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I am a public librarian. I hate people, but I hate computers and books more. I work with all three regardless. I like German and California Rieslings, and Chianti. I love my dog, but I also like cats. I wear sweater vests under my coats with suede patches on the elbows. The sweater is a necessity, because the temperature controls are over at city hall and we have no way to alter them, no matter how many patrons complain. I wear thick black framed glasses. I majored in philosophy. If you haunt conventions looking for more tote bags, I will want to slug you. One of the things to bear in mind when job hunting is that it's a volume game, especially in academia. The metric I was told to think of as realistic was 100 applications to 10 interviews to 1 job. If this scares you, well, it probably should, because it sucks getting flown in, doing the song and dance, getting your hopes up, meeting people and seeing a nice library, and learning that you've come in 2nd place yet again because the other candidate had just a little bit more of XYZ and there's nothing you can do to change that. If and when you get the job, get used to answering the same stupid loving questions over and over and over again, every single day, forever, even if there are signs posted right next to you with the answers on them. The interesting questions will be perhaps 5-10% of your output, on a good day. You will do a lot of work with the homeless, a lot of resume fixing, and a lot of school work help, depending on which department you chose to work in. These are either irritating as hell, or the best part of the job depending on your mental fortitude, views on social justice, and desire to help out your fellow humans. Sometimes they're both.
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Mar 2, 2015 21:10
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a friendly penguin posted:I once went to a dance party at my state library conference where the theme was "librarian stereotypes". I made a skirt of about 30 tote bags borrowed from coworkers hanging on a belt. As I was on the elevator going to the bar, two librarians asked me where I got them because they had been hunting all over for tote bags and only got the one upon registration. If you have pictures, I would love to see this  quote:And I have literally been asked in an interview what I do for fun. And when I left off reading, the interviewer was appalled. Ooh, can we trade bad interview stories? In the first interview I had out of library school, they had only called me in the ask what the "President: War Games Club" was on my resume. The rest of the interview was incredibly cursory, but they were literally the first thing out of the lady's mouth after I'd sat down. (Our school's gaming club had an old and distinguished history, and had never updated its name since expanding from pushing tin soldiers around grassy fields.) Another I had involved swapping many emails with a much older woman who thought that pink comic sans was appropriate for professional correspondence. In the phone interview, she was baffled at the idea that someone could read an old article for information, and in person, proceeded to dog every answer I gave to the point of contradicting herself. Everyone else on the hiring committee seemed to like me a lot, but this woman out right hated me from the moment we started speaking. After two phone interviews and being flown half-way across the country, I was rejected via the automated form letter that informed you that the position is closed. Hell is an old, very overweight black woman with way too many Unshelved strips taped to her office door demanding to know why you haven't published multiple peer reviewed articles or presented at several conferences, and then talking over your attempt to answer. (Because no one in public libraries really gives a poo poo about either of those things.)
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Mar 3, 2015 01:34
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Insane Totoro posted:Just to be clear, posting job search horror stories and "on the job tales of terror" are perfectly fine as long as they're representative of things that can and do happen in the industry! What it's like working in a public library: "Idealistically, I thought that, after my year{s} of library training, I was launched on a career dedicated to the so-called university of the people. I quickly discovered that, to the patrons, the library was actually more of a trade school. While I was prepared to answer questions regarding the origins of abstract expressionism, what people wanted was a manual on how to fix a broken toilet." --Will Manley The good: On multiple occasions, I have had people come in to tell me that they've gotten interviews or jobs because I helped them with applications or resumes  I got to give a retiree a copy of 1984 for the first time, which he'd always been meaning to read. He'd asked for 1884, "or something like that. The real famous book." Because now that he was retired, he finally had time to read it. I spent a lot of time cataloging graphic novels the other day, and of course to properly catalog a book, you need to have the proper subject headings, and therefore you need to read the book in its entirety to make sure you don't mislabel it or accidentally put an adult book in the YA or youth department... I taught two older people how to use computers today in the class I teach. The one, six weeks ago, was utterly terrified of her laptop. Now she's using email like a pro. The other, a newcomer, wasn't actually doing anything wrong and just needed a boost of confidence along with a refresher. They left happy. Another regular of mine has worked his way from homelessness to having a steady job and an apartment. I helped him get his email account unlocked so he didn't lose the draft of his memoirs, which he's been working on for quite some time now. I helped a non-traditional student whose been trying to go to college to get a degree in small business administration with his FAFSA, because the local college financial aid office was just lousy to him. It took a day or two to get ironed out, but he's now attending classes just fine. On the other hand... I had a fellow come in looking for his son, who he hadn't had any contact with in about fifteen years. The only record I could find of him was on a sex offender's registry. I called an ambulance for a homeless fellow who was passed out and unresponsive in front of the library. I'd tried tapping his face, yelling, etc. Nothing. Flies were clustering on the guy. He's breathing, but shallowly. I'm worried he might be in a diabetic coma, based on what some of the other people are saying. The EMTs are able to revive him immediately, and he ends up hauled off in a police squad car for lying to the cops about having an ID on him (he did). I just thought the guy was hurt and needed help...  