Her Web site is usually taken with a grain of salt. “Most librarians have to have a healthy sense of humor to do what we do,” she says. “I did get some negative reaction on a law librarian electronic list, but that resulted in even more librarian humor sites popping up. We like to be a little feisty.”

No gender discrimination allowed
When a person thinks of a librarian, the image is typically female. But men make up a substantial portion of the professional librarian pool. Of the 194,000 librarians in 2003, 16 percent were male, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract.

When Rubin began teaching at Kent State in 1988, 20 percent to 30 percent of the MLIS students were men, and that’s remained steady in the time he’s been here, he says. Historically, as in many professions, men have primarily held management positions, even though the majority of people in the field are women. In Melville Dewey’s time, very smart women could be hired at half the cost of men. But the profession as a whole doesn’t take the gender discrepancy lying down. “We fight it pretty hard,” Rubin says.

There are more men than Baker expected in her classes, and in one class the men are even in the majority. It’s an image problem, Baker says, because librarianship has been seen as a female profession for so long. When she started out as a shelver at the Geauga County Public Library, there were no men working at the library. Now her boss is a man.

MLIS student Christopher Busta-Peck, 25, finds that being male allows him to bring different background knowledge to the workplace.

But he has been addressed as “Miss” at the desk at least five times with no apology. And some people will call the library and insist on speaking with women. It all depends on the patron’s prejudices and preconceptions, though: Some men will approach him before any of the female librarians.

Walt Kneeland, 24, came to the MLIS program with a bachelor’s degree in popular culture from Bowling Green State University. He finds that his background gives him insight to what’s popular with younger readers. When he becomes a Young Adult librarian, he thinks he’ll have a better chance of being in touch with what kids want to read and not just be some adult latching on to the latest fad in children’s literature. He points out the recent popularity of Harry Potter and graphic novels. “If kids are reading that, at least they’re reading,” he says.

Stereotypes and generation gaps
Revolting Librarians Redux, a collection of essays on librarianship, includes an article about things they should teach you in library school but don’t, such as academic writing, dress and hygiene. Baker says it surprises her that some people need to be told how to dress for an interview, but it’s apparent that some students need the advice. “Stereotypes exist for a reason,” Delfosse adds.

Angela Neal-Barnett, an associate professor of psychology, says the repressed
librarian who sheds her prim and proper exterior by the end of the musical is a classic stereotype in American culture. People latch onto stereotypes because they’re simple. “They’re an easy way to synthesize information,” she says. Although stereotypes can be used to make judgments that adversely affect people, for the most part they are just a way for people to keep information straight.

“My dentist still gushes how she would like a job reading books all day,” lipstick librarian Absher says. “I told her if she ever found one to let me know. It seems that no matter how you come off, the public finds a lot of comfort in the stereotype. Sometimes I think I could dress in a leather corset and a pink tutu, and people would still wax poetic over how lucky I am to be surrounded by all these books.”

And even though librarians have a sense of humor about how people perceive them, it’s hard to beat the stereotype. “It’s odd to be with someone laughing about the public’s reaction to us when they’re wearing battered Birkenstocks and clutching a freebie Bowker (the U.S. agency that assigns International Standard Book Numbers) tote bag they scored from a conference five years ago,” Absher says. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, if you saw me, your first impulse would be to ask me where to find the online catalog.”

As the beer flows at the Zephyr, so does the BS. “Some blood types absorb alcohol better, like Italian,” Delfosse says authoritatively, to the interest of her fellow librarians. “I just made that up.” She laughs.

A little later, the group discusses the rumor that Marilyn Manson played Paul on The Wonder Years. MLIS student Mike Myers teases Delfosse — “When evaluating information, consider the source.” He wags a finger at her, and she snaps a picture of him.

Grace Dobush, the spring 2005 editor of The Burr, is a senior magazine journalism major. This is her second time writing for the magazine.

Where are they now?

Since the library bar night in the spring, most of the students in this story have graduated.

Cari Baker finished her master’s degree this summer and is now a technical services librarian at the Shaker Heights Public Library. Chris Delfosse also graduated in August and is now a librarian at East Middle School in Youngstown.

Monica Rice took a different route. She did not finish the MLIS program and is now instead a full-time youth program volunteer for the Church of the Brethren in Illinois. “I still love libraries, though,” she says.

Christopher Busta-Peck graduated in August and moved to Baltimore, where he works in the African-American department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Walt Kneeland is still working on his MLIS degree and hopes to graduate in August or December 2006.