Wednesday, March 21, 2007

OCLC Anchorpeople?

Yep, there we are, OCLC Ken and Barbie anchorpeople in our starched and pressed conservative suits at the Blog Salon at ALA MidWinter. Neat haircuts all.
Generalizations are a bit silly usually.

That's Chrystie, Alice and Alane in front. Eric (who was wearing a tie but who wears jeans to work) and George in back--and the top of Walt's head.

Picture from Alice's Flickr pics.


Thanks--maybe--to anchorboy and colleague Andy for pointing out these deep thoughts from a new, anonymous biblioblogger who might work at OSU.

Picture from Andy's MySpace page.

Update Friday March 23: Well, well....how interesting. On Wednesday, if you had clicked on the first link in this post, you would have gone to the post on a blog that dissected the dress and demeanours of OCLC staff (including our new colleagues from RLG). But this morning, the link takes you to a sign-in page for a blog that's closed to invited readers only. I wonder why?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! That picture is one that's SUPPOSED to make me look like an anchor-boy. It's from when I was doing consulting. I left that land in order to work someplace more... friendly. Which OCLC is.

And while I wear a suit (that same black suit, btw) in public when I rep for OCLC, I no longer wear a tie (which... I guess... I'm not even doing in that picture... hmmmm). As "Creative Guy," I get away with the "Black Suit, Silk Shirt" thang.

Eric said...

Well thank-you-very-much, Alane, Miss I'll-think-I'll-out-Eric's-wardrobe fellow blogger and confidant. Hrrmph! Two decades of my invested effort in carefully crafting and nuturing an ALA image down the tubes. How will I survive!? ;) (And yes, you're buying the next time we're out...make that the next several next times...;) Besides, it's not fair. You, Alice, Chrystie always look elegant. George and I only have recourse to wearing suits to try and keep up. Well, I think George has a suit. Yes, I definitely am pretty sure Joyce made him get one. I think VP's are supposed to have them. He probably even wears it sometimes. I'm not so sure about Walt, but even he probably has a suit (he may be forbidden from wearing it to work though -- California probably has rules about such things. ;)

Anonymous said...

Well, I have the attendee list, so I can tell you it's not someone from Ohio State...

I wore a suit on both days, but guess I was not up to snuff. I'll have to get a haircut I suppose! Since we had no women from Dublin, I wonder who Barbie was?

I am disappointed that one of the first blogs about our D2D extravaganza was about fashion. Maybe not surprising since we were right on 5th Avenue.

Alane said...

Merrilee, maybe our anonymous critic didn't realize you are from the RLG side of the "oligarchy" (I think I might have said "hegemony" if I was tossing old Greek forms of government around), togged out as you were in, gasp, OCLC-like gear!

waltc said...

And here I was going to claim plausible deniability--after all, how can you be sure that's Walt's head?

As for Eric...does a tuxedo count? Not that I can imagine an occasion on which I'd wear it to work. Cruises are another matter entirely (which is why I have a tux).

I think I do have a suit. I don't think it fits. We may have given it away. I do have several sport coats and ties, and in the past (until, say, the New Orleans ALA when saner heads told men not to bother with coats & ties) have consistently worn them when at conferences etc. I'm sure I've worn a coat & tie at least ten times at work.

But a suit? Not often if ever.

Alice said...

I admit it. I am wearing a suit in this photo. I enjoy wearing suits for business events. I wish I had more suits! (Almost as much as I wish I had more soccer shorts...) And yes, I HAD just gotten a haircut a mere 5 days before this photo... but the beauty of this industry/field/profession, is that it encourages free thinking and intellectual pursuits. Perhaps we could start an offshoot of "What Not to Wear" for would-be library fashionistas?

George said...

Haircuts really haven't been much of an issue for me for the last few years...OK, few decades.

But I do own several suits: you never know when you'll need to attend a funeral. And Walt, I not only have a tux, I have a white dinner jacket, like something out of Casablanca. I'm more Sidney Greenstreet than Humphrey Bogart, but how many Bogarts are there after all?

chrystie said...

this is a very funny post - and oh the conversation we've generated amongst ourselves! :) i like to wear dresses (and these parties are some of the only reasons that i have to dress up!). i would wear a dress or skirt every single day if i wouldn't freeze to death doing so. seriously. i am ready for spring, can you tell?

waltc said...

It is an interesting conversation (and seems to have gotten confused with that other post that disappeared).

The tux was one thing: I found out immediately that almost anyone looks good in a tux. Then, two years later, my wife said "gotta have ruffled shirts with the tux." It took her just two more years to recognize that, much as she hates to pay someone else to do laundry, ironing ruffled shirts is really, truly worth paying someone else to do!