The many, many The people who are like slow motion train wrecks, and keep coming in with the exact same problems year after year after year. Yes, I'm sure that it's the women in the HR department that are the problem, not your attitudes towards women in the work place that are causing you to be unable to find work. Really, every single female boss you've had is a stupid bitch who doesn't know what she's doing? No kidding. The people who call every day, asking the exact same questions. Sure, the phone number to the White House is... Didn't I give this to you yesterday? Oh, you lost the paper it was on. Gotcha. Toph Bei Fong fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Mar 4, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2015 06:19
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I'll echo the sentiment that, no matter what type of library you're looking to work in, get some actual experience working in that type of library during your degree program. The extent to which this is a field biased towards people with in the field, demonstrated ability, cannot be overstated. To give an example, when I began hunting after graduating six years ago, it took me a year to find a job. I'm hunting again, and it's still taking a while because these things take time, but I'm getting a ton of callbacks and interviews chiefly because of the amount of experience I've got. So do practicums, do internships, work with professors, ANYTHING that gets you doing the job you're looking to do so you can add it to your resume and talk about it in interviews.
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Mar 18, 2015 15:51
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Cognac McCarthy posted:How specialized would you say it's necessary for your work experience to be? By "that type of library", do you mean public/academic/law, or more specific than that? The archive I'd like to work at while a student is a Latin American library with a great LA archive (my background is LA history), but there are also great libraries/archives on campus for other geographical regions and humanities disciplines. Should I stay away from them? Do you think overspecializing is a risk for archivists? (Please bear in mind that I'm speaking here as a public librarian, not as a professional archivist.) It kinda depends. I trained mainly to be an academic reference librarian, but because I graduated at the height of the economic recession, I was regularly competing against folks with 2nd master's degrees and ten years of teaching experience who had decided to try out libraries as a second career. I ended up in a public library instead. The work is mostly the same, in terms of form and style: I am asked questions and I either answer them directly or point people to the resources that contain the answers, I teach people how to locate the information they need and how to use the confusing and varied technologies that permeate the world, I catalog books mainly by copying the work of others and adapting it to the particulars of my own library, and I provide a reassuring and sympathetic sounding board for patrons who are overwhelmed. The difference is that I was preparing to answer questions about Jacques Derrida, citing letters from the 17th century, and ejecting drunken frat boys who decided walking around the library naked would be a great initiation ritual, and instead I answer questions about how to put a roof on a house, how to cite a book for a high school research paper, and eject drunken homeless people who decided that this was a great place to pass out. Instead of passing out GRE prep books, I pass out SAT and citizenship exam ones. I do a lot of genealogy. I'm on a board for the city, rather than the college. There are a lot of differences, but there are also a lot of similarities, and I was able to slide in without too much trouble once I learned what they were. I'm not bitter, nor disappointed. I love my work and think it's every bit as important. The family analogy is a great one. I only briefly touched on archiving practices in my schooling and have attended a few conference sessions about it, and so while I know a little bit, I'd be blown out of the water by any candidate who actually studied it in depth. I think archives are really cool, especially with all the new things folks are doing to put things online, and if presented with the opportunity, I would learn, but it's not something I would use in my day to day work. I'm not trained as a public school librarian, and have a similar feeling. For a specialty library, like a law or medical library, they usually want to hire people with extensive experience in that field -- former lawyers, doctors, and nurses -- so I'd have a much harder time breaking in, though a lot of their work is much the same (answering specific questions correctly, pointing people to the right resources for their problems, cataloging things as they come in for easy reference later, etc.). In this field, overspecialization is more of a personal risk than a professional one, I think. People can get very focused on "I must become this, I must work here, or I'll never be happy", and it can cloud their judgement and perception. If you background is in Latin American history, you should totally go for that archive. You will probably have no trouble obtaining an internship or practicum and with your knowledge be well placed to have a great relationship with the archivists and professors working there, which will lead to a reference and/or letter of recommendation which will be invaluable when you graduate and start job hunting. If not, see if you can get an internship at one of the others, rather than waiting another year for an opening. Also, bear in mind that there are only so many LA archives in the country, not all of whom are hiring at any given time or that are located in an area close to friends and family, so you might end up working at one that isn't focused in that area, depending on the choices you make. Would you hate having to work with artifacts and documents not related to LA history? Probably not; almost every subject is interesting once you spend enough time with it. Cultivate interests in other things as well, make sure you're a well rounded person who can play well with others and is a fun, easy to work with colleague, and don't ever stop learning new things. So many folks in libraries get into a rut and expect the new generation to carry them over when it comes to technology, it's crazy. Toph Bei Fong fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Mar 18, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 20:19
