Embrace Your Tribe (or not)
Posted by lpearle on 23 October 2010
I’m here, at work, rather than at the 2010 SLJ Leadership Summit and reading the tweets from friends and colleagues and inspirations from afar. I’m still not convinced that live-tweeting a conference (ok, ok, a summit) is a good thing, and I do feel vaguely voyeuristic when I read about their pre-travel preparations.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but the idea that we librarians are a tribe, or a people, bothers me.
Granted, I’ve been part of a tribe since before I was born so perhaps I’m not feeling the need to embrace a new one.
I also wonder about this obsession with reclaiming words. The “n-word” for example, or the “c-word”, have been used, abused, proudly hailed and a host of other in-betweens for years. It’s supposed to lessen the sting of the word, I guess. But “geek”?
Many of my friends are geeks (or nerds) and I’ll proudly include myself in their number, but really? We need geek swag? Call me a curmudgeon, say I don’t get it, whatever, but really, it’s just too much.
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