Ninja Librarians in the News

That's what I said.

"After an AP exclusive report on how the CIA is using "ninja librarians" to comb through internet postings and social media, NPR's Robert Siegel interviewed reporter Kimberly Dozier about her research for the article. This prompted enough listener response that All Things Considered had to revisit the phrase in their Letters segment today, with clarification about what kind of degree a ninja librarian may have earned."
Via MetaFilter.


From NPR:

GUY RAZ, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Guy Raz.
ROBERT SIEGEL: I'm Robert Siegel. It's time now for your letters. And we're going to re-visit perhaps the most ear-catching phrase heard on this week's program.
KIMBERLY DOZIER: Ninja Librarians.  
SIEGEL: Ninja Librarians. That's Associated Press reporter Kimberly Dozier, talking about the people the CIA has brought in to comb through as many as five million Facebook messages and tweets a day.
DOZIER: You're talking about several hundred staffers. You've got people who are experts at finding information. A lot of them have Masters of Librarian Science. They know how to track things down on the Internet that you and I simply wouldn't know existed.
RAZ: Well, listener Sasun Baylik(ph) of Bellevue, Washington, has been trying to get a job as a librarian and writes: The degree is called a Master's of Library Science, not Librarian Science.
SIEGEL: Well, we ran this by our own ninja librarian, Mary Glendinning.
RAZ: It was hard to find her because she was wearing all-black.
SIEGEL: And Mary said this, Masters of Librarian Science is wrong. However, there are many names for this type of degree: Master of Library Science, Master of Arts, Master of Librarianship, Master of Library and Information Studies, and Master of Science.
RAZ: And then, Mary shimmied up the newsroom wall like a spider.
SIEGEL: Never mess with a ninja librarian. They'll correct you within an inch of your life.


 I always knew librarians were more like ninjas than nonjas. =)