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Are you the person who would lose their job/not get a step increase/get a bad reference if all this poo poo hit the fan? Are you cool with doing most of the work for 2+ years all by yourself, if you can't get folks motivated and rallied behind you to make changes? Are you cool with being your own boss, except for random flat "No"s that come down from on high with no warning and no explanation? And, most importantly, are you still job hunting right now, and would you continue to do so even if you got this transfer? Because it looks like either you'll end up doing everything, from your description. I'm not saying don't do it, but how chill are you with said people who have bad reputations about their attitudes? (I'm seriously in that exact same situation, with my past couple interviews. Do you have the folk's email? It's not impolite to ask via email what qualifications the candidate who was chosen had that you didn't, so you can work at being a stronger candidate in the future, or however you want to word it. Every time I have, I've gotten very nice and encouraging responses from the library directors.)
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Mar 19, 2015 14:35
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VideoTapir posted:Unless you know for a fact the higher-ups have a habit of looking at things this way, I am confident in stating that this is the opposite of how things will go. Insane Totoro posted:Uhhhh I've actually found this not to be the case. Unless you're jacking off in front of children, shilling religion to every patron you talk to, or something crazy like that, usually no one gets seriously reprimanded for anything, or at worst it's a slap on the wrist and a promise never to do it again, because the effort of documenting a series of behaviors, giving them to HR, getting the person fired, running an ad, shuffling schedules to fill in for the currently empty position, sifting through 100+ job applicants, forming a search committee, doing phone interviews, then 2nd round interviews, hoping that the person you get is actually the person they presented themself as in the interview, training that person on the software/equipment/procedures specific to your system... is way way harder than just doing nothing and living with the "devil you know" if they're meeting basic competence most of the time. Which is how so many of these folks have kept their jobs over the years despite not really trying very hard, as they transform from younger and mobile to older and entrenched. 
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Mar 20, 2015 23:23
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Code Academy has been very helpful for me in brushing up on all of those. The documentation is a little sparse in places, forcing you to either figure it out on your own or occasionally go searching online for answers, but the method of instruction, the pacing, and the instant feedback are lovely. And the cost is exactly in my price range.
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Mar 23, 2015 16:27
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Syntax Erin posted:Does that clear up why I'm feeling so I am almost 100% in your position, and have been looking to move on from my present job for about a year now. I've sent out about 80 resumes, and have gotten 5 interviews. It's not just you, it's that's the job market is insanely competitive depending on where you live, and where you're applying. If you're looking anywhere in New England, for example, it's a really tough market. Everyone wants to work there, and there are a lot of schools. The first interview I had was one of the worst experiences I've ever been through. I spent most of the day being dressed down by an elderly African American woman whose best friend had just retired, and who definitely knew more than I did. She didn't like me, and made it clear throughout every interaction that she thought I was an unqualified idiot who had no business being anywhere near a university, in a library, or even speaking with her. A good number of my answers to her questions resulted in an explosion of anger, where she shout-lectured me using the same voice you use to address a small child who was just about to touch a lit stove. I seriously considered abandoning librarianship as a career after this. They ended up hiring no one for the position, and the person they did eventually hire was someone with the exact same qualifications as me. She quit the job a month or two after. I then resolved to stop being creepy and letting this bother me. Sometimes it works. The others were perfectly lovely experiences, with very nice people that seemed genuinely interested in me and my ideas. I was the close runner up in a couple of the cases, with the other candidates having slightly more managerial experience or being slightly better catalogers. It's always been just slightly, the sort of thing where there isn't actually anything you can do to improve or work on without changing your focus completely. One of the directors was nice enough to write me a letter of introduction to another library I applied at, though sadly that library already had a candidate in mind when they posted their opening. Such things are totally out of your control. But I still worry sometimes that it's me, that I'm a huge failure that had just