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July 16, 2004
The Emperor's new clothes
OK librarians, what do you wear to work? Recent discussions in another forum focused on what to wear to an interview, and we all figured a suit is appropriate no matter what position for which one is interviewing.
But what about day to day work apparel. Now I have plenty of suits and ties and also a few pair of khaki trousers and polo shirts but what do you as a librarian wear, and more importantly what kind of library and in what department do you work?
For those of you who are not librarians what do you expert librarians to wear, or what would you find off putting if a librarian wore it to work? As a bonus question, do those of you who are not librarians know that a Masters degree is required to be a librarian? Did you know that there are only 49 Library Schools in the US? (48 when Clark Atlanta closes next year.) That is fewer than the number of medical schools.
Fun office clothing trick: Wear a suit to the office on casual Friday. When people ask why you are so dressed up give noncommittal reasons. This is especially effective if everyday is casual Friday. Peek into your boss’s office or make sure they see you several times. If anyone asks you what’s new simply smile and tell them life is grand.
Posted by Matthew at July 16, 2004 11:31 AM
Comments
Hope it's okay if I answer this one. I'm not an MLS, but an LT. I work in an elementary school and as the only library trained person there, I work in all departments. I tend to wear dress pants and dressy tops to work. Nothing overly formal--some of my tops are t-shirt type material but look a little more formal than t-shirts. And a couple pairs of my pants probably wouldn't be acceptable in a truly formal business setting.
I very rarely wear skirts or dresses. When I do, I tend to long versions. One day, I wore a short skirt and ended up having to lay across a computer desk to hook a scanner up. Not very lady like. Because I often end up doing things like that and don't know about it until it happens, pants are a much safer bet. Plus, most of the time when I shelve, I end up sitting on the floor.
In the hot weather, I wear will wear walking shorts and tank tops (I've got a couple dressy ones) as we do not have air conditioning in our school.
My one definitely NON business item of apparel is my footwear. I wear sports type sandals 99% of the time. Even with dresses. I have a really hard time finding good fitting shoes (I have huge feet--size 10W)sandals are comfortable and I won't break my neck in them. In the winter I wear socks with them sometimes...and I wear boots outside once the snow comes. In the warm weather, if the kids aren't in school or I'm alone in the library I often wander around barefoot.
We have casual day and I'll wear jeans or leggings with nice tops.
As to what MLSs wear? Not much would surprise me. My LT course coordinator (MLS) wore skirts most of the time, but very casual. The librarian at that school, who taught us cat and automation, wore slippers during the day--with dress pants/shirt/tie. One of the MLSs I did a practicum with wore her hair in a swiss maid kinda style, two braids criss crossed on her head. She still wears it that way. The MLS I worked under at the Regional Library was a casual kinda guy--most days (it was summer) shorts and polo shirts. I don't think I ever saw him in formal clothes.
s/
Posted by: slashgirl at July 16, 2004 01:06 PM
Slashgirl, of course you can answer this. You're always welcome here, even though you disagree with me 95% of the time.
Socks with sandals, are you sure you're not from the UK or Germany?
Posted by: Matthew at July 16, 2004 01:27 PM
I work in a law school and I teach during the fall and spring semesters. I've been doing it for seven years. I used to wear a suit on teaching days (I have lots from when I was an attorney). After a year, I then went to wearing a tie on teaching days. Then I went to wearing whatever I wore on non-teaching days.
Because it is the law school library, I wear khaki pants and a collared shirt. The former president of the University (a Jesuit university) had a rigid no-blue jeans policy. He is gone but the unwritten policy remains. Lately, I have been pushing it and wearing Levi jeans that aren't blue jeans. I don't wear sneakers or sandals to work.
Posted by: pchuck at July 16, 2004 02:51 PM
I tend towards twinsets, dressy t-shirts (lycra cotton mix that looks dressier), skirts, and tailored pants. I refuse to wear khakis and I absolutely refuse to wear lace up shoes. I own one pair of tennis shoes that I wear to work out.
I once wore my usual office garb on a day when everyone was supposed to wear a colored polo shirt and jeans (some kind of midweek team-building stupidity.) A patron remarked I was the only one who looked like I was working.
What many casual dressers don't realize is that it takes just as much work (if not more) to maintain casual clothes than dressy ones. So why not make it worth your while?
Posted by: Betsy at July 16, 2004 06:18 PM
I agree with Betsy. And what many women don't realize is that a guy wearing khaki pants and a sport shirt looks far more dressed for serious work than a woman dressed the same. Go to any business and sit in the cafeteria at lunch time. You can pick out by clothing people in authority. Why not get a jump start and look like you plan to advance even when a newbie?
Posted by: Norma at July 23, 2004 10:24 AM
It probably will be suits and ties, or at least dress shirts and ties because I own so many of them. Being a librarian the clothing budget is necessarily limited so I am not going out to buy a whole new ensemble.
Posted by: Matthew at July 23, 2004 02:22 PM