WILL UNWOUND #87: “This is No Joke!” by Will Manley
April 20, 2010Okay, my librarian friends, my life has gotten weird…very weird. Here’s the chronology:
- May 1992…I wake up one morning with the whimsical idea of doing a tongue in cheek survey about librarians and sex for my humor column in Wilson Library Bulletin.
- June 1992…the questionnaire “Librarians and Sex” appears in my June column in the Wilson Library Bulletin with little or no fanfare. I figure the idea flopped as a humor concept.
- June 1992…I get a phone call from the H.W. Wilson Company. I’m not so cordially told that my services are no longer needed. I’m canned for the sex survey.
- June 1992…I get a press release from Wilson: they are destroying the June edition because of my survey.
- June 1992…The American Library Association passes a resolution supporting me and condemning the H.W. Wilson Company.
- June thru September 1992…Over 5,000 librarians fill out and return the survey questionnaire to me.
- August 1992…I get writing gigs with American Libraries magazine and Booklist magazine.
- August 2007…I retire from a career in librarianship and public administration and move to the San Francisco Bay area to be with my sons and grandchildren and to play golf, nap, read Finnegans Wake from cover to cover and write books.
- January 2010…One day at the local library I notice that no adult is actually reading a book but there are a lot of adults on laptops and computers. I have an “aha” moment and decide to stop writing books and start writing a blog entitled Will Unwound.
- The blog turns out to be great fun. I write something every day, and *presto* I get interesting comments from interesting people.
- On March 28 a commenter suggests publishing the old librarians and sex survey. Other commenters agree that it would be fun to look at the results 20 years later.
- I am reluctant to do this because the survey is a) old, b) mossy, c)completely unscientific, and d) I don’t want to lose readers because the survey is so old, mossy, and completely unscientific.
- I give in to my blog readers and publish the results on Sunday the 11th of April.
- The immediate response is nothing very abnormal. 540 readers visit the site on Sunday; 1104 on Monday; and 1042 on Tuesday.
- All Hell breaks loose, however, when someone named Norman Oder, a Library Journal blogger, links to my blog and runs a post entitled: “Some 18 Years Later, Will Manley’s Sex Survey Surfaces.” Oder goes on to write: “Good stuff: Will Manley on his blog publishes the results of the 1992 Librarians and Sex Survey that Wilson Library Bulletin commissioned but killed, leading to his firing. The results are fascinating….. “
- At least 50 different blog sites (none of which are library sites) appear to pick up on Oder’s blog. They then post links to my story. The result is 2,000 reader clicks on Wednesday with the number of clicks rising to 7,500 for today. I can’t imagine what it will be tomorrow.
- But here’s where the weirdness really begins. Today I start getting e-mails and phone calls from various blogs, news sources, and newspapers to do live interviews. My interview with Yahoo News is set for tomorrow afternoon.
- It gets even weirder. Today the New York Daily News runs a news story entitled “Lost Librarian Survey Reveals 1 in 5 have gotten intimate in the stacks.”
- A reporter from a newspaper in Austin, Texas e-mails me to say that she is doing a news story on the survey.
- E-mails are now starting to come in from other newspapers from all over the country, and just now the story appeared on the UPI news wire. If you google “Will Manley” and scroll down to “News Results for Will Manley” you will see a lot of these articles.
That’s the chronology. I think this whole thing keeps getting bigger and weirder by the minute. This is no joke. Here are my questions for you to comment on today, and on a personal level I really need your help in understanding how the world of information works today because, quite frankly, I find the ongoing dynamics of this situation quite startling and more than a little off the wall.
1. This 18 year old survey started out as a joke, turned into a joke gone bad, and was totally forgotten for 17 and a half years. It was dead and buried for almost two decades. Is the blogosphere really so desperate for news that a mossy 18 year old joke would become such a big freaking deal? What does this say about the internet?
2. Of all the many bloggers and newspapers who have run stories about the survey, not one of them has asked me for my methodology (there was none!), and not one has asked if I used a random scientific sample (no!). As information specialists does this bother or surprise you?
3. 7,500 people went to my blog in a single day. Doesn’t this strike you as odd and perhaps a little sad? Shouldn’t they be reading Plato instead or at least articles about Obama’s job bill or the volcano in Iceland? Maybe they should be working.
4. Here’s what really blows my mind. The newspapers are following the lead of the bloggers in presenting this story. In other words professional journalists are getting their news from blogs that may or may not be reliable. Don’t they care that this survey was a tongue in cheek attempt at humor? Does this worry you about the news industry and journalists in general?