floated through somehow without anyone noticing that I don't belong here. Like a lot of professions, we're very prone to imposter syndrome. If you're someone who does conference presentations, who works alongside library associations, etc. it's obvious that you aren't bad at your job, and from what you're saying, it seems a lot more like you're caught in a bad organization rather than a bad librarian. If you were. when you did your self analysis, you'd probably have located some of the areas in which you were deficient, right? Are your reference transaction skills up to snuff? Do you know all the best resources in your subject areas? Can you always suss out what the patron is actually asking for? Sure. You wouldn't be asking yourself these questions if you didn't know the answer. You'd be kicking yourself for not knowing about XYZ, rather than wondering about what you don't know. Every time you get a rejection letter, it's completely disheartening, and it leaves you feeling like absolutely poo poo. But (and I hope you'll forgive me getting a little new agey here), because there's nothing we can control but ourselves and our own actions, and without putting yourself back to the wheel and continuing to try, you're not going to get the position you're looking for. Every bad day at work, every frustrating interaction with a clueless superior or lovely co-worker, is fuel for putting out more resumes and writing cover letters. Unfortunately, that poo poo can be like trying to hit the lottery. But you only need to hit it once, you know? It doesn't make it any easier, and it doesn't make it suddenly feel good (because it doesn't, I know and I agree with full sympathy), but what else can we do? As far as early-to-mid career advice goes, as well as things to make your current position more bearable: --Do you have any friends at work? Are they the sort of people you'd enjoy working on projects with? If so, collaboration with others is basically the gold standard, plus you get to hang with folks you enjoy most of the day. --Are there any younger employees you'd like to get to know better? Spending time with the junior librarians will have the double effect of boosting your confidence in your own skills, cluing you in on new developments, and fostering that important "mentor" role. --Are there any jobs above the current one you have you sights set on? If so, how are your managerial skills? Have you volunteered to take over night shifts to be in charge? Can you take on some grad students to help you scan and transcribe records into Omeka? (Or whatever it takes; I have no idea if supervision is part of your current job or not) --Do you spend much time with your immediate supervisor? Do you get along with them? If so, is there anything else you can learn from them? If you don't, is there anything you can learn from this? What do they like and dislike? Does gentle pressure, of the "Great, when can we meet to put something like that together?" work? Figuring out why they don't want to do things and how to address this can often be the key to a better working relationship. --How are you at organizational politics? This is one of those stupid, lovely things about life, and one of the things no one likes to talk about at all, but learning to play them will make life a ton easier. For example, I play D&D once a week with one of the assistant directors, and this has done more to advance my projects than any sort of bargaining or presentation ever could. And I love D&D, so in addition to doing something I would be doing anyways, I'm adding someone in my corner pretty much by default if I don't make an rear end of myself when presenting my idea. I help another out with the local musical theatre group. In any sufficiently large organization, you should find folks with hobbies in common (or at least hobbies you don't hate). If folks are going out after work, go out with them. Accept invitations to go to concerts, go hunting, go crochet, whatever. Being part of an in group will lead to more sympathy, fewer things coming up out of nowhere, and people being more inclined to let you try things. Don't think of this as some weird PUA thing, where "if I go drinking with her, it's worth 3 points, and at 10, I get to ask for a favor" or some kinda BS like that. Think of it more like "People are more willing to do favors for friends" and "Social cues and circumstances are important to bear in mind when asking people to do things for me". --Related to the above, how good are you at making problems not your fault? Can you deflect blame, shift anger, and play "lets you and him fight, so I'm not involved"? Can you calm down someone who comes looking for a fight without getting angry yourself or crumpling like a wet paper towel? How is your responsibility judo? Much like above, I wish this wasn't part of the profession, but it is. If you get the reputation as (to put it unkindly) an "out box" for other people's work, they will dump it on you without really noticing, regardless of how much you want to be seen as responsible and helpful and indispensable. You can only pull someone's fat out of the fire so many times before you're doing their entire job. Let that be someone else's problem, unless you are receiving a tangible benefit from it. "I like them and I want to keep working with them" is a perfectly acceptable answer to this question. "They'll be angry and I'll feel like I let them down" is not (if that is the only reason, and it won't come back to bite you later). Remember that "indispensable" sometimes means "can't be promoted because then who'd do the work?", and that your supervisor is getting the bulk of the credit for your work with their supervisors. --Keep abreast of new developments. Read everything you can get your hands on. Play with the new toys when they arrive and learn why people they are important. Then figure out if they actually will help or not. --Have a life outside the library. So many library affiliated folks I know don't do anything but libraries 24/7, and it drains them to a strange gray whenever something goes wrong at their organization. Make sure you have non-library related hobbies, turn off the email on your phone sometimes, and relax. Leave work problems at work, unless you can somehow solve them at home. This will help keep you sane. Drinking also helps.
