The American Library Association conference a few weeks ago featured the first Library Book Cart Precision Drill Team Championship. Yes, librarians have made a sport out of pushing library carts around in a highly choreographed fashion. The winners were a group of Library Science students from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
Although I didn’t see the performances, here’s my highly speculative analysis of why these upstarts who only practiced for six weeks beat teams that have been doing this for years.
- Youthful energy. They were able to incorporate break-dancing, Irish dancing, and back-flips.
- Style. They had the least tacky costumes.
- Hip Attitude. I’ve noticed that a lot of librarians have a terrible insecurity about being considered mousy, uptight, old, bookworms. Therefore, they latch onto anything that counters that image. The UW-Madison team’s choice of the song “Hip to Be Square” by Huey Lewis & the News appeals directly to this desire.
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