[Sigia-l] Librarian Action Figure

[Bev Corwin]

Dear Livia & asis.org,

At our company booth at Localization World
Conference(http://www.localizationworld.com ) this past week, we offered the
Librarian Action Figure as a "prize" and it was very popular!  I imagine
that Nancy Pearl is proud of the attention brought to libraries, librarians,
literacy, information architects, and even i18n information architects.  She
has done so much to advance literacy in Seattle, she really is the
personification of a true hero, IMHO.  I didn't find the figure
stereotypical at all, since I have had the pleasure of knowing of Nancy and
her great work over the years.  On the back of the box is a Notable Events
in Library History, trading card and bookmark.  I look forward to other
action figures for IA's, computational linguists, etc.  The sales person at
Archie McPhee's ( http://www.mcphee.com ) told me that the most difficult
problem has been getting permission to use the names of these various
heroes, and that they are often prohibited by copyright law to use many of
them.  If we were to vote for an IA action figure, who would be candidates,
and would their names be available?  I'm not sure of the details of the use
of Nancy Pearl's name, and I'm curious if any of the revenue generated by
sales is going to any of her creative literacy programs like the Washington
Center for the Book, etc. After the l10n conference, I received numerous
requests from others who wanted to get their Librarian Action Hero, too.  I
don't consider Nancy a stereotype, she is definitely wonderfully real.

Cheers,
Bev

The other day I went to a librarians' event and the most heated discussion
was on how to get rid of the book-worm-old-style librarian stereotype. They
were concerned about that because this stereotype has diminished the
enrollment rate in library and information science courses over the years
and represents a job market barrier for librarians who do not work with
books. (All this a reality here in Brazil). They'd hit the ceiling if they
saw this!

I'm not a librarian, but as an IA, I think I wouldn't feel very proud if my
representation was limited to my deliverables for example...

Livia Labate
liv at livlab.com | http://livlab.com | http://aifia.org