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Item Professional Reading? Or the Case of Librarian Detectives in Mystery Fiction(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Burek Pierce, JenniferIn real life, reference librarians field a wide range of questions; in fiction, librarians-turned-amateur sleuths take on the classic murder question, “Whodunnit?” in addition to their library duties. A number of mystery series have come to feature crime-solving librarians. The prevalence of these librarian-as-detective books, including the Aurora “Roe” Teagarden mysteries by Charlaine Harris and the Claire Reynier mysteries by Judith Van Gieson, encourages consideration of features of the fictional librarian in her role as sleuth.Item Buns of Steel: From Librarian to Woman in Storm Center, Desk Set, Party Girl(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Wahrman, Noa“Melville Dewey”, declares chief-librarian Judy Lindendorf, Mary’s godmother in Party Girl, “hired women as librarians because he believed the job didn’t require any intelligence. That means it’s underpaid and undervalued!” In Party Girl, a film from 1995, Judy reflects on what was a common assessment of the librarian’s profession for women throughout the 20th century. What are the common traits of this condescending image? What are its social roots? and has the librarian’s offensive image changed or improved over the years or has it remained the same? This article begins to explore the visual images and stereotypes appearing in films produced in the second half of the twentieth century. Of the four-hundred-odd films featuring librarians, I will focus here on three in which the female librarian is the main character, two from the 1950s and one from the mid 1990s: Storm Center (Daniel Taradash, 1956), Desk Set (Walter Lang, 1958) and Party Girl (Daisy von Scherler Mayer, 1995).Item Table of Contents(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Indiana LibrariesItem Becoming Unshelved(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Rider, CindyHurry! Hurry! Hurry! Run, don’t walk, to your nearest computer and surf your way to www.overduemedia.com to see yourself in print a la Dilbert in the comic strip called Unshelved! Co-authored by real-life librarian Gene Ambaum (a pen name) and software engineer-turned professional cartoonist Bill Barnes, Unshelved provides a humorous look at librarians while presenting various serious issues of our times, such as unattended children, Internet filtering, and the Patriot Act.Item Liberry Funnies(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Wagner, Charles Alan, 1948-You are not going to find a plethora of cartoons in library publications. That being a given, I am, however, surprised there are not herds of anti-library cartoons in the publications of certain business and agricultural powers. Political Action Committees dislike libraries, you know. Libraries are supported by property taxes!!Item Bad to the Bone, Librarians in Motion Pictures: Is it an Accurate Portrayal?(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Threatt, Monique L.In 1992, author Mary Jane Scherdin used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument to survey personality traits of 1,600 librarians. The study resulted in an overwhelming number of librarians displaying personalities consistent with being Introverted / Sensing / Thinking / Judging (I/S/T/J) followed by Introverted / Intuitive / Thinking / Judging (I/I/T/J). She conducted this survey in response to a 1984 survey done by the Center for Applications of Psychological Type which had concluded that librarians were Introverted / Sensing / Feeling / Judging.Item Reel Vs. Real Librarians(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Schmidt, Steven J.Librarian. a person who is skilled in library work.” — The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language “Let’s try a game of word association. What profession do you think of when you read or hear “ambulance chaser,” “take two,” “slide rule,” “pork barrel,” “open wide,” “shhh”? You probably think immediately of lawyer, doctor, engineer, politician, dentist, and librarian. You are reacting to common stereotypes, even though these professional people perform important tasks. My line happens to be science/technical information specialist and library administrator, but you’d call me a librarian. – Wayne Wiegand “...the days of the librarian as a mouser in musty books must pass...” Melvil Dewey. In 1986, the popular television game show, Family Feud, posed a question to a group of 100 people and then asked the contestants to identify the four most frequently given answers. The question was: “What are the typical characteristics of a librarian?” Survey said, librarians are: 1. quiet 2. mean or stern 3. usually single or unmarried 4. Wear glasses. At the time, this program irritated a number of librarians, but whether their irritation was based on the question, the answer or the fact that the contestant guessed all four “correct” answers is still to be determined.Item "Reflections": Reflecting on the Main Articles(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Indiana LibrariesItem Foreward(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Schmidt, Steven J.They [librarians] are subversive. You think they’re just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They’re like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn’t mess with them...” —Michael Moore Originally, the word stereotype was used to describe a method for making a copy of a page of type so that exact duplicates could be made. It wasn’t until 1922 that Walter Lippman first used the word to describe groups of people. Less than a decade later, social scientists had begun to look at the accuracy of stereotypes. Many of these early studies found that overall; stereotypes were “simplistic, inaccurate, [and] not based upon personal contact with a group.”Item Cover(H.W. Wilson Company, 2005) Indiana Libraries