You Know You're a 21st Century Librarian When

You’ve probably seen some version of this popular list…


You know you’re living in 200x when…

  1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
  2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
  3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
  4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
  5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses…
  6. (15 more…)


So how do you know you’re a 21st century librarian? When…

  1. You have to remind kindergarteners to turn off their cell phones before the story starts.
  2. You know what an IP number is but not an ISBN number.
  3. You have a student who does a better job troubleshooting the circulation system than the district technician.
  4. Your students think both The Princess and the Frog and Meet the Robinsons were written by Walt Disney.
  5. You know more librarians in Texas than you do in your home state because of LM_Net, TL-Ning and SecondLife.
  6. The best way to remind a student about an overdue book through Facebook.
  7. You don’t talk in the teachers lounge about a project because it is not tied directly to a state test.
  8. When answering a reference question, you head to an Internet terminal.
  9. You’ve started dressing like your avatar.
  10. Kids look at you funny when you call it the “the card catalog.”
  11. You have 5th grade girls who sport more tats and metal studs than a biker gang.
  12. You have more polo shirts with computer logos than you do book logos - and 25% of your wardrobe comes from vendor booths at conferences.
  13. Your students show you how to get around the district Internet filter so you can teach a lesson.
  14. Your aid spends more time troubleshooting the network than reshelving books.
  15. You never see anyone copy out of the print encyclopedia anymore.
  16. Your index finger has a callous from tapping the SmartBoard.
  17. You didn’t get your last grad class assignment turned in on time because the network was down and you haven't attended a F2F class in years.
  18. You’ve Googled the new teachers in your building - and all the kids have Googled you.
  19. You don’t remember the last time you’ve had to alphabetize something.
  20. You have all your passwords and PIN numbers are on your PDA - and you can’t remember the password for your PDA!

Add your own!