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Jun 1, 2015 09:40
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It's a rewarding job, in many ways, but it's also frustrating as poo poo, and is treated as "that job that the man's wife has to have a little spending money for herself" by most places around the country. To put it another way, the woman who runs the I Need a Library Job blog put up a posting about how she lost her job, and hasn't looked for a new one: http://inalj.com/?p=78015 last year. A rather telling and sad indictment of the profession. Check out http://hiringlibrarians.com/ for what people are looking for, even before starting the program. It'll help assess realistically what should be focused on in the program and how to get the experience while in the program, because most places that are hiring look for experience above all else.
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Aug 2, 2015 04:02
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In Library School, some of my best teachers were the head of the children's department at the downtown library, one of the first year library instruction librarians, and the head of the college reference department. My worst teachers were a cataloger who hadn't worked in a library in about 10 years, a guy who could only do online classes because of multiple sexual harassment charges, and a teacher so abrasive and defensive that if you called her anything but Doctor she would scream at you for five minutes (I was on a first name basis with many of my other professors (that word was verboten too); she also hasn't worked in any non-library school capacity in 10+ years). What the latter teachers knew anything about "working" librarianship post-1995 was all theoretical, and the picture they painted of the profession was... Well, everyone copy catalogs. That is the vast majority of cataloging. To pretend otherwise is silly. I original catalog maybe 2 books a year, and no one gives a poo poo if I get information from the colophon, or put in a note saying I got the title from the cover.
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Aug 27, 2015 20:23
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Reputation is nothing, experience is everything. I've said before, and I will tell anyone thinking of any library related profession, do as much practical work that demonstrates real ability to do the job as you possibly can during your course work: internships, practicums, volunteering, lower level positions in the organizations you wish to work for, anything at all. Pretty much every entry level job ad you see will list "Two or more years of experience", and if you have these things to fall back on, to tell people how you've actually done the job, rather than how you think you might do it if given the opportunity, your ability to get hired increases astronomically. To put it another way, I had an interview where one of the hiring committee members, the one who chairs the library board, went to the same high school, college, and master's program that I did, albeit about 30 years earlier. He even made sure to mention this, quite happily, in front of everyone. This is in a different state about 450 miles away, so the odds of this happening are really really low. I did not get the job, because the other candidate had a bit more experience in adult programming and management than I did. The job I did recently get was all because of the programs I ran at my old library, the restructuring I did, and the good impressions I made on the hiring committee of that library. This might be different in the archives world, but there isn't an equivalent of the "Harvard MBA" or "Stanford J.D." in the library world. A colleague of mine paid about ten times more to get her degree from a private university than I did from a state school (she didn't, actually, because of scholarships, but the tuition at Syracuse is still insane by any measure). We both make about the same and work in public libraries.
