Introductory Rant: What is Barbrarianism?

So, what is a Barbrarian? Simply put, it's a dumb portmanteau of Librarian and Barbarian, and I think it illustrates how I feel about librarianship as I pursue my MLIS. So - let's look at the parts of Barbrarianism.

Librarian (li ·brar·i·an) /līˈbrerēən/

noun: librarian; plural noun: librarians

a person, typically with a degree in library science, who administers or assists in a library.


Barbarian (bar·bar·i·an) /bärˈberēən/

noun: barbarian; plural noun: barbarians

an uncultured or brutish person.

"you arrogant barbarian!"

a barbarian wielding a LATE stamp near a pile of books

I think one of the hardest parts of getting into information science and librarianship is that good ol' feeling called Imposter Syndrome and playing around with the word Barbrarian was my way to combat my own inadequacy when it came to referring to myself as a librarian. "I don't have a degree in library science, so what do I know?" 

Thankfully, that feeling transformed into, "oh hey, why do we do things this way?" or "wait, this field has some really cool ideas that we should adopt" - but now I feel like less of a Librarian and more like someone who is just looking around, asking why, and learning about how much the humanities and social sciences intersect. So my proposed definition of Barbrarianism is:

Library + Barbarian = Barbrarian

bar·brar·i·an

/bärbrerēən/

Barbarous Librarian (Barbrarian)

a person working in libraries or information science who is always down to fix, dismantle, question, explore, engage, or completely start fresh in areas concerning library and information science.

So this blog is about those things, let's tear it up.



Note: Barbrarianism is not to be confused with being a Barbarian Librarian, and they are not mutually exclusive.



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