Comments on: Another Way Not to Defend Libraries

By: Mr. Kat

Mr. Kat — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:19:49 +0000

Sharon, Rebecca just stated that she is now making a double pittance versus the single pittance she made while working under the union. I’m confused…

Wai Tam, Unions are good at one thing: breeding malcontent by imagining a greener pasture and then making those ideals the are minimum acceptable condition. Unions like top demand Higher wages and Better conditions – regardless of current conditions – or otherwise they appear to be useless to labor – which they are. But unions DO keep people employed – in particular, those people who are GREAT at politics and little else as union representitives! I encourage you to pick up the book “I can get it for You Wholesale.” It’s well worth the reading!

Nice try comparing pulling books off shelves to pulling teeth out of mouths. Rebecca’s words ringing ever more true…”Librarians really do need to get over themselves…” The job can be tough, but it’s not THAT difficult. If you don’t accomplish your task at the end of the day – you can come back and finish it the next day, or tell the patron you were unable to find THAT particular piece, but the library has all these other lovely items for them to use instead. Try doing that in a dental clinic!

By: TeenLibrarian

TeenLibrarian — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:48:21 +0000

I am Union and am still waiting for a fair wage

By: Wai Tam

Wai Tam — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:33:30 +0000

Annoyed librarian is obviously interested in the self service model. Maybe we can have a self service dental office where you can pull your own teeth without the dentist. Good luck with trying to get your billings straight without the office help there. Union is not the problem. Workers just want fair wages and decent working conditions. Sometimes they can only get this throught the unions. If the unions overstep their bounds, I’ll be the first to condemn them. By the way, I was a manager.

By: sharon

sharon — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:27:13 +0000

Yes, let’s get rid of those pesky public employee unions so we can go back to paying librarians, teachers, and other female employees the mere pittance they deserve. If they’re smart enough, they will be able to get decent jobs at the local university, like AL.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:02:41 +0000

For once I completely agree with AL. This almost made me re-think my existence since as a children’s librarian I seem to frequently be belittled by AL.

Librarian’s really do need to get over themselves during this economic slump, a lot of people are losing their jobs not just us. When a library is facing budget cuts one of our first priorities should be how we will best be able to serve the public with reductions in our budget.

If we think the cuts are to extreme and that we will not be able to serve our patron’s needs than that is the argument that we need to bring to city administrators, the press and the public. We should not be talking about how sad it is that we are losing our jobs (a lot of people are losing jobs), instead we should be talking about drastic cuts in hours will affect the public. Job seekers need the resources we have, such as books on resume writing, computers to apply for jobs, and programs that we should all be offering on interview skills and resume writing. We should be talking about what programs are being cut; such as here where story times will be cut. You may not think that is important but when you have 80 people showing up for each one before cuts imagine how upset those parents will be to learn that there will be fewer story times, maybe then you will have a bit of public outrage, because this is something a group of people care about.

I am currently a non-union librarian, I once worked in a library with a strong union presence and can’t say I miss it. Administrators had to be much more closed mouthed with their union employees, I couldn’t work outside my job description even though we were facing a drastic staff shortage, and frankly I was paid half as much as I am now because of the union pay scale. So do I really want the union representing me to the public, no thanks! I would rather do that myself even if that means I have to justify to them why they should be paying me!

By: Mr. Kat

Mr. Kat — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:45:21 +0000

Helen Azar,
In your past life you had to take personal responsibility when things weren’t right; you did and you won! And yet somehow that means the system doesn’t work?? These people you fought are in every walk of life, including unions. But now you have traded your personal vigilance for the complacent carefree attitude that there is someone else taking care of you – freedom for a nanny state. And you’re paying for it. Meanwhile, before you had EVERYTHING you ever needed to protect yourself and your economic welfare – the state labor department and your moral responsibility to do right. We don’t need unions to keep employers honest – we just need people like who you were to keep the rules enforced!

Annoyed Environmentalist,
If we gave up our capitalist pursuits and gave the rest of the planet “a chance,” the rest of the planet would become like us. It is not Capitalism that is killing us; is it the Utopian Paradise that believes we are all entitled by the mere presence of our life. Greece is getting killed by entitlements. And we’re not very far behind. “Too big to fail” is a very socialist slogan – and our capitalists embraced a socialist approach to the markets, thus entangling everything together like it is. Free medicine, free healthcare, free retirement, free educaiton, free housing and free food – but we’ll never see a paycheck because all of our wages go the only true “equality based redistributor of wealth,” the government, does not work either. For starters, people stop working!

