I've pondered writing this post for awhile now and have decided it's worth mentioning. For as long as I've been a librarian (about 5 years now), I've seen concern about the trend to do away with librarian positions in favor of more paraprofessionals and the lack of respect in general for the degree and the profession.
I just started working in my third academic library. My first two academic libraries were state schools. The dress code at the first was generally business casual with blue jean Fridays for the librarians. For the staff, well, it was whatever they threw on. At my last library, there was no dress code for anyone as far as I could tell. The Director and Asst Director generally dressed nicely, but the rest of the staff pretty much as they pleased. This was librarians and staff. Some dressed business casual, others not so much. In fact, on one day, someone was at work in shorts, a polo top, and flip flops. One person in my department used to take off their flip flops and walk around the office barefoot. Who wants to be in an office with someone running around barefoot? Generally, they were also wearing jeans and a shirt.
What image does this set for the public? Whether we like it or not, how we dress affects how we are perceived. My current place of work has a dress code. Men generally wear slacks, shirt and tie, especially if on the reference desk. Women dress accordingly. I've generally been a slacks and sweater type of girl and yes, I will be adding some new items to my wardrobe (for a couple of reasons). It's actually nice to be back in a place where everyone dresses for the job. It doesn't have to be a suit, but for heavens sake, if you dress at least business causal, it indicates that you are a professional and take your job seriously. In the end, if you take your job seriously, so will others.
2 comments:
I am a subject specialist librarian at an Ivy League university. I've often thought that the best way to dress for respect is to dress like the faculty, which is somewhere between business casual and casual. I mean, if I wore a suit everyday I'd look like a Proquest vendor, and that would do very little for my status relative to the faculty and students. It would, in fact, make me look like a butler or maid rather than the highly educated colleague of the faculty that I am.
In the end, I believe it's the expertise that we bring to our jobs that will determine the respect we are given. And as for the MLS: I don't take this degree very seriously and I wouldn't expect others to do so, either. It's a union card, plain and simple. The suggestion that dressing nicer would command more respect for MLS holders simply points out what an empty degree it truly is.
Yikes. I'm not advocating suits or anything "vendorish." I never worn a suit and don't even own one. Don't plan on it either. However, business casual to causal is good. Shoes are good. Something that indicates you are not a student but rather someone who works in the library. And, I do recognize that in academia, many professors dress very casually.
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