5. Finally, given the fact that this survey is now all over the internet and news industry, what does it do to the image of the librarian? Does it help or hurt?
Finally, please comment on any of your own thoughts about this issue as an information expert. Thanks.
Really? You’re surprised? Sex sells, and the idea of sex and librarians (who apparently don’t do such things) really sells. This may very well be your 15 minutes of fame. Enjoy!
Jane, I see what you’re saying but this thing is almost 20 years old. I actually am very surprised.
Jane, one more thing: I thought I had my 15 minutes of fame in 1992!
Hello Will, I’m one of those brought over by all the hullabaloo over the survey. So, you may find my answers slightly biased.
1: The internet is great for resurrecting stories. And yes, sex sells. But you’re also getting press over the whole censorship angle.
2: Cosmo doesn’t have a scientific random sample for their sex surveys – most see it as interesting fun.
3: I came over from a library related blog. The Web is one of the ways I stay up to date. (And read Unshelved, and other comics.)
4: News services have come to realize that often word of mouth spreads news faster than traditional methods, so they monitor them. And your story is easy to verify.
5: You hit two major topics: sex and censorship. (At the same time as news of George Washington’s overdue books.) Having the public we realize we’re healthy humans? Good. Having the creepy patron want details about MY life? Not so great. But nothing new anyhow.
I’ve no pat answers for you, I’m afraid. The furor will die down in a bit, but you’ll find some new loyal fans who enjoy hearing about the library world from another point of view. Good luck!
Sandra, thanks for your analysis. You make a lot of sense. Welcome to the blog. Thanks for taking the time.
Sandra, you use the web to stay up to date and now you finally know what happened in 1992.
This is a tremendous opportunity to present librarians in a positive light. No, we are not passionless, sexless, humorless information drudges. SandraH makes an excellent point about the news ecology of the net: It spreads like wildfire!
It is pretty amazing. Light the fuse and watch the fireworks.
Question #2: Yes, it bothers me. No, it doesn’t surprise me.
Well Will, I was a follower before you released the survey. I actually heard about your blog from a librarian on Facebook months ago. But I must tell you this, when you posted the survey, Facebook was flooded with comments about the Pee Wee Herman results! LOL!!! It was amazing! True, we could be discussing the volcano in Iceland and the job bill or listening to patrons complain about the wait time for the next available computer, but every now and then, we just need a good giggle and I think that’s what the survey provided. That’s my two cents.
Tracy, that was the intent 18 years ago…to give librarians a chuckle.
Really, you’re surprised? bwahahahaha
I really just came back to tell you that some one posted a link to your sex survey post at Fark, and I’m surprised at the number of librarians with Fark handles.
Also, as happens on the internet, some of the pics in the thread are NSFW-ish.
Considering the questions you posted at the end of this post, Fark IS the appropriate place for your original post, as it is the home for the “not-news”.
Lisa…a 20 year old survey…you got to be kidding.
People need to get a life and read a book in their spare time!!
Delores…do you prefer Plato or Aristotle…on an e format or a conventional format?
Hello, Will,
You opened another Pandora’s Box, given the ease of access to information now and general interest in anything smacking of impropriety.
Q.1 yes, the Blogosphere is hungry, and the Internet allows public communication that exponentially escalates as it is dispersed.
Q.2 No one in the news business has ever cared about the methodology of studies…why start now?
Q.3 Piffle!
Q.4 Journalists have always gotten their information from ‘anonymous sources’ or conversations in the bar, or from something someone’s brother-in-law told someone else’s sister, who told….. It is just in convenient print format now, via Twitter and blogs.
Q.5 No change to the professional image. Google ‘librarian image’ and you will get stereotypes that range from prude to porn. I confess it startled me when I tried this once– I had no idea we were so colorful.
The bottom line is that anything you put on your blog is essentially published to the world, and you never know when they will be paying attention.
Thanks, Jeanne. Nicely reasoned and effectively articulated.
Conclusion: So-called journalists are lazy and getting lazier.
I think we have to redefine what “news” is? Is news always new?
At least a new angle. And I guess that’s what may be difficult to realize here. 1992 doesn’t seem to many of us to be all that long ago. But it was a long time ago. And if you were born in, say, around 1985, as many internet news hounds were, 1992 was a very long time ago. And so a 1992 sex survey of librarians could be seen as, well,…. quaint. And therefore, interesting.
