Dehanza Kwong: master of library and information science graduate

Glasses, cardigans, satchels and sensible shoes – this is what you probably think a librarian looks like. It’s a style that has been aped by the likes of Gucci and Prada – think thick-rimmed glasses and tank tops; more Margot Tenenbaum than ‘model’. But a new book of photography by Kyle Cassidy gets under the cover of what librarians really look like.

Scott Nicholson: associate professor at the Syracuse university of information studies

The pictures – of more than 200 librarians from all 50 states in the US – document the men and women behind the books. It is an ode to the value of libraries and the importance of access to information for all. But also a catalogue of their clothes, hair, accessories, literature-lolz tattoos – and rainbow beards.

Sarah Jane Levin: librarian at the Urban school of San Francisco

Librarians are, Cassidy says, ‘very much aware of the stereotypes that people have in their minds about them, and some librarians are certainly playing with that a bit. I also see that they’re inventing their own style.’ Wearing a necklace in the shape of glasses, as well as actual specs, as Levin does here, is a knowing sartorial wink.

Jennifer Snoek-Brown: faculty/OER librarian at the Tacoma Community College

There are Tumblrs and blogs dedicated to librarian chic. One of them, Librarian Wardrobe – run by Naomi Gonzales, Maria Aghazarian and DeAnn Brame – has the tagline: ‘Breaking and embracing the stereotype.’ As Aghazarian explains: ‘Why settle for that when you can run with it? Cat-eye glasses, bold frames, and geeky cardigans are all pretty common. We’re also finding that funky socks are favoured.’ Librarians can be very much in on the joke.

Nnekay Fitzclarke: reference librarian at the Dominican University of California

What do the Tumblr librarians think when they see Gucci models sporting what Vogue called the ‘library loiterer look’? For Aghazarian: ‘I have no qualms with the idea of the fashion industry using ‘librarian’ to label styles, but when I see these examples … it’s usually some combination of long skirts, long sleeves, glasses, bun. Not terribly creative, but I roll my eyes on move on.’

Edwin Maxwell: library information supervisor at the Brooklyn Public Library

Trying to define ‘librarian style’ is a near-impossible task. For one of the Tumblr librarians, Gonzales, she ‘feels that a lot of people still see us in a binary; either we are frumpy no-nonsense types, or the wild “sexy” librarians.’ But Maxwell for one, photographed here, goes against the grain of the crumpled cardigan-wearing cliche. On the day he met photographer Cassidy, he didn’t know he was going to be pictured – ‘That was just how he was dressed – he is extraordinarily stylish.’

Leia Casey: reference librarian at Mills College

It’s fair to say Cassidy has a lot of respect for what librarians do. Libraries, he says, ‘without hyperbole, are fighting a battle on the front lines of civilisation’. He even thinks of co-opting their style in terms of cultural appropriation. When his mother, a librarian long ago, gave him a cardigan-sweater to wear as he embarked on this project, he ‘enjoyed it,’ he says, ‘but I ended up not wearing it, because it felt to me that that was something that had to be earned and I shouldn’t be play-acting like I was a librarian.’

Mel Gooch: librarian at the San Francisco Public Library

Librarians, Cassidy thinks, are best left to define their own style: ‘Like any other type of fashion that’s borrowing from another culture in that the people who could be harmed are the group of people that the fashion is coming from. So if librarians want to dress in a certain way that reinforces the stereotype, I think that they are making a statement … When other people do it, it comes with the ability to harm the serious work that these people are doing.’

JP Porcaro: New Jersey chapter councillor at the American Library Council

Cardigans, which featured heavily on Prada’s AW17 catwalk in Milan, are an obvious staple. But, says, Aghazarian, one of the people behind Librarian Wardrobe: ‘There are a lot of these “stereotypical” items that are mostly functional – people are generally chilly at the temperatures that books are comfortable with, so cardigans are more than a fashion statement.’ But Porcaro, photographed here, is not averse to making a fashion statement. Cassidy describes him as ‘a charismatic powerhouse in the world of librarianship’.

Natalie Korsavidis: head of YA at the Farmingdale Public Library

Ink… Cassidy thinks that ‘librarians – especially young librarians – tend to want to show their love of books on their skin. Korsavidis [pictured here] has the Dewey decimal system number for librarians tattooed on her arm – 020.23.’

Doug Campbell: research and instruction librarian at the University of North Texas

Campbell explains the ‘nerdy story’ behind his ink: ‘I am an invited inductee in Beta Phi Mu (BPM), the International Library and Information Studies Honor Society. The dolphin and anchor is BPM’s logo. Originally, however, it was the colophon, or printer’s mark, of Italian Renaissance printer, Aldus Manutius.’ Inscribed above the image it says in Greek: ‘Librarians are the guardians of knowledge.’ Below that, written in Latin, is BPM’s motto: ‘Consumed in the service of others.’

Sarah Houghton: director of the San Rafael Public Library

Houghton runs a blog called The Librarian in Black. She is, says Cassidy, ‘very important in the librarian world. She’s interested in issues of censorship and access to information. She’s very stylish. I have seen her two or three times, and she’s always dressed up, always in black.’

Majed Khader: director of the Morrow Library at Marshall University

Khader was the last librarian Cassidy photographed – and it was a chance encounter. Cassidy was on his way to the airport when an acquaintance texted to say he had finally found someone from West Virginia. This was a flying sitting, with the taxi meter still running outside. Cassidy recalls what Khader told him about his outfit that day: ‘Usually, I’m wearing a suit.’

Ingrid Conley-Abrams: children’s librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library

Cassidy’s photographs of librarians first appeared as an essay in Slate in 2014. Conley-Abrams was on the front page. ‘She is,’ says Cassidy, ‘what you see now if you Google “what does a librarian look like”.’ A children’s librarian, one of her ‘great joys is helping children who feel like they don’t fit in find books that will speak to them and help them. I think that she is extraordinarily approachable to children – not just her fashion and her bearing; filled with the joy of books and librarianship.’

Scott Walter: librarian at Depaul University

Cassidy hopes that his photographs are ‘the scent to get you to listen to what a librarian has to say. I’m a photographer, I’m a visual person, this is my attempt at getting people through the door and into the conversation.’ What’s more, as Tumblr Librarian Brame puts it: ‘There are some truly dapper librarians out there.’This is What a Librarian Looks Like: A Celebration of Librarians, Communities, and Access to Information, by Kyle Cassidy, is out now