup when i feel like it,
but not every day, and usually just mascara and lip gloss. 
so yes, my jewelry description marks me out as one of those "young hip"
librarians, but i also tend to dress more formally than my coworkers so
patrons don't mistake me for another patron. and, believe it or not, i
*do* care -- a *lot* -- about intellectual freedom, and i'd go to the
mat to protect confidentiality, etc. so it's not a generation thing. 

-Meghan



-- 
**********************************
Meghan Miller Brawley
Graduate Student
University of Tennessee
School of Information Sciences
http://web.utk.edu/~mmille46

"She flitted in and out of the Public Library with the air of
conscientiously returning or bravely carrying off in her pocket the key
of knowledge itself."
-Henry James, The Wings of the Dove 
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