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Nov 6, 2015 06:20
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What I do when I'm feeling that way: --Reread the job description, then double check what I actually do. The job is usually easier than I've built it up to be in my head, and the expectations lower than I've built them up to be. --Rephrase my thoughts about the job. Rather than "poo poo, I need to do X Y and Z, and also what if I forget..." instead try to put it "Oh, I just need to do X, Y, and Z, which I already know how to do, and which aren't all that difficult, and put P and Q on my calendar." --If you aren't in a highly competitive system, talking with older librarians and other folks in your position can help a lot. Phrasing it as gripes and jokes, letting other people laugh about it, listening to how they do it and stealing their ideas whole hog... And even if it is competitive, chatting with what other librarians, letting them talk and seeing what they're actually doing, as opposed to some kid in New York City with a Canon Rebel and a fancy Wordpress template, can help you re-calibrate your expectations for what the job consists of. --Remembering that most people just don't care because they aren't watching that closely, and that you're being your own worst critic. You wouldn't be getting this job unless you deserved it; if you were the sort of person getting the job via politics, you wouldn't be feeling this way. As for actually managing (sorry if some of this is redundant or inapplicable): --Talk to your people! --Seriously, be around and talk to your staff. Have meetings, walk around, be present, and make sure its understood in a non-creepy way that you are available and will help solve problems. Taking a rotation at circ and/or reference once or twice a week will do wonders for your staff interaction. (I don't know exactly how big your branch is, or if you're the sole librarian, but regardless) If they see you are invested in them, they will work harder, and give you less poo poo about pretty much everything. Also, you can actually make friends, enjoy going to work, etc. etc. --Stay on top, but trust people to do their jobs. This is a bit weird, and achieving the balance takes a little work, but basically, you want to let people do their jobs, while only peeking in periodically to make sure that the job is getting done. This is related to the above, where you want to be around, but not necessarily involved in what they're doing. You aren't watching over shoulder to make sure your processing people are really putting on CapCo correctly or whatever, but you do want to drop in occasionally to say hello and ask how they're doing, let them know if any changes are coming before the new stuff arrives, maybe even ask them to show you how to do it so you have this particular branch's procedures down (if you're moving to a new branch). But otherwise, if they're meeting the quota, don't worry so much how they're getting the job done, provided it's getting done correctly. You'll look like a good, flexible boss who cares, and they'll generally be more amenable to changes down the line if you need to make them. --Explain the reason for changes. People need to trust you, and if they understand why they are happening and how they will be implemented, there's generally less grumbling. Make sure you take questions, too. You need to be enthusiastic about said changes, also, to try and sweep people up in the momentum. --Check your budget regularly. Again, this varies from system to system, but making sure you're on top of it, and on course to spend just about everything the month before the end of budget year will help insure that you don't need to do a gigantic rush at the end. --Stay in contact with your other area managers. If they have a monthly system meeting, go to it. If they do drinks once a week, go out. You'll stay connected, you'll know who's up for transfers, who's in the pipeline for promotion, and can help your own career down the line, as people tend to want to work with people they already know. You can more easily partner with them, swap ideas for programs and projects, trade anecdotes and blow off steam, etc. --Have a life outside the library. Seriously. Go do something else for a while once you clock out. A lot of folks, especially once they hit management, start treating the job like its their entire life. It isn't. It's a good job, for certain values of good, but it is also a job that you should walk away from at the end of the day and, especially if it's been a bad day, think about something else. Play board games. Knit. Go wine tasting. Tip cows. Hit up the local firing range. Go to the area S&M dungeon. Whatever floats your boat. Just make sure you can talk about non-library related things, and that you have non-library friends. This will save your sanity. --Drink. Heavily. But I doubt I had to remind you of this one, did I?
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Feb 3, 2016 16:02
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This goddam job:Library Journal posted:Additionally, bear-shape-shifters seem to be gaining some traction in paranormal, as evidenced by Kate Baxter's e-original Stripped Bear, recently published by St. Martin's. Coming soon is Vonnie Davis's new bear-shifting Highland novel, Bearing It All (Loveswept: Random, Oct.). In the pine-dense mountains of the Scottish Highlands, shape-shifter Ronan Matheson is running free when "a desperate woman parachutes out of the sky, directly into his furry, powerful chest." A Scottish hunter and a French secret agent head into danger--and irresistible desire. Fans of Jennifer Ashley and Shelly Laurenston will find that this one bears watching.
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Feb 3, 2016 17:53
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2 oz. Bourbon, served in a Glencairn glass. Van Winkle, if you live in a mansion inherited from your great grandfather who also owned an oil refinery. Buffalo Trace if not. No ice. 1 Thin Mint brand Girl Scout cookie or, if not available, Pepperidge Farm mint Milano cookie, served on plate. Repeat consumption until unconscious.
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Feb 3, 2016 19:51
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It's not so bad when folks actually stay logged in and wait for you to answer the question. It sucks when people type slower than someone else's grandmother, or when you're trying to juggle it alongside in person reference. Do not recommend the latter.
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Feb 4, 2016 21:49
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I'll echo the sentiment of "Get out of circ ASAP" unless you really love it. The pace slows down quite a bit once you're dedicated reference, children's, or special collections. Not to the relative crawl of academia, but you're only doing 4-5 things at once, rather than 20, and you usually get your own office or at least desk to schedule time off the floor at. As you might imagine, the higher up your get, the better the job is, though the more political it becomes. I'm only 2nd highest at my library (a tier I share with a few other folks), so I still get to run resume classes and play chess with kids. My boss the director has to report to the library board, meet with the town council, draft multiple budgets and long range plans, and ends up working a lot of unpaid overtime. Of course, he also makes about 20% more than I do...
