One of the avenues by which this issue could be improved would be to hire more women into library tech positions in the first place. In my experience there is definitely a barrier to getting hired into these positions, or even interviewed. I was the only graduate in my cohort with a focus in information technology and it was lonely. Whenever I introduce myself to others in my field and I say I specialize in tech, I usually see the same expression, a little confused, a little flabbergasted. Its disheartening. On the flip side, patrons are hugely appreciative of someone they can connect with who can help them with computer literacy and device support.

I’m glad women in librarianship who specialize in tech have professionals in our field like Sarah Houghton and Ellyssa Kroski to, if not wave the banner for our gender, then at least illustrate definitively how intelligent, skilled and multifaceted women can be in library tech. Raising awareness is of utmost importance and this is why I’m lending my own comment to this story. 

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Gender in Tech Librarianship | Roy Tennant | The Digital Shift.

Certainly I’ve written about this issue before, and I will keep writing about it until there are no more reasons to do so. But the reason why I’m writing about the issue of gender imbalance in library tech is because I was recently at the Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey, CA, where my esteemed professional colleague and completely famous Sarah Houghton, “Librarian in Black” had organized a panel on this very topic.

The panelists all gave a brief statement from their own experience and perspective (a mix of both women and men), then a microphone was carried around the room for the attendees to provide their own perspectives and stories. And the stories of harassment, put-downs, insults, marginalization, and worse, just rolled right in.

Unfortunately, I was surprised. Surprised because these were not the kind of subtle kinds of discrimination that I knew went on and that I try to prevent or alleviate. For example, packing a speaking panel with men, which happens all to often and a reason for which I have refused to participate at times. No, these stories were much more obvious, egregious, and, in some cases, breathtaking — and not in a good way.

At the end of the program I left depressed. Depressed that such things were happening on a regular basis — not yesterday, not a long time ago, but today. Depressed because since I’d never witnessed anything near what many of the stories related, I was mystified about how I could help prevent them.

But at least getting this out in the open is a start. The unfortunate thing is that those who really needed to be there most likely weren’t, nor will they ever be. So it’s up to us who were in the room, or would have been had they had the chance, to work harder to make all of our workplaces welcoming to all. Until that day arrives, we will soldier on.

At this conference we had the opportunity to have the necessary information sharing. Perhaps at the next one (and ongoing throughout the year in virtual form) we could share some strategies for making things better. That’s a program I could get behind.