Bottom line: Personal responsibility. If more people had it, we might not be in the mess we’re in now. If you don’t defend what you have when times are good, then it will fail when times go bad.

By: John

John — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:35:32 +0000

I have to laugh when people write that they think the library is working hard to save their job. If they are, why are they making the CSS exempt and firing librarians? They are basically saying that a non-degree holding staff member can do the job as a librarian for less money.

By: Fancy Nancy

Fancy Nancy — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:24:25 +0000

AL, I really, really rue the day you sold out to LJ. These comments prove you have lost your original audience.
I still enjoy your posts, but I also used to enjoy the comments by like-minded librarians who see the folly of our ways. Where have they all gone?

By: Ariel Yang

Ariel Yang — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:43:03 +0000

I like what AL has to say, not because I agree with it, but because there is a real perception by many New Yorkers that libraries are cold-storage repositories of useless old books and Barnes and Noble are doing a fine job of replacing us. Quite frankly, if that’s what we were, I’d agree with AL. The big point here is that we as libraries and our unions are not doing a good job at advertising our true purpose in this new age of information. The fact that AL thinks librarians are non-essential to libraries, that the two are not connected, shows the problem itself. It’s all about advertising ourselves. Why else would KGB be making a dollar for every questions answered when a librarian could do it for free. AL, I may not agree with all you say, but I’ll fight to the death your right to say it, ignorance and all. That’s what libraries are about and that’s why librarians are crucial. We make sure information is available to one and all so that our society can be informed. Nothing stands between our patrons and their quest for knowledge. Perhaps you may have done well to seek out your local librarian to find out what we do and what our union does before writing this article. Libraries are only as good as the community they work for. In my community, Arverne, the need is for a library that helps patrons navigate social welfare information. Also, our users most likely cannot afford computers. Therefore, we give them access to the wider world by providing the Internet. They can get help writing resumes and job hunting, or use their hour for social networking. The point is that we are here to serve our neighborhood and make their lifes better by providing peer-reviewed information and resources.
Thank you for your blog AL. We need to pay attention to what people are saying because it helps us to better understand our purpose. It also helps us to realize where we are failing, in this instance we are not getting word out about what it is we actually do. 3 of five staff members will lose their job in Arverne if the budget does not come through – these are people who live in the neighborhood, and understand the social norms and are intimately involved in their community. They bring more than good information to the desk, they bring an understanding of people that cannot be taught through training. Please visit your local library and ask them what their purpose is. Or go in and sit down to watch what’s going on around you for an afternoon. See the impact, or non-impact, staff have on their community. I hope this will inform you for better or worse because we are nothing without our beliefs, and our democracy is defined by the accuracy of the sources that shape our beliefs.

By: Ms. Free Thinker

Ms. Free Thinker — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:20:52 +0000

I have worked for both unionized and non-unionized library systems. The unionized systems had much higher salaries but had filthy, unsafe working conditions, no organizational culture whatsoever, lots of back-stabbing and staff undermining of each other, cronyism & favoritism within union, union leaders lacked political savvy or any marketing or promotional skills or long range vision regarding promoting the benefits of library services to the community, stakeholders or politicians at large, maintained and promoted stultifying, rigid, work within-the-box job restrictiveness that rewarded mediocrioty, discouraged or punished initiative takers, leadership, creativity, futurism and Big Picture thinkers. Change was dreaded, the old-ways glorified. Stewards never knew the answers to basic questions or who to refer me to. If I was referred out to the Big union office, my phone calls were never returned, my basic questions left unanswered. Mistakes were often made. Paperwork was lost, wrong amount of dues were taken from my check and then never compensated.

The non-unionized libraries paid less, although the benefits were comparable. The staff were happier, more trustworthy, more relaxed and more team oriented. The library facilities were cleaner and safer. Management was more transparent, open, available and amenable with staff. Change was supported and readily accepted and practiced. Initiative was encouraged. Creative thinkers were rewarded. Organizational culture was heavily emphasized and very positive. Staff were more empowered, happier and far more professional and happy with their jobs. Hierarchy was flattened.

Thanks for having the guts to speak up about this. I always wanted to, but was afraid I’d be professionally assaulted and publicly humiliated by a union member. BTW: I am a far to the left progressive who will never work for a unionized library again. Give me freedom and happiness over a bigger check any day.