Apparently I “confused” someone last week when I started a post by mentioning a controversy at one university library and ended by discussing criticism of a public library system in a completely different state. There was no secret hidden meaning connecting the two. I was just discussing two different issues regarding libraries that week. I do that sometimes. In fact, I might do it now. For those of you on the market for temporary library jobs with low pay and no benefits, you're in luck! Two different kind readers have sent in this job. LIBRARIAN Temporary Position, 2012‑13 academic year (September ‑ mid‑May) Maintenance of library website, database vendor management, reference desk scheduling, teaching information literacy, liaison and collection development for several academic departments, backup for interlibrary loan and circulations. Qualifications: Master's degree in library science from an ALA‑accredited program, knowledge and skills related to ...
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The worst thing about going to an ALA conference is all the preconference spam that vendors send out. Somehow I must have checked the right box somewhere, because I don’t get as much as I used to. But back in the days of print spam, I’d get huge stacks of spammy postcards from vendors that I would then cut into small bits to make collages for my colleagues. Hey, I had to find something to do at the reference desk. These days it’s all about the email, and an easy “delete” or “report spam” takes care of the problem. However, my easy resort to the spam button kept me from getting the following advertisement sent in by a kind reader with a subject line reading “No wonder librarians get no respect” and the following comment: “I am an educated professional, so I want to walk around in ridiculous headgear...” Yep, that about says it all. If you want to know what companies think about librarians, follow their propaganda at conferences. Ebsco, for ...
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I was going to write about the controversy over a university (“university”?) that lost a lot of faculty and one librarian because they wouldn’t sign a “lifestyle statement” saying they wouldn’t be homosexual, have sex outside of marriage, or drink alcohol in public. They presumably want everyone at their university to be more like Jesus, who of course never drank in public and was obsessed with abortion, same-sex marriage, socialism, and “family values.” That’s all he ever talked about, just like today’s Christians. But what is there really to say? A “university” that was once a respectable college is now an intellectual joke, and the lives of some harmless former employees are worse off. Some library should give that librarian a job in a library without institutionalized bigotry. He’s obviously got plenty of integrity. Or there was the man who was stabbed at the Brooklyn Public Library by someone accusing him of watching Internet porn. If ...
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A kind reader sent me this job ad with the following comment: “Two entry-level jobs in what they admit is a very small library out in the middle of rural Redneckville, applicants must take on all duties, work nights & weekends, PHD PREFERRED. What are they smoking???” What, indeed. Unfortunately, the ad doesn’t use the all caps, which would have made it much funnier. It merely states that the “Minimum qualifications include a Masters of Library Science degree (although a Ph.D. is desirable) from an ALA accredited graduate program.” I guess a PhD is always “desirable,” except maybe to those people who have spent years earning one so they can work as an assistant librarian at a tiny library. The wording isn’t completely clear, since it implies that they want someone with a PhD from an ALA-accredited graduate program. If that’s really the case, they don’t get how LIS PhDs work. People go get PhDs in library science so they can escape ...
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In last week’s discussion of library rental fees, someone commented: It is about our customers. In many cases, the rentals aren't available either, and then they go and buy the book or check another library system.  Yes patience is a virtue, and I can see that argument, but we also need to meet the informational needs of our community be it through, in this case, rental fiction or nonfiction. This is in response to a line of thinking that argues people should just be willing to wait if they want to read the book for free, or even nearly free. This approach could be used to defend library rentals. Those who can’t afford the extra dollar could wait indefinitely, while the rich among us for whom the extra dollar makes no difference could read their Stephen King novels more quickly than the masses. Though it could also be an argument against rental fees. Waiting for a best selling novel to be available to you for free could be seen as a character-building ...
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Anyone following the news in academia probably saw this article last week about the increasing number of people with graduate degrees on welfare. A kind reader sent it to me with a note: “This should be required reading for anyone pondering an MLIS degree.” Those of you who don’t work in higher might not be familiar with the genre this article belongs to. It’s the “look how awful it is that people who spent 5-10 years in graduate school studying subjects they knew weren’t marketable and now work for peanuts so they can call themselves ‘professors’” genre, and it’s pretty darned popular. The genre seems to appeal mostly to people who have more education than money, job security, or sometimes just plain common sense. Outside that group, I’m not sure who would be sympathetic about the situation of a 43-year-old single mother with a PhD in medieval history making $900 a month adjunct teaching two courses who blames the “"systematic defunding of ...
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