1892 might be quaint and interesting.
Internet news hounds born in the nineteen-eighties may be surprised to learn that there was life on earth in 1892.
Excuse me while I check the DRUDGE REPORT: “Stacks Shakin’ in Spiked ’92 Librarian Sex Survey!”
Will, miss you and hope you are enjoying this adventure. welcome to “info-tainment” in the social media age. I picked up your UPI thread on fark.com about an hour ago on my blackberry. I was in a boring meeting at the time. Within 2 minutes I had forwarded the UPI story to about 12 people. They will certainly navigate to your blog as first-timers. They may also precipitate others, as you know. So you can blame folks like me for the chorus of casual interest. My interest is that I know and respect you, but honestly, I may have been just as likely to forward the story to a few friends anyway due to the sexy angle. Oh, yes, journalism is dead, BTW. The press basically prints our press releases now as news. Accountability will re-emerge, just you watch – in a new and more powerful form. Now excuse me while I post you to my facebook page. Have fun and warmest regards!
The education of a Luddite continues!
I agree with Chris A., I write news releases and find them printed verbatim in the media. I think the great thing about the internet is that a story can go viral if it just has that x factor which I think your survey has. As for the response to your sex survey, I think libraries are going to have to prepare themselves for another round of couples having sexual trysts in the stacks or the elevator. Perhaps it is time to finally install those condom machines!
Condom machines sound so 1950s.
litigation from the parents of impregnated teens though is so now!
People are stressed out over their jobs, no jobs, too little money, too little time, etc. Your humor is a wonderful break in all that. Yes, this is the power of the internet: when something attracts interest, it can go viral, ie spread everywhere, REALLY incredibly fast. Make sure to post links for the yahoo interview, as well as any other interviews. Your regular readers take pride in helping to make this happen. And so what if you get a second 15 minutes of fame? Enjoy it more this time than last! As for your concern about the fact that some seem to be taking this quite seriously, well, there are always some of that sort around. I suspect most just loved the chance to actually laugh for a change! They have been using their minds trying to survive another day before the house forecloses and Plato is not what they need. They need humor. From an information specialist point of view, this would be a fine time to explain to students that there was no methodology, and what that means and why it is important. Oh, and a reminder that taking this sort of thing seriously is exactly why most teachers ban Wikipedia. WIll, I’m not too concerned these people are reading the sex survey instead of Aristotle and Plato. Maybe when they have time to absorb the experience they will try them. But this survey doesn’t require time. It can be read on a quick break, during lunch as someone pointed out, pretty much any time. Hopefully they will try Plato as a result of reading this blog and wondering why on earth you think people should read Plato, etc.!
Joan,okay, I feel better. This was a joke and people are enjoying it as a joke…nothing more; nothing less. Okay, thanks for the insight. Now I have to get back to Plato. Great soporific.
Librarians are sexy. I am only surprised by virgin librarians. Seems like a great place to meet smart people that you could blossom into loving sexual partners. I want to do it in an elevator now… haha.
Go Will Go! Enjoy the moment and keep your sense of humor.
Yeah…the joke’s on me this time! HA.
Will- Things are really weird in the news business when something that someone like Sarah Palin “tweets” suddenly is reported in traditional news sources without any fact-checking. I find some aspects of this blogging and tweeting rather frightening. By the way, I went on ebay last night to try to buy some of your books. What would you consider your best work?
Marcia…how nice of you to ask. My best by far was “Unprofessional Behavior: Confessions of a Public Librarian.”
That one is my favorite and in my bookshelf at home!
I agree with Joan’s analysis of the survey and how it has re-emerged 18 years later.
Jamie…you have really good taste in reading materials!
As for our image, I really don’t think it hurts and might even serve as an antidote to the usual stereotypes.
Your comments (and others) on the sad state of journalism are very relevant. I think this media (mis)behavior helps explain things like tea parties, Becks, Limbaughs, and Palins (pardon my obvious biases).
Bill…that’s what I’m thinking. People need to go back and study up on their Plato.
A good joke doesn’t age. Of course, it may be that some newspeople don’t know that you were writing a humor column at the time.
From their point-of-view, it’s a story about librarians and sex. Sex sells, so enjoy your fame.
From the POV of those of us who were reading WLJ at the time (or, at least, me) it’s nice to get the rest of the story.
Plus, when people latch onto a story like this and come in droves there’s a certain similarity with dogs and fire hydrants.
Librarybob…you always have a unique way of making me understand things. Thanks.
