Why I Want to Be a Librarian

The New York Times has an article titled "A Hipper Crowd of Shushers" (see title link) that discusses the new librarian.

Personally, the coolest people I know are librarians, so as far as I am concerned the NYT is late.

The article mentions:

Librarians? Aren’t they supposed to be bespectacled women with a love of classic books and a perpetual annoyance with talkative patrons — the ultimate humorless shushers?

Not any more. With so much of the job involving technology and with a focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging — the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is “looking to put the ‘hep cat’ in cataloguing.”

When the cult film “Party Girl” appeared in 1995, with Parker Posey as a night life impresario who finds happiness in the stacks, the idea that a librarian could be cool was a joke.

Now, there is a public librarian who writes dispatches for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, a favored magazine of the young literati. “Unshelved,” a comic about librarians — yes, there is a comic about librarians — features a hipster librarian character. And, in real life, there are an increasing number of librarians who are notable not just for their pink-streaked hair but also for their passion for pop culture, activism and technology.

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How did such a nerdy profession become cool — aside from the fact that a certain amount of nerdiness is now cool? Many young librarians and library professors said that the work is no longer just about books but also about organizing and connecting people with information, including music and movies.

And though many librarians say that they, like nurses or priests, are called to the profession, they also say the job is stable, intellectually stimulating and can have reasonable hours — perfect for creative types who want to pursue their passions outside of work and don’t want to finance their pursuits by waiting tables. (The median salary for librarians was about $51,000 in 2006, according to the American Library Association-Allied Professional Organization.)

“I wanted to do something different, something maybe more meaningful,” said Carrie Klein, 36, who used to be a publicist for a record label and for bands such as Radiohead and the Foo Fighters, but is now starting a new job in the library at Entertainment Weekly.

Michelle Campbell, 26, a librarian in Washington, said that librarianship is a haven for left-wing social engagement, which is particularly appealing to the young librarians she knows. “Especially those of us who graduated around the same time as the Patriot Act,” Ms. Campbell said. “We see what happens when information is restricted.”

Ms. Campbell added that she became a librarian because it “combined a geeky intellectualism” with information technology skills and social activism.

One of the things the article neglected to mention was all the cool OLD librarians there are. Outside of the library, I thought seniors were too busy drooling into their oatmeal to do anything.

I get to the library and seniors are rolling to "hotlanta," discussing the new Kama Sutra spin offs, hangliding, and deciding between Bali and Indonesia as vacation spots.

Since I want to be a cool old person, I have to stay in the library system.

What can I say? It's my destiny.

People Still Ignorant about HIV/AIDS

The BBC News posted an article (see title link) publishing the findings of an independent charity dedicated to HIV/AIDS awareness:

There is still widespread ignorance about HIV, particularly among young people, research has suggested.
A survey by the HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust found more than 20% of people aged 18 to 24 mistakenly thought there was a cure for HIV.

Among the same age group almost a quarter believed condoms have holes in them which let HIV through.

And more than one in ten young people thought the virus could be passed through kissing.

This is only a theoretical risk, and possible only if both parties have open sores, cuts or bleeding gums which bleed into each other. There has only been one suspected case of HIV being passed on in this way.

The poll of 1,000 adults was carried out to mark 25 years since the death of Terry Higgins, whose battle with Aids inspired friends and colleagues to set up the charity.

I am assuming this is a British organization, and they polled youth in England.

I wonder how this story would turn out in America.