Today Gale has announced the launch of the second annual “Are You a Librarian Superhero?” contest ” to recognize the often heroic efforts put forth by librarians around the country, and to encourage other feats of greatness.” Don’t laugh, they seem to take this quite seriously, and they reportedly received over 800 nominations last year. From the press release:
Gale is again calling on everyone – fellow librarians, library patrons, students and school administrators – to nominate a superhero librarian who is making a real difference for their library and community. A panel of Cengage Learning employees will choose the top four superhero librarians who will be recognized at the American Library Association’s annual meeting. The winners will have a cartoon superhero character created in their likeness and, in the Gale booth at ALA, will be commemorated with cartoon figures, a comic strip and a celebration.
And who, I ask you, doesn’t want their own superhero character and comic? I’m looking around, and I don’t see any hands raised.
My thanks to Michael Porter, who forged the librarian superhero meme before we even knew what a meme was, for giving me permission to use his comic likeness.
About Roy Tennant