Will,
You were on Bob and Tom this morning. While it turned into a conversation on have you had sex at work, the original point of their discussion was the fact that you were censored when librarians were the leaders in intellectual freedom. They emphasized that the journal is now defunct.
I think this is great. I just wish it had broke last week with National Library Week!
Be proud that you are stimulating conversation about librarians. Even if it is on the racy side it still draws attention which is good.
Julie…I hate to ask this but who are Bob and Tom? Are they the car talk guys?
Syndicated radio guys out of Indianapolis. Focus is on comedy and humor.
http://www.bobandtom.com/
Will keep your sense of humor and your honesty about the survey. I think a lot of positive things can come out of this. Discussion of censorship, the teaching of scientific methodology, image of librarians changing, and maybe you will have the opportunity to explain who we are and what we really do. I know you will handle the fame. Keep your sense of humor. I’ve said it before to you, but your blog makes my day and you brighten our days with your sense of humor. Rachel
Thanks, Rachel. The title of my next book, now that everyone has convinced me that I should keep writing books: “The Education of a Luddite.” This blog is a great learning experience for me. You know, Rachel, when you get into your retirement years you think your job is to dispense the wisdom of your experience. It turns out that’s completely untrue. Retirement is when you have the time and the freedom to really excelerate your own learning process. I’m learning tons form you younger folks. Thanks.
Well, I for one am enjoying the heck out of this, and wouldn’t be surprised to see you on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or the Colbert Report pretty soon. I read about the whole thing in the Star Ledger in NJ. A few weeks before the article appeared, I had been telling one of the priests at my church how children’s librarians get out of control when we get together for meetings. The article will make a nice follow up, no matter the truthiness of it. Thanks for making my day. As to what it does to librarianship, it simply helps us shed our hair-in-bun and mousey-glasses image. Mary Louise, New Jersey
Mary Louise…That would be funny…two of my favorite shows!
This is the third time you’ve repeated that slander about Livermore reading habits. Whenever I go to the library, I see people (including adults) in the stacks getting books, people checking out books and reading books elsewhere, as well as people at computers. Maybe the branch you use is different, but I wonder… I won’t comment on the 20-year-old controversy, but geez, give us a break on the “nobody reads books anymore” nonsense.
Good comment. Thanks, Walt.
Walt, greetings again. I am doing this comment in the computer room of the civic center library. There are 35 computers for the public and all are being used. There are 4 people waiting to use them. In the study area of the library, there are 15 people using their personal laptops and 3 people working from school textbooks. 3 people are browsing in non-fiction and 3 in fiction. 10 people are in the periodical room reading magazines and newspapers. One person is at the dvd collection, and one person is checking out a book. That is the patron inventory here at 12:43. Slander…hardly!
Not sure if this reply will show up before or after your “patron inventory.”
OK–I’ll take back “slander,” but the fact that you don’t see adults reading books in the computer room doesn’t mean books aren’t heavily used by Livermore patrons. It means that most people take books from the library to read at home–which they can’t do with library computers (or current magazines, for that matter). You’re not showing evidence that books aren’t being read; you’re showing evidence that most people read library books at home, not in the library. (Fortunately, most librarian sex also takes place outside libraries…)
Walt, I don’t have an issue with your larger point. I may be a moron, but I’m not a complete moron. Yes…people still read books. Duh. What I find fascinating is how in-library use has changed. The waiting lines today are for children’s programs (well, that hasn’t changed) and for computers. The other big change is that people who need the library for a quiet study place are overwhelmingly using laptops. I have two points. Point one is that the more time people spend on the computers the less time they have to read conventional books. Point two is completely anecdotal. When I need a specific book at the library, 9 times out of 10 it is on the shelves. This to me means there is less demand for books. 10 years ago that hit rate seemed much lower. It could also mean I have weird reading tastes like Finnegans Wake.Again, that’s impressionistic. Sometimes when I am in the civic center library I wonder how many public computers the library could put in and still get intensive use out of. They have 35 now. Would they max out at 50 or 100? I’m not sure. It’s not just that people in the library prefer the computer format, it’s also a case that they seem to perfer the content that they get on the internet as opposed to what they are getting in books. I know my internet reading detracts from my book reading. Thanks for the dialog. Your turn.
I feel as though this is a threadjack (a FriendFeed term for changing the subject of a conversation midstream), but…
I agree that laptop users now seem to occupy more comfy chairs and working tables than do print-book readers.
