NCLfall.04/pt.1


North Carolina Libraries                                                                                                                                                   Fall  2004 — 129

From the President
Pauletta Brown Bracy, President

Productive Engagement:
Perceiving and

Improving the Library
Profession and Image

In the context of a conversation with a friend, who works in the corporate arena, he
casually inquired, “Why do we need libraries, anyway?” I was stunned because I expected
the professional courtesy of proper respect! In recovery, I patiently responded in an
exultation of our profession that librarians and libraries are indispensable fundamentals of
the social and intellectual landscapes. He affirmed with a meekly uttered, “Okay.” He
needed to know why it was more convenient to visit a library rather than the Internet. I
needed to know how he could have formed such a disposition. So I sought perceptions of

the library profession among North Carolinians.
Graduate students in my classes offered to assist

in the data collection of a simple word-association
exercise. I provided the prompt and the words.
Directions were to ask for a word or a few words:
“When you hear the following word, what word(s)
come(s) to mind?” Respondents were to react to the
following words: Library, Librarian, Library Media
Specialist, Information, and Access. I also asked for
information on respondents’ occupation, gender, age,
and library usage pattern. Fifteen students inter-
viewed 106 citizens roughly selected at random.

A slight minority of the respondents indicated
that they did not use the library. Their occupations

varied, from the arts, business, education, homemaking, and law, to medicine, religion,
retail sales, real estate, and social work, and, as a sign of the times, the unemployed. Ages
ranged from 9 to 93 years old. Most were in their twenties with fairly even distribution
among the ‘tweens and teens, and those in their thirties and fifties, although the forties,
sixties, eighties, and nineties were also represented. Respondents were 50/50 male/
female.

The word Library summoned a place of information, books, and magazines, with
Book(s) being the overwhelming association. Other significant words were Information,
Knowledge, Reading, Research, Study(ing), and Quiet. Boring was reported twice by indi-
viduals who coincidentally were not library users.

The majority of responses to the word Librarian spoke to resourcefulness with Helpful
being the preferred word, with Books, Cool, Educated, Friend(ly), Knowledgeable, Organized,
Smart, Teacher, and Woman also offered. A distressing professional image emerged with
responses such as Control, Glasses, Invert, Mean, Old Lady, Nerd, Quiet, and Shhhh! In the
matter of Library Media Specialist, the most prominent responses were Teacher, Computers,
Helpful, School, Smart were the most popular responses with Technology, Technical Special-
ist, Underling, and Videos also offered. Some perceived the Library Media Specialist as a
younger librarian and slightly less prim/proper than the word Librarian.

The word Information stimulated visions of Computers at a considerably greater rate
than Books, [the] Internet, and Knowledge, the subsequent most recurrent responses, along
with Data, Encyclopedia, Facts, Questions, and Research. The most repeated words associ-
ated with Access were Computer(s) and Internet, with others being Availability, Ease/Easy,
Free, Granted, Key, Knowledge, Online, Open, Password, and Permission.

In conclusion, libraries are for the most part favorably regarded and when individuals
think of information and access, certain aspects of the library profession come to mind.
Even the unflattering perceptions of libraries and librarians can be changed by a produc-
tively engaged campaign to reinforce the positive image of the profession. In one particu-
lar response to the word Access, one of the respondents stated, “Easier with a librarian.” I
could not have said it better.