Legal Research

We?re not the only ones with a stereotype

By emma wood

The May issue of InsuranceWest magazine has a cover story on the portrayal of insurance industry folks on the big screen and in fiction. We’ve all heard stereotypes about librarians, obviously. We law library people have heard many a lawyer joke and cliche, too (who could forget last year’s “Lawyers Are Rats”-Gate?). But I’d never given much thought to the image of insurance adjusters. The authors of the InsuranceWest article analyse the way that agents, claims managers, adjusters, company reps, and brokers are portrayed in several movies and books. And it turns out, we’re not the only ones with bad stereotypes. Apparently, people in the insurance industry are “right up there with used-car salesmen, shady lawyers, and corrupt cops.”

It reminded me of an item I’d recently seen on Library Link of the Day called “Old Maids, Policeman, and Social Rejects: Mass Media Representations and Public Perceptions of Librarians” in the Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship. This short paper surveys the literature and identifies five broad categories of stereotypes. Guess what? Only one of them (The Hero/ine Librarian) offers a remotely positive image of our profession. (Incidentally, one they seem to have overlooked is the sexy/dominatrix librarian–not to say that that’s any better than the ones they do identify. It’s just a lot more entertaining and on the surface, anyway, appealing.)

Just as I sat down to write this post, my witty and observant friend and colleague Christina Tribe e-mailed a few of us to ask if we’d seen the insurance article (great minds think alike?). She thinks insurance types still get a better deal: “At least their characters are main characters, and more interesting. Their stereotypes seem grander, and not paltry or trifling!” She’s got a point. As the InsuranceWest article concludes, “It also helps that in most movies, even Bad Guys are played by good-looking people. And they always dress well.”
I think, in the end, most professions have a stereotype, and stereotypes, for the most part, comprise unflattering, generalised views. But I think knowing just one person who doesn’t fit a preconceived notion of a given line of work can do wonders for all members of that field. Just as getting to know a lot of lawyers personally has shown me that the “lawyers are evil” notion simply isn’t true, I think library techs and librarians have a great opportunity to be that one person who’s an information superhero, and not just embody a cookie-cutter, generic idea of a profession. So what if we’re sometimes nerdy? Being nerdy [read: detail-oriented, persistent, attentive] is a huge part of what makes us good at what we do.

I get asked, all the time, things like, “Gee, you’re a librarian…you must have a secret wild side. Do you drive a Corvette or something?” Um, no. But I do play the mandolin!

Go ahead - be the exception to what others think is the rule.

Full post as published by Ballad in Plain E on May 27, 2008 (boomark / email).