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Herman Totten
Dr. Herman Totten, dean of the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences, poses in the Men of Texas Libraries calendar
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Dean of SLIS featured in Men of Texas Libraries calendar
DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Say the words "male librarian," and many people may picture someone wearing wire-rimmed glasses and frumpy clothes who spends all of his free time reading the classics. But Dr. Herman Totten -- dean of the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences -- poses in the Men of Texas Libraries calendar dressed in a stylish suit and tie and lounging on his office couch. The information on his page -- he's Mr. February 2007 -- reveals that he's a "Sex and the City" fan who chooses his time machine destination as the French Court during the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. And if he could be a character in a fictional book, he'd be Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express." Totten is one of 18 male members of the Texas Library Association, the largest of the state library associations, who posed for the calendar. The calendar, which begins in January 2007 and goes through June 2008, is a fundraising activity for the TLA Disaster Relief Fund. The fund is currently assisting Gulf Coast libraries ravaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The full-color calendar, priced at $25, sold out of its first 500 copies in only two weeks. It was sold at TLA regional meetings and is available on the TLA website. Totten said the association decided to create a calendar using men -- in a profession that is 87 percent female -- to dispel the stereotype of librarians as boring duds. Totten's second photo on his page shows him with a yellow rose tucked under his arm and a big smile on his face. "It's supposed to be a beefcake calendar. Almost everyone in it is very prominent in the TLA as a current or past president or a board member," said Totten, who served as president in 2001-02. "I had no idea that posing for it could be so much fun." Each of the 18 models for the calendar is pictured on his page in two poses. The models' interests are listed from a questionnaire that each man completed. Several men and the cover model chose to pose shirtless or nude for one of their pages' photographs, holding items -- including a cowboy hat and a record album -- in front of them to keep the calendar PG rated. In addition to Totten, three others who appear in the calendar have UNT ties. Robert Martin, a professor at Texas Woman's University who lists his favorite composer as Mozart and his time machine destination as Victorian England on his page -- he's Mr. November 2007 -- received his master's degree in library science from UNT in 1979. He's also married to Dr. Barbara Stein Martin, UNT professor of library and information sciences. Mr. March 2008, Leroy Robinson, is a branch manager for the Houston Public Library and another UNT alumnus. Mr. December 2007, Joe Dahlstrom, is another TLA past president and the father of Molly Dahlstrom, who will graduate from the School of Library and Information Sciences next month. Totten said the association plans to order additional copies of the calendar. "I've never seen anything like this take off so fast. Everyone wants copies," he said. To order the Men of Texas Libraries calendar, go to www.txla.org/temp/TLAmen.html, or call (512) 328-1518.
UNT News Service Phone Number: (940) 565-2108
Contact: Nancy Kolsti (940) 565-3509
Email: nkolsti@unt.edu
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