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Feb 25, 2016 15:29
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Yeah, that sounds about par for the course. A lot of librarians are quite defensive about their positions because they do gently caress all at their jobs, and worry about any changes upsetting the nice apple carts they have set up. Some of this I can understand, because you do want trained staff who know their subjects (for example, I had one clerk who didn't know who John Locke was, understandable if you're not into philosophy, whereas I was able to tell the patron a canned biography of the guy and his ideas while finding them a book on him, but then there are clerks I'd trust to do the job better than I would because they've been here since I was a kid and they know more about mysteries or science or local history than I ever will), but on the otherhand, if you've got an MLS, a degree in history, and you want to learn the job... And what the hell is that kind of classism doing in a library setting, anyways? Talking with the director of a local university library, apparently public is the place to be right now if you want any sort of advancement or job safety. It sounds like you've got your head on right, and the fact that folks up above are already asking about your goals and ambitions is a good sign. Reference is fun as hell, and while cataloging is not my bag, a lot of people enjoy it. I would make sure to follow up so you getting scheduled a few reference rotations or whatever doesn't slip someone's mind. You have the MLS already, so coupled with the experience, if you do it right you ought to be a shoe in for the next opening in the system, or if you network out, one of the neighboring ones. You probably already know this, but I should warn you anyways that it's not all "I need to find my old dead grandfather's grave" or "tell me about this cool snake I took a picture of while hiking". A lot of it is "How do I print?" and "I've read every Amish romance you own. Recommend me some more Amish romance authors with some sex, but not too much. Just a tasteful amount." and "How do I print?" and "Donald Trump is right. Print me out Fox News' entire website on him" and "How do I print?"
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Feb 25, 2016 16:24
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In this economy, full time > anything else. Don't be nuts. Another part time position will come along if you need/want it. Until then, focus on the full time position and do your best there. Also, congrats! I'm glad your long search is over!
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Apr 29, 2016 20:40
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Insane Totoro posted:Who the hell mends books on site anymore? I do! It's a fun way to take a break and relax in between patrons when you don't feel like doing something more complicated. And our fiction budget isn't what it used to be, so if it's just a matter of gluing a binding back together or tipping in a loose page, yeah, that's worth saving $20.
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Nov 20, 2016 04:22
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50 ml Kraken rum 25 ml lime 5ml sugar syrup 2 dashes Angostura Bitters Ginger beer Method: Build over ice in a highball glass, top with ginger beer and garnish with a lime wedge. Look wistfully at shelf full of James Joyce novels and literary theory books wonder how it turned out this way. Ponder if you can face going outside today. or Equal parts Kraken rum and Cherry Coke Method: Fill a large table glass halfway with ice. Pour coke and rum simultaneously until glass is 7/8th full. Turn on MASH re-runs and think about your life. Hold large mouthfuls in your mouth for 30+ seconds before swallowing, just to feel something. Good old Hawkeye. He's funny. Funny guy. And that Trapper. Why don't you have friends like that? Accent with cubed colbyjack or extra sharp Vermont cheddar cheese and club crackers. Ritz are an acceptable substitute.
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Feb 21, 2017 22:39
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But seriously, if a job is making you think of hurting yourself, you should talk to your student counseling department, your therapist if you have one, or even one of the many available phone or online services (a friend of mine works for IMAlive and they're wonderful). That's what they're there for. No job should leave you in tears multiple times a month, let alone worse, and you deserve help. What aspects are causing it to be so bad? If it's older staff or mean professors, I have suggestions...
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Feb 21, 2017 22:43
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15+ Mint leaves (adjust to taste) 8 oz Port Wine (Delaforce Fine Ruby Port if you're strapped for cash, Quady NV Batch 88 Starboard Port if you've won a scratch off ticket and have $30 left over after paying your student loans) 2 oz. apple juice or cider Method: Muddle mint leaves and apple juice in cocktail shaker. Add port and ice. Shake and strain into tall glass. Garnish with mint sprig and apple slice. Serve with peanut butter sandwich w/ crusts cut off and peanut M&Ms , and the film Thomas Pynchon: A Journey into the Mind of [p.] or Ten Conversations About One Thing. Resist temptation to watch Party Girl and dream of what life would be like if you were Parker Posey. Keep cell phone near by. Don't drink alone for too long.
