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Ellen Madigan

Library Casual
August 24, 2007

What should librarians wear? Doctors wear white coats. Nurses wear scrubs, and lawyers wear suits. The interviews and internships of late have made me think a lot about the issue. In the library where I intern I have seen suits, and I have seen employees wearing jeans. I have also seen everything in between, such as sweater vests and dresses. Todd (boyfriend in law school) thinks that anything that is not a suit is too casual for the work place. (He is so wrong, right?) It probably depends on the type on library one works in. In a corporate library, I think that employees probably have to dress up more than in a public library. This guy who was a manager at the federal reserve archive and also in one of my classes at Pratt seemed to always have to wear a suit to work. I always wear a necklace and earrings at work, and I wore sandals once. I like to dress up for work. I never had to do it before and it makes feel different. I was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts on the subject, so I did some research. Here are some links I found:
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis724/SpecialLibrariesHandbook/neal.htm
http://www.hennepin.lib.mn.us/extranet/admin_policy/Dress_Code.htm
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA239506.html
http://ecglink.com/library/ps/casual.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3858/is_200209/ai_n9107601
http://www.hrl.lib.state.va.us/Handley/Children's%20Services/Dress%20Code.htm

There are a lot of opinions on the subject. I think that people dress according to their library and also according to their income. I would like to hear what others have to say.

Posted by Ellen Madigan on August 24, 2007 | Comments (3)

August 27, 2007
In response to: Library Casual
Matt commented:

I'm a male public librarian and wear a tie (not a suit) most days. It is not a requirement but I like to do it. Not all of the males at my library wear ties but most of us do. I believe it adds an air of professionalism. We are representatives of our local government and should do our best to promote a good image.

August 27, 2007
In response to: Library Casual
Tomingas commented:

Dress Code: One notch up from the person your dealing with has been the hard core business standard tactic for a long time as it gives you the advantage of intimidation. Recently that changed to casual having leverage as it shows you are "tuned in and confident". In the case of a Library, it seems matching the patron is the best policy as we are not trying to intimidate and dominate but we are also not supposed to be less well dressed than the patron as that is insulting them and lessens their faith in your ability to communicate with them. So if you have mountain climbers, bikers, river runners as the majority of your patrons, sandals, shorts and t-shirts probably meets the needs most of the time but there will always be a mismatch at times. So in my opinion; clean, tidy and good quality helps cover the occasional "dress code gap". Byron

September 20, 2007
In response to: Library Casual
Ellen commented:

Thanks for the helpful comments.