I’m not sure what to make of this letter to the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The writer was kicked out of the public library during normal library business hours because the library was “closed for a private party.” He was understandably upset. Learning is the lifeblood of a free society. It’s also the sole purpose of a public library. According to a Longfellow quote on its exterior wall, the St. Louis library serves “the love of learning (and) books,” not cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. I understand that private philanthropic events help fund the library, but if funding a public library means locking the public out, it's not really a public library anymore, is it? That seems to be a fair question. Kicking people out of a library who are there to read in favor of people who are there to party just seems wrong. One of the commenters claimed extraordinary prescience in saying he “warned you about all this,” and then complained about being taxed to pay ...
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Welcome to the new look!. That cat is slick, if I do say so myself. Okay, back to business. I’d missed this one until a Kind Reader sent me the Infodocket link, with the comment, “I've been to ALA annual. God help us if it's the librarians doing the dancing.” The topic is a library offering pole-dancing lessons to draw people in, but the comment really isn’t fair. This is a library in Scotland, Kind Reader, and I’m sure Scottish librarians are significantly different from their American cousins. I have a feeling if the ALA conferences had pole-dancing lessons on the exhibit floor, plenty of librarians would try them, and the result wouldn’t be pretty, although the Cognotes coverage could be amusing. There seems to be some confusion. The local “Cabinet member for public services and leisure” (they have such great titles over there) calls the pole dancing lesson a “pole fitness session,” which would come as a surprise to that woman in the photo. She ...
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LJ is about to migrate the Annoyed Librarian blog to an upgraded platform very soon. Once the migration begins, the blog is going to be locked, meaning I can't post and you can't leave comments. It's possible that some comments will get lost if you post them after the migration starts. After the migration, everything should be back to normal and I'll post an announcement, but if you subscribe to the feed for the AL and haven't heard something by late next week, come back to see the new look. I'm heading to Seattle for ALA. Try not to have too much fun without me. ...
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Sometimes it's amusing to look at the time and energy librarians put into things that probably aren't worth it. For example, take a look at Sweater Vest Sunday, dubbed by someone on the Publib listserv as the “worst marketing ever.” Kind Reader sent this link, but I think you have to scroll down to find the discussion. We know someone at ALA must be excited about it, because there are three exclamation points in the first four sentences. Heck, there are two exclamation points in just the first sentence, which is quite a feat of exclamation pointery. In case you can’t bear to click, here’s most of what you need to know: ALA Midwinter 2013 attendees – and all fans of intellectual freedom – can take a stand for the freedom to read (and for fashion!) by participating in Sweater Vest Sunday!  All day on Sunday, January 27, 2013, help spread the word about the importance of reporting challenges to library materials by wearing a sweater vest to your meetings, ...
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A Kind Reader sent this article about a “bookless library” being built in Texas, the BiblioTech. Etymologically, a “bookless library” is an oxymoron, but maybe they don’t take that sort of thing seriously down in Texas. Nevertheless, the guy responsible for it is very excited. When explaining the concept, he says, “”Think of an Apple store.” Good grief. There have been many models that libraries have tried to emulate, bookstores being the most obvious. Back in the last millennium we were told to make libraries more like the big chain bookstores, so they would be popular and all. Wouldn’t it be great if libraries could have the popularity and staying power of Border’s Books, some librarian probably asked. And now, the Apple store: soulless, shiny, and designed for cult worship. Some of you might be in the cult and now feel offended, so take a look at this description of the training manual for the so-called Apple “geniuses.” They’re ...
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A kind reader sent me two blog posts wondering what I thought. One was from late last year exploring the alleged “rock star dilemma” in librarianship, as if that was a thing. Unlike the first, the other is by someone who actually works in a library, and thus might have library thoughts worth sharing, and the post is (possibly) ironically called Ego, Thy Name is Librarianship. I can’t quite tell if the title is ironic or not, because while the librarian is critical of librarian “rock stars,” she obviously wants to be one of those famous librarians. She’s just not willing to sell her professional soul to do it. Plus, she’s a children’s librarian, and those are about the most ignored people in the profession. As for the “rock star dilemma,” I can only shake my head in disbelief that anyone would use the the phrase “rock star librarian” without scare quotes and a little snicker. Only people who fancy themselves “rock star librarians” would ...
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