And now, a brief library related interlude.

For those of you who don’t remember, I started blogging – my other now-retired blog, Sensible Shoes - when I was in library school. I’ve been done for over two years now and have yet to work in a library. I did, for a short time, volunteer in one, helping to migrate their old website to a new one since nobody there knew HTML. And in doing so, I learned to use Drupal, which seems to provoke a strong love or hate reaction from anybody who is familiar with it. I’ll admit that I kind of enjoyed being the only person – unpaid, mind you – present who could make it do its magic.

Anyway. I have yet to use any of my actual library-oriented skills to earn a paycheck. The time spent volunteering has yet to make it onto my resume, because really, who uses Drupal? Oh, here’s someone who does!

Live-In Editorial Assistant wanted for internationally renowned media sexologist and institute director, recently featured on Nightline, as well as on HBO, Playboy, WeTV and other media…

In exchange for your part-time work, we will give you room and board in the Institute’s fabulous spacious loft, including your own private room, DSL, phone, maid service, tech support, bar and kitchen access, some gourmet home-cooked meals, recording studio, erotic art gallery, awesome eclectic ambiance, 17,000 square feet of space to work and play in (basically, $2000/month of room, board & amenities) with an exciting, vibrant, socialist-style, capitalist-oriented community of artists, technologists and sex therapists…

You should be able to do basic HTML. Familiarity with Drupal and/or CSS would be awesome, though not required.

Sadly, much like my own experience using Drupal, it doesn’t look like there is an actual salary involved.

~ ~ ~

ETA: Oh hey, this job – which wants some graduate level cataloging coursework – at least pays minimum wage.

Puh-leeze.

 

March of the librarians.

Thanks to Pixiegenné for bringing this to my attention and making me giggle!

 

Noteworthy.

I’m taking a much-needed day off from the workplace today – and the next four Fridays – to try to kick the e-portfolio’s ass for once and for all. Go, me. Yeah. Woo hoo.

In reviewing my notes from my very first semester of lib school, I ran across this little tidbit on West Coast print culture: in 1850, San Francisco had sixty bookstores. Sixty! Los Angeles, on the other hand, had none at all. Zero.

But in 1850, Los Angeles had sixty bars.

Interesting how little things change, hmmmm?

 

Bad idea.

SFGate has an article on ChaCha.com, a new human-assisted search engine. At first I thought "Great idea!" because I see daily how much trouble laypersons have in locating reliable, authoritative information via the Web.

Then I read this (the italics are mine):

Jones said the company will have about 3,000 guides when the program is
released and is prepared to add many thousands more as business warrants. They
will be typically paid from $5 to $10 an hour and the company will recruit
among college students, retirees and stay-at-home parents. The guides will be
trained and will compete against each other for rankings, determined by
customer satisfaction. Guides who get higher scores will earn more  –  up to
$20 an hour for top earners.

Dude. Don’t even get me started on just how many kinds of insulting that is!

It’s information science, which requires skill and training and should at least merit a living wage. I don’t care if they are based in Indiana; I don’t think $5-$10 an hour is a living wage anywhere these days.

And the notion that "college students, retirees and stay-at-home parents" are qualified to do what people go through several years of postgraduate education to do is so misguided that I don’t even know where to start.

This hits home, though. The top management where I work thinks the exact same labor pool mentioned above can do what my department does, for less, but equally well. They can’t; I’ve seen the results and they aren’t pretty.

 

Aw, man!

Now that I have a real paycheck to look forward to, I can place a bigass order at Librariangear.com.

I’m currently fond of the "NLA" spoof logo:

 

Roving reference.

I don’t like it one bit.

This morning I went to the library, and headed straight for the OPAC to look up a few things. Seconds later, a reference librarian descended on me.

RL: "May I help you?"

Me: "Ummm, no thanks, I’m just browsing around."

RL: "Are you sure there’s nothing I can help you find?"

Me: "No, really, I’m fine, thanks."

RL: "Well, I’ll just wait here in case you need me."

Me, having become REALLY annoyed: "Trust me, I’m a trained professional. Well, a library school student. Finding my own books is part of the education process."

RL, in indignant tone: "Oh. Well. Okay then. Have fun in library school." Walks away.

WTF? He has a master’s degree but does not know the meaning of "No, thanks" the first time?! This is exactly the kind of thing I meant when I mentioned that a class in Customer Service might be a good addition to the standard LIS curriculum.

Last I checked, reference librarians were not on commission, but the way this dude was acting – perhaps that has changed. Hrmmmmph.

 

Mmmm hmmm, librarian shortage.

From NexGen Librarian comes this job-finding story. It has a happy ending. Yay for happy endings!

It’s really good advice. Or at least I think so, since it falls so completely in line with what I’ve been thinking as of late.

 

Further evidence…

…that the job market is currently dismal: I just got word that Universal Studios is closing their archives.

 

Goodwin v. Harvard

So Desiree Goodwin lost her lawsuit. I’d really like to know the whole story, and I’ll probably waste an inordinate amount of time today searching Dialog and Nexis to dig up the truth.

I simply cannot comprehend that one could even get a foot in the door as a Harvard librarian if he or she didn’t have stellar job skills to begin with. So the notion that Goodwin didn’t have the skills it takes to be promotable is rather preposterous to me.

The only thing I can imagine is that it’s a technology issue – she was hired in 1994, and lib schools didn’t teach much tech stuff back in the day. So perhaps new applicants have better chops in that area, which obviously is what is needed.

But with the ruling coming just days after the lecture I heard on Sunday, in which two rather conservative types went on and on about appropriate dress and being "just like us," I’m a skeptic. I think it’s quite likely Goodwin was considered unpromotable because she refused to fit a mold, whatever that mold may have been.

Anyone have any good insights into this?