I suspect it’s true that many of us (myself included) now spend a lot more time dealing with internet content than we do reading print books. Partly, we’re reading a lot more (generally a good thing); partly reading has shifted (a different thing).
And yet…print publishing isn’t declining significantly, and library circ. rises in tough times, but also in good times.
Personally, I’m finding about the same ratio of desired-to-available as I did a decade ago, but that was a different library.
Overall, people have more choices in more media, and that’s been going on for a while. That may interfere more with rereading books than anything else. Or it may mean that books are a somewhat smaller part of a somewhat larger whole. I can live with that. (What are the alternatives?)
(I read Finnegans Wake decades ago–and tried to read Ulysses, but it was beyond me. I can’t imagine ever rereading FW.)
Smart man…FW is not good for one’s mental health.
All anyone seems interested in now is so-called reality programming. Of course they are going to want a prurient peek into the sex lives of librarians. I bet you could sell this concept as a reality TV show. Fame and fortune!
Stacey, is there anything more unreal than reality t.v.?
1) I think the blogosphere is interested because it shows how things have changed (and not changed) in the past 18 years. Censorship is still a big issue, but the survey seems like no big deal now.
2) There are enough informal surveys around now that I think most people assume everything is unscientific unless stated otherwise. Or they should.
3)Maybe they are taking a break from Plato?
4)This does worry me when something like this is “news”. It is more an interest piece than news and should be labeled as such.
5) I don’t think it helps or hurts really. First of all, I don’t think the general population thinks too much about the image of librarians. Personally, I like that it shows librarians in a more fun light. As a 23 year old librarian, it is nice to have any image of a librarian that is not the traditional shushing old woman with a tight bun. Librarians, at least all the ones I know, are fun and should be portrayed as such!
Kelly…Your point number 2 intrigues me. We hear about surveys on the news and internet all the time. I always assumed they had some legitimate methodology.
I generally assume that if someone really knows what they are doing, they will make sure they explain clearly that they had a scientific method. I guess maybe it is just me who thinks that.
Hi Will,
Not only do I read your blog every day, I read some other stuff too! I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this article since I read it last week… who knows? It may give you a different perspective on why your survey has become so interesting to so many.
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/why_we_havent_met_any_aliens/
Vickie, excellent illustration of your point!
Will, you should have seen this coming. New world, new age. I read many years ago — well at least 5 or 6 — that blogs would become the major news source for many people and the power to limit the news to a side that represents only what one wants to hear will be very real.
Obviously the real danger here is that people love to hear what they want to hear and hate hearing opposite opinions. Journalist from the media and the press brought this on themselves when they moved from being impartial to shaping the news to better reflect their own thought and opinion. eir
Me Too…your points are very intriguing and scary. The internet allows us to get validated in our views rather than challenged. Scary point. Where’s the middle ground?
… you read “Finnegans Wake” from cover to cover? Will, you just went from being “a librarian I look up to” to “a librarian I get starry-eyed when I talk about.” I’m on chapter 2 right now (print format, old and manky, picked up from the free pile outside my library’s Friends room), and barring being hit by a bus, I am going to finish that book before I die. “Portrait” and “Dubliners” were just warm-ups to this project.
As to whether it’s sad that so many people are reading your blog when they could be doing other things, consider that most workplaces have an anti-print bias: I can’t read printed matter at my desk (that there’s “slacking”), but I can do anything I want on my computer, whose monitor no one else can see. I find it sad that I can’t read the first chapter of our new YA arrivals (booktalking gets about two squillion percent easier after reading at least part of the book in question), but I can fart around on the internet. Granted, having a conscience, I make a point of farting around as usefully as possible, but I can’t say that I never end up looking at LOLcats.
Jess, two things. Thing 1…I am now reassured that I am not uniquely nuts. You are the first person I’ve ever met (besides me) who is making it a life goal to finish FW. Welcome to the loony bin, Jess. *Applauds* Thing 2…You must read my post from Feb. 8…Will Unwound #19 …”What Drives Me Crazy” and tell me what you think. Thanks. Ps…the one good thing about FW is that it makes Ulysses seem coherent!
Will – My dating life has picked up quite a bit recently. Could it be because of your Sex and Librarians survey? I think so! Thanks
Thankful, I am on this blog in my retirement years to “give back” to the profession I admire. Glad I could be of help!
Love the fact that “the data” is 20 years old. You need to do a follow up study (no joke) that also captures baseline demographics (how old are librarians, training etc) and then re-survey the original cohort. Can you tell I am in big pharma research?
