A kind reader sent in this news story from Atlanta with the following comment: “Lots to chew on in this substantive account of how self-preservation is the #1 job of library staff.” Indeed there is. The story is the by now typical one of how this isn’t your grandfather’s public library anymore. On the other hand, it can also be read as a story of how public libraries don’t need librarians anymore. Librarians are turning into carnies. So why not just replace them with carnies? Carnies are cheaper. In Atlanta, a public library offers performances by barbershop quartets and brass quintets. One singer “hit a high note so resonant it could be heard well past the commons area.” That’s the sort of behavior that should get someone kicked out of a library, not invited to it. “So much of that dynamic programming used to go on in meeting rooms where it wasn’t visible,” said Raphael. “Now it spills out. Now we say, ‘We want you to be ...
Read More >>

The last post took a look at an example of some of the unpleasant mail sent to the AL. Fortunately, for every email like that, I get several pointing to fun or interesting things. Here’s a selection that I liked, but weren’t quite big enough for a full blog post. The current ALA president managed to get a post published in some CNN blog about education I’d never heard of before. But that doesn’t matter, because everyone has heard of CNN. Good publicity! It sure beats American Libraries for exposure, since no one reads American Libraries except its editors. It’s also refreshing and surprising to hear an ALA president say that “libraries matter more than ever.” I would never have expected that. Another kind reader sent me this link to a post on a blog that collects “letters of note” and publishes them. It’s a fun letter, so take a look. I’m not going anywhere. The particular letter (and a later press release) was from Maurice Sendak’s ...
Read More >>

I’ve gotten quite a bit of email in the last couple of weeks. In the next post, I’ll point to some fun stuff people have sent in, but for today I want to reply to some nutter who double dared me to respond. First, check out this email to the AL: To the “Annoyed Librarian” blogger of the American Library Association: How about running an “Annoyed Library Patron” blog?  I cannot even get a response from the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Affairs regarding my free-speech library-related grievances.  What’s the point in having such an Office?  Also, your Library Journal refuses to consider reviewing the journal I edit and will not even respond. You note in an orgy of self-congratulations, which only seems to occur in organizations lacking accountability, that “The Annoyed Librarian is possibly the most successful, respected, and desirable librarian of her generation.  She has no other interest than to bring her wit and wisdom to the huddled ...
Read More >>

Someplace job search site  has created yet another job rankings list based on the sort of rigorous methodology you’d expect from people trying to hustle money out of you. Librarian ranks 61, just below nuclear engineer and aerospace engineer and just above judge and heating/refrigeration mechanic. But why would the job of judge, which supposedly has similar environmental, stress, and physical demands of a heating/refrigeration mechanic while earning almost 3 times the annual pay be only one rank higher than the mechanic? They answer that question. “Both jobs have lower stress levels, but a Judge has a better work environment while a Heating/Refrigeration Mechanic has a better job outlook.” That’s where lists by places trying to make money from people looking for jobs get things wrong. Once you have a job, the “job outlook” means very little, especially if the “"mega factor" for outlook as defined here is expected employment growth through the year ...
Read More >>

Last week I criticized a lazy journalist for doing what lazy journalists do: write about stuff they know nothing about. In his case, he knew nothing about libraries, but wrote with the assurance of an expert. That’s why he ended up sounding stupid, with his talk of bun-wearing shushers and dark-framed glasses. A media image problem for librarians is that people who write for news organizations apparently never use public libraries. Their knowledge of librarians is based entirely on old movies with librarian characters written by screenwriters whose knowledge of librarians was also based entirely on older movies with librarians characters. The only movie librarian written by someone who knew about librarians was Carole Lombard in No Man of Her Own, who is pretty and slightly odd and described as being “a bit of a handful,” but somehow that type didn’t catch on. So it goes. Most people who stereotype librarians don’t know anything about librarians and ...
Read More >>

I expected it in Brooklyn, and even in California, but I never expected hip, stereotype shattering librarians to finally arrive in Minnesota, even if they’re not really librarians. This article has to be the most painful example of the hip librarian genre that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen them all. It profiles a number of library workers who all seem perfectly nice and manages to induce cringes with just about every line. Like a number of these articles, it exposes as much about the prejudices and ignorance of the writer as it does information about the subject. Even the headline is misleading: “Moorhead’s new generation breaking librarian stereotype.” The main problem with the headline is that the people being profiled aren’t librarians, as the writer admits while continuing to call them librarians. What, weren’t there any actual professional librarians “breaking stereotypes”? One of the profiled library workers is supposedly “one of a ...
Read More >>