Becoming the Awkward Librarian.

Is there already a blogger called the Awkward Librarian? If not I'm claiming that as my secondary title. In fact, there, I just did it. I am now Reading Sarah: The Awkward Librarian. I think that awkwardness has a place, and maybe librarians should be awkward. That is a part of the stereotype, right? But we should not be too awkward. The right amount of awkwardness puts people at their ease, but too much makes it impossible to help anyone with anything.

I may have found the balance accidentally while experiment in my Awkward Lab. Future experiments will be noted, possibly in all their gory stammering detail. First up was the time Gene Yang cut in front of me (politely) in the lunch line at YALS: in that particular case general social ineptitude= general social acceptance. However, this balance is delicate and tricky when working with young adults. Social ineptitude, while expected for most adults and authority figures, might still be a sign of weakness and may perhaps one day lead to my downfall. Only time and anecdotes will tell.

Unawkward but angering:
Today I saw a book that I'm not even going to bother linking to here. The title was something about how technology is making the youngins all stupid. The subtitle was the oh-so-clever "Never trust anyone under 30." I chuckled for milliseconds in wonder at age divides, generation gaps, and their misguided perpetuation through really trashy incendiary non-fiction. This book was a Harlequin "Blaze" romance of "researched" materials. Thanks for making my job harder, jerkface.