The data is interesting because for whatever reason, we are surprised at the results. Now I am more intrigued having known its derivation and its principal investigator.
Also afraid that books and newspapers using complete words with vowels and sentences complete with punctuation will disappear. Next fear is “REAL FOOD” that you have to cook on a stove in different containers before serving and again before consumption is on its way out. Our food will come in disposable, microwave proof cylinders with straws and our faces will become grammar-free flat screens with tiny sphincters to suck on the straws.
Also…I am a big fan of the Matrix movies. Sounds like you think we are headed in that direction.
Hmmm, I had not thought of the Matrix analogy I created, but I would not enjoy that piece of fiction becoming fully real.
[I just deleted a huge dissertation that revealed me as an intellectual snob but just know that I find this conversation and the whole thread compelling.]
I love this survey, but one change I’d make for a future one is to be inclusive with the questions for all sexualities and genders, rather than just male and female, straight and gay.
Laurie, could you give me some examples or more specifics? Not sure I follow your point exactly. Thanks.
Will,
It appears that the cozy cadre of commenters has expanded from this sexposure. The smoke of the blogosphere has entered the sanctuary of the library. You may need to cue-up the Rod Serling music.
dee dee dee dee…dee dee dee dee
Perfect!
I found your blog through one of many RSS feeds that I read while eating lunch. I was delighted to find you again. I previously read your column in Booklist while eating my lunch, until my Booklist subscription became “cost prohibitive”.
About the survey, I still can’t get over PeeWee Herman.
And yes, I should be working. Although I refer to reading your blog as “research” and “current events”.
Jane…I love the snow person. I am a big fan of snow people. Re..reading on the job, you must read my post from February 8…Will Unwound #19…”What Drives me Crazy.” Welcome to the blog.
I followed a link here from a library blog because of the sex survey (and because I’d enjoyed reading your column in the American Libraries) a week ago but stayed on because of the excellent content. Your posts, especially the one about the Mormons in the bookstore, are much more interesting management case studies than I ever had in library school (where the case studies primarily came from the business world). As a young librarian I appreciate the learning experience.
As for your questions:
1) The blogosphere reduces chunks of information down to keywords/tags. Your survey had a few good ones: sex, survey, librarians. On top of that, there’s the back story of you getting fired over it — simply captivating! This, of course, doesn’t say much for WWW users but it’s in no way surprising. Headlines online are no different from headlines in US Weekly or any other rag you see at the cashier’s counter in the supermarket. It’s what the bulk of people like, and ultimately popularity drives the content market.
2) “As information specialists does this bother or surprise you?” In most cases when I see a study cited in the newspaper yes but for this survey not really. It’s pretty clearly intended to be humorous so I doubt anyone will draw serious conclusions from it. If they do, I’d be curious about them since I can’t think of any.
3) “Doesn’t this strike you as odd and perhaps a little sad?” You worked in a library, how many people checked out philosophy compared to the latest bodice-ripper or genre novel? It’s not odd or sad, that’s just the type of reading most people like to do.
4) Bloggers are more attuned to “stories” that originate on the WWW since it is their stomping ground so in the case of your survey it’s no surprise that newsPAPERS are following the blogger’s lead. It does worry me that this is beginning to happen more and more often because bloggers tend to shoot from the hip (TMZ.com) style when breaking a story and worrying about clean-up afterwards. It’s easy to post an instant correction on a blog, not in a newspaper. There’s also less eyeballs to proof a story if a blogger works independently, as most do. For many reasons it’s worrisome, but not really in the case of your survey.
5. Since the results are hardly surprising I think the survey hardly influences the “image” of librarians. In general, I think individual interactions are the most powerful mode of influence in image-making. Oh, look at the time, I’m off to the reference desk to work on our image.
Oleg…thanks for your comments. I am so glad you chose to be a librarian. I would say that your future is bright. You did a great job of analyzing and answering the questions. You are obviously a young person and I’m struck by how normal everything seems to you with regards to this story. Obviously you have grown up with the internet and understand it far better than me. I like your perspective and hope you stay with the blog. I look at this thing as a group effort. Thanks.
Will,
1.) There’s a huge underground (or not-so-underground) market that’s been brewing for online content. I discovered it when I started looking for freelance writing and editing work on oDesk.com. There’s a huge demand for writers willing to write some crummy 300- to 600-word Web article for $2.00 or less a piece. (It’s usually less.) So when your story — which includes the topic of sex — comes up, it’s instant blog news, even if it’s not based on sound scientific process. Science doesn’t sell (much); sex and tabloid news sadly does.
