This research is a first attempt towards providing insight into the social reality of librarianship, through a qualitative study of the ideas, significance, opinions, beliefs and attitudes that are generated around it.The study aims to unveil the perceptions that Latin American professional leaders, Colombian library science students, and high school students have about the profession.This project begins with a theoretical analysis of the notion of profession and the conditions that make it emerge.This is followed by an explanation of how professions have been conceptualized in social representations.Finally, this paper provides an analysis of social, historical, academic, and labor aspects of librarianship.Some of the results found are: there is no unique notion of librarianship and there are many differences in how it is perceived.Among high school students who can be considered potential candidates for library science education, there is no evidence of a concept of librarianship as a profession; they relate the profession exclusively to reference services in libraries.The groups that took part in this research furnished recommendations that include strengthening library science schools, professionalizing librarians, creating new channels of communication with high school students.