Tag: Employment Change

professionally annoyed

I don’t understand the appeal that the anonymous blogger “Annoyed Librarian” has among certain segments of the profession. When s/he entered the blogosphere, I read the entries for a while, mainly because so much buzz had been generated around them. But, after a while, the bitter negativity wore me down and I started avoiding it.

I know things aren’t perfect in Libraryland. We have a lot of work to do to catch up with the tools and services that our for-profit competitors provide. Will we be able to move forward and fix what needs fixing if we spend all of our time wallowing in complaints and self-hatred? No.

I put on my metaphorical ass-kicking boots every day and try to do what I can in my job to make library services and resources more accessible and functional for my library’s users. Occasionally, I do slide into fruitless complaining — we all do — but I don’t stay there for long. I’m lucky to have good people working with me, and as long as we support each other, it will be alright.

There was a flurry of tweets, blog postings, and other social media exclamations of WTF? when American Libraries Library Journal hired the Annoyed Librarian to be an official blogger for the magazine. I shrugged it off, since I rarely read the American Libraries Library Journal website anyway, unless I’m looking for an article I want to share with a colleague. However, it seems that was only the tip of the iceberg. Volume 5, issue 4 of Haworth’s Journal of Access Services is an entire issue of essays written by the Annoyed Librarian.

The Journal of Access Services. The “one-of-a-kind, peer-reviewed quarterly journal” that “covers the full range of access issues affecting libraries today.” Seriously? An entire issue of a journal subtitled “Service Innovations for 21st Century Libraries” is now dedicated to an anonymous someone who’s best known for trashing any sort of innovation or philosophy that the Librar* 2.0 movement puts forward? What were they thinking?

ETA: Wrong library journal up there. Fixed it. Also, an indication of how much that concerned me, no?

Addendum: It seems that not all members of the Journal of Access Services editorial board were aware of the decision to make the special issue entirely Annoyed.

my fellow country-men and women…

I’ve been elected to the executive board of NASIG, which is both thrilling and terrifying. NASIG has rocked my professional world from early on, and I’m very excited about being able to continue to contribute to the organization through the leadership structure. I will admit to also being slightly worried about the volume of work … Continue reading “my fellow country-men and women…”

I’ve been elected to the executive board of NASIG, which is both thrilling and terrifying. NASIG has rocked my professional world from early on, and I’m very excited about being able to continue to contribute to the organization through the leadership structure. I will admit to also being slightly worried about the volume of work that this might entail. In the past year, I’ve managed to push myself rather close to the edge of burnout, but for now I think I can keep from going over that edge.

Thank you to everyone who voted for me. If you’ll be in Louisville for the conference, be sure to say hello. I’ll be the woman wearing this. Well, at least for one day. I’ll probably be wearing this on one of the other days, and I’d like to point out that as a regular QC reader, I knew about it before it became popular with all the cool kids.

dean for dnc

Nominate Howard Dean for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee!

Nominate Howard Dean for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee!

We the people of the Democratic Party of the United States of America and/or members of Democracy For America and it’s state groups do herby advocate for the election of Howard Dean to the position of Chairman of the Democratic National Commitee.

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