Scrotum... SCROTum... SCROTUM... SCROTUMMM!!!

Huh?! What the hell! God help me, this is one of those stories that gives my chosen profession, one of the oldest on the planet, librarian, a woefully pathetic--terminally un-hip name. And, just when we need as much positive PR as we can get...when the prevailing misconception of our imminent demise abounds...these pathetic excuses for professional librarians take it into their heads that the word SCROTUM as spoken by Lucky, the spunky (oops, was that a bad word too?) main character in the ALA Newberry Award winning kid's book, The Higher Power of Lucky. Scrotum, a word that appears in most medical texts and medical indexing all over the planet is NOT a naughty, dirty word (actually its quite a fun word to speak repetitively while sipping a cosmo in flagrante delicto with your favorite scrotum toting pal!)

Scrotum is THE preferred word for that anatomical spot. It is not, nor has it ever been, a 'dirty' word. This kind of ridiculous harumphing is just what gives us librarians a bad name; gives us a rep for being finger to the mouth, shushing, bun wearing, glasses on the nose, pinched faced, old biddie stereotypes. When in fact we need to be getting the message out to one and all that librarians are essential, critical to the information literacy skills training/development that ALL library users--youngest to oldest--require to take them forward into our knowledge and information-based future. For those of you librarians out there who disagree with me...find a real issue like increased funding for public and school libraries, funding for developing information literacy skills training or outreach to under-served populations. Scrotum! Who cares!