This made the rounds of the library blogosphere last week, but in case you haven't seen it, Mattel is holding a vote to determine Barbie's next career and one of the choices is librarian. I went ahead and voted for my vocation because I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and hoping that they'll use the opportunity to extend Barbie beyond just "Barbie" for a new generation of kids.

For example, I'd love to see them evolve the Talk With Me Barbie concept to make Librarian Barbie an interactive guide for information literacy. Barbie could surf with kids and prompt them to think about the sites they are visiting. However, if Mattel fails to take advantage of this opening, I'd love to see a Smartee Librarian.

Right now, librarians are leading the vote with 47%.