Hi!

Welcome to ze blog. First, the title: the term 'guybrarian' is sometimes used, to varying degrees of tongue-in-cheek, to denote a male who happens to be a librarian, a traditionally female profession (and still dominated by women, if my library school classes are any indication). Technically, as a May 2007 recipient of an MLS and soon-to-be employment as a librarian or archivist, this term does apply to me.

Except I hate the term Guybrarian.

Not only is it stupid, it reinforces the stereotype of archives/library work as a female profession, suggesting that it is somehow 'normal' if a woman ends up being a librarian, but if a man is in this line of work it's unusual or bizarre somehow. Nonsense. Do we still use the terms 'woman doctor' or 'woman lawyer'? (We DO still use the term 'male nurse', but that's a whole other rant altogether). Why should an unnecessary differentiation be necessary in this case? Yes, yes, I know, 'tongue in cheek', I even admitted such in my introduction, but words have power. If I want to be a male librarian or a male archivist, it is my right to have that career choice be considered normative by society. (If you have to use a gender-specific term, I prefer 'libratorr', which at least has the benefit of not sounding completely idiotic.)

Anyway! This blog will serve as a source for my professional musings as I enter the field of libraries, archives, and all other things information-sciency. For right now, this means blogging the Society of American Archivists Conference that is happening this week in Chicago. In future, expect book reviews, observations on working with special collections and/or records, Web 2.0 stuff, training reflections, and other such things as are appropriate for a library/archives blog. See you in Chicago!