I’ve known two young, svelte librarians in the Biblical sense so I know counterexamples do exist. Sexy counterexamples.
My high school librarian was old and cranky and somewhat bigger. But as I got to know her more (I later had a class with her) I found her to be really sweet, if stern. She had recently lost her husband to cancer. Also, can you imagine running a high school library and not being driven crazy?
I think the fat old mean librarian cliche is just a matter of confirmation bias.
OK, it’s a little wierd, quoting my own post, but I just ran across this. Apparently, I’m not the only person who has a pleasant memory of Mrs. Mogelnicki. This article (about halfway down the web page) from January 2008 - a mere 34 years after I last saw her - mentions her, too.
Good for you, but don’t be mean to Dopers. Personal insults aren’t allowed in this forum.
Good for you, but don’t be mean to Dopers. Personal insults aren’t allowed in this forum.
Wow - so bad I got smacked twice. 
Sorry, didn’t think. Public perception of librarians is a sore spot.
I’m sure it is, and that’s pretty much why I made that first post in this thread. 
Sorry about the double post. I was actually just trying to edit the first one so it said “Mod Note.”
Kids just think librarians are mean 'cause they’re the ones who get kicked out for making too much noise. Hell, I thought the library clerks at Downey Public Library were mean when they kicked me out for talking on my cell phone in the reference section earlier this year (all cell phone conversations are banned in that library.) Then again, I knew the rules and was just being a bitch. Sorry, clerks. :o
Both Yes, I do look like a librarian and Do I look like a librarian? give a reasonable sample size.
I think they put something (positive) in Croatian librarians’ water.
Can’t say that they’re mean, but at my local library, there’s a disproportionate number of older librarians that seem to fit a certain profile; short, stocky, with glasses and short gray hair. They’re like the women you always see at independent garden centers. food co-ops, or Unitarian churches.
In Doperland, all the librarians are hot.
Then again, in Doperland, fat women are the recipients of most the oogling and “hey YOU doin’” calls, so they still look pretty much the same.
Yeah, well, librarians tend to like gardening and food co-ops. (Dunno about the Unitarian part–librarians don’t talk religion at work.) But at our library, the cute young girl and the crunchy hiker guy and the older women with glasses and grey hair swap a lot of gardening and chicken-keeping tips. The food at the Christmas party is always very very good.
But . . . but . . . I’m not even a librarian!
maybe it would help to know that I have my MLIS–I am a librarian! (just not by trade yet). Trust me, the pace is slower and nobody ever died because their book was overdue.
Every service industry job has its moments and I’m not saying librarians have it easy. The homeless can be a huge problem, as can unsupervised kids and seniors. But my beef (which a bit OT) is the circ desk staff–none of whom are librarians! Just smile already. It won’t kill you…
Photo cite? 
One of my life time hero(ines) was the librarian at our small town library. She was old…I’m talking button up shoes, long dark skirts, a white ruffled blouse that covered her from neck to hands.
Admittedly she was strict, and might have been seen by some as crabby, but she took the time to talk to me about books, and after a while she would order books to be delivered to me as she felt I might enjoy them.
She was the window that allowed me to see beyond my 1940’s/50’s small town horizons. Bless her, and all librarians.
Well, I’m not a lady (or a woman). I hope I’m a gentleman. I’m not fat, although there are love handles. Reason: partially sedentary lifestyle, also fond of fatty, sweet things. Apparently fatty, sweet things work as antidepressants for a lot of people.
Librarians get frustrated because they have at least two different types of people in their clientele - children and adults. Noisy and quiet people exist in both groups. My job (aside from the professional tasks I have) is to keep the noisy ones in the cellphone-friendly area and the quiet ones in the study area. I hate telling people to be quiet in the noisy area or to stop flash photography. Still, it’s a public space paid for by public funds and we have to meet as many expectations as possible.
Librarians (the ones with master’s degrees in library [and information] studies have public time when we’re out front at the desk answering questions and non-public time when we order “things” for the public, do projects, arrange programs, follow up on complicated reference questions, and other maintenance of our collection. There is never enough time to do the non-public tasks and certainly no time to do things without interruption. Librarians’ desks are often as cluttered as the shelves out front are neat. Talk about a schizoid life…
We have to get along with everybody - at least I do - in order to keep the funding flowing. That goes from dealing with an older gentleman who is always about three inches from grabbing my ass to working with a gangbanger over the years so that he realizes that someone respects him. And everyone in between.
Hey, I’m lucky I have a job. All things being equal, this is a pretty good one.
The hot librarians are all busy doing porn.
There is a serious divide between the sexes at my local library. The men are all cheery and smiling and “how are you today?” and the women are mean as fuck. When I’m ready to check out I count the people in line and try to estimate who I would get, and loiter around until I think I’m in good position. There is one lady I will let people in front of me to avoid, even as she’s calling me to the desk. I’m like a cat about to be given a bath, all wide-eyed and “Nuh-uh.”
My wife (the hot, young, but at times stern librarian) would disagree with the “fairly inactive” part. She comes home exhausted after running around, getting things for people, doing childrens’ programming, etc.
My wife’s in her late 20s, and she has told me stories of having to be stern with folks; people tend to think they can take advantage of library workers (public employees, mostly women, service workers, they offer a “free” service, etc), so many librarians find quickly they have to be stern or else people will do whatever or say whatever they want, rules be damned. I think maybe the “meanness” comes after a career of dealing with a rude public that tries to get away with whatever it can, at your expense.
Part of it must surely be that people who enjoy spending a lot of time with books often don’t enjoy spending a lot of time with people.