2.) It bothers me but it doesn’t surprise me that no one cares about the methodology used. Fact checking and editing is quickly disappearing, especially in journalism. More often than not, lack of money is cited as the major reason. But it’s more complicated than that. Now everyone can produce written content on the Web; however, many don’t have the professional background to know and value skepticism, fact checking, and editing.
3.) 7,500 people visiting your blog isn’t sad when looked at through the goggles of today’s technology. Information is rapidly distributed around the world in a variety of formats such as blogs, social networking sites, and social news sites. I found this because someone posted a link to your blog on social news site Reddit. Considering the global nature of the Internet, having 7,500 visitors in a day isn’t surprising.
4.) See previous discussion about journalism and lack of fact checking. Journalism businesses today are much more slimmed, trimmed, and ready to pounce on anything that will bring ad revenue. Those that haven’t slimmed down are dying. It’s a sad state of affairs, but we’re going to see more rather than less of this.
5.) I can only speak for myself, but I’ve always had an attraction to intelligent, cute, semi-nerdy female librarians. This doesn’t tarnish the professional image of librarians in any way, at least for me. We’re all humans, and I speculate that sex is a common motivator despite any profession one may have.
Regards,
Shawn
Shawn…A+. I’d say you have an excellent future as a writer. Welcome to the blog. I hope you stick around. Your points make a lot of sense.
Will, I was still in undergrad and working as a page & clerk at my local public library when the WLB fiasco happened. I remember being pissed as hell over the whole thing. You were, and continue to be, one of my inspirations as a librarian that takes no shit from anyone(tm). (:
As far as the survey goes, I think it’d be GREAT if you did another run at it. Attitudes have changed, and we all know that the face of librarianship is changing, too. All of these Generation Y librarians are making this Gen X-er cranky! Heck, make the *really* geeky librarians happy and bring in some actual methodology. That would probably make a cataloger happy in the process (;
Thank you, for standing up, for being a voice, and being an inspiration. I look forward to the revised study – this time I can participate!
Kate…you talkin’ bout me? Wow. Not used to those kinds of adjectives. Thanks. So…the Gen xers are finally aging???
We’re aging. Not so sure about the maturing part, though there’s a whole whack of us that are library directors now. Not sure what that says for the future of librarianship….
Hello, fellow aliens!
This helps librarians, and it should improve literacy as well. Face it, sexy sells…
Also, we’re here reading this blog, so one could argue the online community self-corrects. At least occasionally. Eventually.
Pfff…like the mainstream media spin free zone is any better.
So Calvin…you buy the theory that librarians are an alien race sent to earth to lead earthlings to wisdom, knowledge, and information?
Women, for sure. Librarians? I don’t know; as a database developer, do I qualify as a librarian? I build systems to allow people to access data online, so that should probably qualify me.
The alien part is true, at least. (Hi Reddit!)
As an information expert, I would have to point out that neither I nor most of the present readers of your blog are information experts.
What do you mean? It sounds a little oxymoronic.
This is serious business. Welcome to the internets, Will!
The weirdest thing is that Will thinks that all the events surrounding his survey are surprising. They were absolutely predictable: people like sex, surveys, looking back at the past and talking about what everyone else is talking about.
Geoffrey…you’re smarter than I am.
Hey Will,
I was 14 in 1992 but as an adult I’m a librarian and I’m one of your 1 in 5. Though, there are no “stacks” private enough for anybody but hookers (and we’ve caught a few) so I became one of the 1 in 5 in our computer supply storage room. And we don’t have a vending machine for condoms but I have passed them out to people who ask for a place nearby where they can buy them. Another popular spot for sex in our library are the children’s reading room bathrooms because they are single occupant bathrooms that lock that no one ever uses. We have to kick several sets of people out of their each month. Just thought you’d want to know it’s not just the employees.
Maggie…this is all very shocking. No doubt you’ll be on the Today Show soon!
My 2 cents on your question about what is bugging you, i.e., “The newspapers are following the lead of the bloggers in presenting this story.”