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Mar 8, 2017 23:13
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There was a "fun" exchange about salary and expectations on a librarian listserv I'm on a few days ago. The position was at a more rural library in a poorer area, but wanted an an MLS, started at $15/hour, at 30 hours/week. I thought this was the most salient response: quote:I am a September 2016 Grad of XXXXX College in the LIS program. I’m still looking for Library work. Regarding this mention of “pay” - It would be interesting to say that for the last 3 years, I have been working PT weekends, in the bowels at XXXXXXX College on the mid-night shift; not in the Library, but in housekeeping to make ends meet, while I got my MLS. I currently make $16.00 an hour, mopping floors, and cleaning toilets, with full medical, dental, vision coverage and NYS retirement. (A position that requires nothing more than a High School education and a heartbeat) Although I do understand what [Library Director] is saying [about the poverty of the area and their budget struggles], coming from my perspective, its perplexing to justify $15.00 starting pay for someone with a Master’s degree, when a janitor can make $16.00 an hour with full benefits and [state] retirement. Librarianship, everyone!
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Mar 22, 2017 19:43
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Insane Totoro posted:So why didn't he take the job? It's about a 100 mile commute, so he didn't even apply.
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Mar 22, 2017 20:51
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Fumaofthelake posted:It's almost like you're perfect and they just want to cover themselves and bring in another cheap probation period worker. Yeah, this. That's a load of horseshit. If you're doing your job well, that's all that counts. Are you "connecting" them with the information they require? Did they point out anything earlier that you might have missed? Because that's the most inane reason for not bringing someone onto staff that I've heard in a long time, and I got my MLS when all anyone wanted to talk about was how Second Life was going to be the future of education.
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Apr 22, 2017 01:58
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Cythereal posted:Silly me thinking management would want to hear what patrons actually wanted. I really loving hate how naive I was. Yeah, unfortunately, to get by in this business, you've gotta tell the people upstairs what they want to hear, and then drink your way into their jobs. That said: 1 part dark rum 1 part light rum 1 part whatever rum you have lying around the house (Or just use 3 parts of whatever rum you can afford) 1 part lime juice 1 part pineapple juice 1 part apricot brandy 1 teaspoon papaya juice 1 teaspook sugar Some 151 Proof rum Mix everything but the 151 in a tall glass filled 3/4s with crushed ice. Stir until homogenized. Slowly cap with the 151 (about 1/2 part), by putting it into a spoon, and then lowering it into the surface of the drink. This will let it float on top. Look at it, floating there so precious, so innocent, so free. Right there at the top. Take a match and light it on fire. Burn it like it was your hopes, your dreams, all the optimism that no longer lives in your heart. Make a second one, and place them both on the coffee table. Slump onto the couch and think about happier things, a pet you love, a relationship that's going well, a friend you have good times with, someone you care about, a hobby you pursue with a passion. Drink one, then the other, over the course of an hour or two. The ice will have melted in the second one, but who cares? Just drink it, watered down or not. Life is more than your career. A job shouldn't define you. Try to let your hopes and dreams live again with each sip. Lay there, nice and shitfaced. If you drink a third, or if you're a small person, make sure to fall asleep on your stomach. Serve with a plastic tray of pre-cut pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe from the grocery store, and a bowl of corn chips. Turn on Cartoon Network, and let it play, regardless of what is on. Forget. When you wake up, try to live.
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Apr 28, 2017 19:04
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vaginal facsimile posted:My girl doesn't know who Ron Paul is. Any good videos to introduce her? This ought to hook you up, fam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca7IhkfBMes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X3qWYe2f7A
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Jun 21, 2017 16:29
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Yeah, there are certain softball "political" things that you don't need to make a stink out of, but, well, here we are. A better way to have brought attention to her one good point (why donate to rich libraries when there are poor ones?), would have been to donate the donated books to a poorer library in a neighboring district. And given that Obama, Bush, and Clinton iirc donated Dr. Seuss for this occasion as well, and the high attrition rate of his books in my own library, well... It strikes me as using any given opportunity to criticise, rather than a genuine dislike of the author and/or occasion. Here's the original article: http://www.hbook.com/2017/09/blogs/family-reading/dear-mrs-trump/#_ And here's the librarian in question dressed up as the Cat in the Hat: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/dr-seuss-is-racist_librarian_d.html#incart_river_home
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Sep 29, 2017 18:59
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 03:58 |
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Yeah, come on kids, take out more student debt, don't'cha'know that a job here at the college is just waiting for you once you get another degree from us?
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Nov 29, 2017 22:15
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