I teach reference, and one topic that often comes up in class is "how to make a reference librarian more approachable". Of course, personal traits are important - you need to exhibit your willingness to help via eye contact, warm smiles and relaxing body gestures. In addition to that, I always ask my students what they think of things like name badges and uniforms that could make librarians more identifiable, thus more approachable. Almost unanimously, they agree that it's fine for academic librarians, but never for public librarians. One of them commented that "I don't want strangers calling my name when I'm walking on the street." Fair point.
In the United States, we rarely see librarians wearing badges or uniforms. But in China, it's quite common. I worked at a university library in China five years ago and librarians there are given uniforms, but they don't have to wear it. The so-called uniform is more like a lab coat; some of my former colleagues did wear it to work, but I never liked it.
In some other Chinese libraries, especially in the affluent regions, uniforms are quite well-made. A few months ago I saw on the web pictures of female librarians in uniforms from a public library in the east coast of China, and I was amazed by how much they looked like flight attendants. Dont' get me wrong -- in China, flight attendants are one of the pretties professions.
Apparently, these beautiful uniform-wearing librarians have been in the public's praises. In oriental cultures, well-dressed, smiling, gentle and courteous professionals are definitely a strong manifestation of the concept "service-orientation" .
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I just started in SLIS this term, but the idea of how to make librarians more identifiable has been a concept that has come up for me repeatedly in the readings for my classes. I wish more people knew about the great human resources that are available to them for free. But I'm unsure of the best way of doing that.
I think in Asia, a professional is more likely to be dressed in a neat and formal manner. In the U.S. a professional often wears very comfortable clothing. I'm thinking especially of engineers and programmers. So formal clothing does not give the same signal that it does in Asia.
I often wonder if libraries have gone too far with making the reference desk approachable. What possible help can I expect from the friendly guy, with the messy hair in jeans and t-shirt? The sign above the desk says "Information". That guy is probably there just to direct people to the different areas of the library. Maybe he can direct me to the restroom.
I just happened to be reading an article about patron attitudes towards librarians in Taiwan. They found that patrons did not think that uniforms make the librarians seem more professional, although library managers though that uniforms did make the librarians seem more professional.
Tseng Shu-hsien. , et. al., Library Users' And Librarian Evaluation at the Taipei Public Library. Library Administration & Management v. 21 no. 4 (Fall 2007) p. 181-8
Thanks for sharing this article, mellen22. It sounds interesting and I'll certainly look at it.
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