I think the phenomenon started in political reporting. Blogs such as DailyKos (left) and Drudge Report (right) became influential drivers of news stories. It became much easier for political reporters in the MSM (mainstream media) to just read of a few blogs in the morning and determine for that perusal what to write about for the day rather than have to actually assert effort digging for a story. The practice drifted to the entire newsroom. But that’s only part of the story. Where do people read their news today? Physical papers left on the doorstep in the morning? No, the younger generation reads online. Go to google news and search it for any term. On the results page, there is a tab for “blogs”. In fact, well known blogs may appear in the google news results alongside those from the MSM. Then there is social news sites such as digg and reddit. There users post links to news items that interests them. Reddit allows posts of links directly from blogs where it is shared with hundreds of thousands of readers in a short time span. Then there is twitter where users also share links of stories that interest them. Same with facebook. Social media has created an alternative information portal to the MSM and, as the readership and influence of this alternative news source grows, the MSM follows news developments in the blogosphere. That’s my take anyway.
The Mainstream Media (MSM) are at route a pack of jackels who follow wherever the pack runs.
jjray…this is very enlightening to an old retiree like me. Thanks.
I agree with the last comment. It’s really sad to see but the mainstream media is a pack of jackels — or maybe lemmings jumping off the cliff, I’m not sure. This is a blast and a hoot — go with it.
Jane…it’s been a huge learning experience for this old codger retiree!
This has the potential to be really informative for those who teach information literacy as it certainly proves that one must evaluate their sources before they cite them. I bet whoever wrote those articles didn’t evaluate properly with the CRAAP test!
Amy…help me. What does CRAAP stand for?
at this point, you know what you did, so you might as well have some fun. do the interviews, pretend to be *the* expert on librarian sex, make sexy librarian puns, whatever. but please, DO NOT conduct another survey. even for fun. know what? I take that back; take another survey, but make it impossible to tell the truth, like, “Number of Presidential libraries where you’ve done it: 3, 9, 15 including in a sleeping bag at the future G. W. Bush library site.”
Good effing point. Thanks.
We studied this event (the 1992 firing over the survey) in my Information Ethics class. It was part of my text book. You may think this event was over and forgotten, but it is still heralded as an important incident within the library world. Personally, after studying it in class, I’m fascinated to finally have a chance to read the survey for myself! Methodology aside, it is quite interesting.
Cheers, Tina
Tina, I find this completely fascinating. I was part of a text book? Now I’m going to have a have an identity crisis. I was a case study. Weird.
fyi…Preer, J. (2008). Library ethics. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. You’re in the index under Manley, Will on pages 90-92, 154 and 155.
Sex survey aside, I’m glad I found your blog and will be a faithful reader hereafter!
I’m not at all surprised that your 18 year old survey sparked Internet interest. In my opinion, librarians and sex are more entertaining than LOL cats, and the Internet can’t get enough of those incorrigible felines.
I was surprised that a newspaper picked up the story…until I thought about a conversation I overheard today at the Reference Desk. A patron recently started her own small, local paper. She and a staff member were chatting about renovations to the staff member’s church. When my colleague asked if the story would appear in the patron’s newspaper, the patron replied, “Well, I don’t know. The church promised they’d advertise with me, and they haven’t. They lied, and that’s not very Christian. When they want to advertise, I would be happy to print their news.” Granted, this is a very small, very local paper, but I would think that anybody with an interest or background in journalism would be ethically opposed to a pay to publish model.
If print news is on the verge of collapse, lack of professional standards will be the cause, not widespread use of the Internet.
Rebecca…you make a very interesting point. Thanks.
Sadly, I find none of this surprising.
Sex sells, particularly when it’s a story about a class of folks that “ought” to be asexual but whom people secretly seem to think are uber-sexual librarians, teachers, etc.).
The lack of critical inquiry into your methods is, sadly, not terribly uncharacteristic of science/medical reporting on it’s best day.
I was just entering college when you surveyed my now-senior colleages. It’s kind of reassuring to know that they lived lives that were, on average, just as interesting as everyone else’s.
Lynne, hope your career has been good for you.
You want fun and lack of scientific rigour? Try this:
http://www.investmbsireland.wordpress.com
Fascinating.
The survey was mentioned on “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” this weekend. Nothing about it not being scientific.
Here’s the transcript.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126236281
So, I arrived here via a link labeled “Librarians should never have sex. The world can’t handle it.” I read this article. I went to the survey/results to see how spicy and risqué it must have been–not only to get you canned, but to have the entire run of the magazine destroyed.
After the way you built it up here, I was expecting pages of questions like “what positions have you used while having exhibitionistic sex one aisle over from underage patrons in the YA collections?”
I’m sorry, this was a terribly boring reason to be fired.
Exactly right.
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