I hate to keep sounding like a Gloomy Gus, but I just can't help thinking about this bad economic situation. (Actually, I don't really hate it. It suits me somehow.) I try to get my mind off it, but then I read yet another reminder of the signs of the times. The most recent one came in the blog ACRLog: Still Waiting for Those Old Librarians to Retire. Someone there speculates the the economic downturn might make it harder for new librarians to find jobs. For longtime readers of the AL, the following might sound familiar:

"I have been saying that the anticipated shortage of librarians is unlikely, but a bad economy with delayed retirements would make it harder still to imagine generalized labor shortages in our ...Read More

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There's a brief discussion about the viability and future of in-person conferences at Walt Crawford's side project, also known as the Palinet Leadership Network. (Regarding the PLN, I love the way Walt pulls the juicy bits from various blogs and excerpts them so I don't have to read so many of the boring things to keep up.) Walt thinks in-person conferences will be around for a while. Someone called Peter Murray doesn't because of "budget crunches and and concern over environmental impacts" among other things. "Conference calls, webcasts, online learning environment, etc., may be where w...Read More

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I'm writing this on New Year's Eve and hoping it manages to post tomorrow, because I'm quite sure I'll be in no condition to write a blog post the rest of the week, and one has deadlines to meet. I'm back home and heading out on the town soon. Dinner jackets and ball gowns might be in order, and I have a sneaking suspicion that copious amounts of champagne will be consumed. Martinis give me a warm glow, but champagne is mist before my eyes.

Every year there's talk about the so-called War on Christmas in libraries (or at one library, a war on the war on Christmas), as if anyone really cares what anyone else has to say about the subject. People who don't li...Read More

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On LISNews I ran across a blog post linking to another blog post referring to a discussion at another website about something called Reference Extract, which is apparently going to be another attempt by library folk to create another search engine that gives people results that librarians like. The sidebar of the site says, "Reference Extracts [sic] will be built for maximum credibility by relying on the expertise and credibility judgments of librarians from around the globe." The discussion point was whether librarians had lost the search war. The obvious response is, I didn't even know they were fighting it. ...Read More

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Merry Christmas, everyone! Or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, Merry Whatever-Fake-Holiday-You-Celebrate-On-Christmas!

I'm blogging from the ancestral manse, with chestnuts roasting on an open fire and Jack Frost nibbling on my toes. Come to think of it, that's probably not Jack Frost, but it feels good, anyway. Christmas is my favorite holiday, what with the presents, the food, the family, and the neverending chorus of Perry Como and company wishing me a Merry Christmas throughout the house.

Since I can't be annoyed on Christmas, I thought I'd share some of the things I like about being a librarian, the positive stuff I don't talk about the rest of the year. Some poor readers occasionally ask things like, "AL, if you hate librarianship so much, why don't you do something else?" That of course assumes I'm capable of doing something else, but in...Read More

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This series of articles came out a month ago, I know, but somehow I missed it. Fortunately, a kind reader sent it on to me. "Top 20 things librarians in public libraries wish patrons knew or did" can more or less be summed up in considerably fewer than twenty things: Shut up, listen to us, don't waste our time, don't smell bad, and remember we're here for you! But five points and eighteen words couldn't have filled four (!) separate articles spanning an entire week. I'd tell those Examiner people that brevity is the soul of wit, but I think we all know that would be the pot calling the kettle black.

It does my heart good to see librarians breaking away from the puff pieces the ALA likes to see and...Read More

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When I became a librarian, I didn't know what I was getting in to. Certainly I knew I'd entered a profession with low enough standards that it was easy to shine brightly with little effort, and that outrageous success and a corner office were mine for the taking, but other than that I was clueless. For example, I never thought about the librarian stereotypes. Since I wasn't one of those people obsessed since birth with becoming a librarian, I didn't develop all the typical librarian habits, I suppose, and thus get annoyed both at the stereotypes and at the people who insist that we forget the stereotypes. Despite all the protest, they're about as likely to go away as the stereotype of the "crazy cat lady." 

The latest reference to the...Read More

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Via LISNews comes this story from the Golden State. The writer of the story (a man, of course) seems a bit too fixated on Sharon Stone's naughty bits, but it concerns what minors are allowed to charge from libraries. "A new proposal pushed by county Supervisor Bill Horn would require parents to mark a box indicating whether their child could check out R-rated DVDs and videos from [San Diego] county's 33 libraries. The policy now allows patrons of all ages access to all library materials." The board voted unanimously for the idea, and the libraries now have 60 days to figure out how to implement it. Maybe they'll come back and tell the board of supervisors it's impossible to implement, but all that would do is show the board how stupid librarians can be.
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Should AL be in print? If we're talking about the Annoyed Librarian, a lot of people have very clearly said yes, and a lot of people just as clearly have said no. However, I'm talking about the other AL: my dark twin American Libraries. The ALA is trying to go greener, and someone suggested that they give ALA members the option not to receive American Libraries in print, which would save on paper and presumably other energy costs associated with transporting physical items. There's also the added benefit of saving me and countless other ALA members the effort of moving American Libraries straight from the mailbox to the recycling bin.

The AL Inside Scoop didn't like the idea, though. The writer there sensibly believes that it's "time to stop characterizin...Read More

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Does the ALA acknowledge any moral responsibility to society, other than the Constitutionally protected right to play videogames at public expense? I ask because stories like this expose the amoral reasoning of the ALA. The article reports that a tip by a "librarian" or "library employee" (I wish the news media would ask whether the person had an actual ALA-accreditedMLS so we would know if they were worth bothering about) led to an arrest for child molestation and the possession of child pornography.

From some place called "Burrillville" in some other place called "Rhode Island," we read that the "library employee notified the police after she discovered that Richard A. Gray, of 34B Spring Street, had been trying to engage others in...Read More

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A kind but annoyed reader informed me about this story. I haven't noticed the ALA pick it up and complain about the lack of due process, but I could have just missed it. They probably don't care anyway. After all, as they note from time to time, it's the American Library Association, not the American Librarian Association. So the Annoyed Librarian Association will have to do for now.

Patty Wanninger, the former director of the Manitowoc Public Library, is suing the library Board of Trustees to get reinstated and her back wages. (That's Mantiowoc County, Wisconsin, by the way. Has anyone but me noticed that the news websites most places just assume you know where the hell they are? Would it be too much of a waste of page space to put "Wisco...Read More

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From the comments:

"if there are no reference librarians in 20 years is that good or bad for society?

It's good because it means that more information is available to a wider group of people and it means that we (society) have learned how to find the information for ourselves. Self-reliance is a good thing."

Provided relevant information is readily available and easily findable in 10-20 years, would the disappearance of libraries matter to anyone but librarians? I'm thinking probably not. Librarians fret about the future of libraries, but does anyone else?

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