[Publib] Backwage and the Sacred Cow

[Tina Marie Adams]

Hi Robert,

I could not get your link to open. Are you still in the building phase or is the link live?

Best,
Tina

________________________________
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of backwage at aol.com [backwage at aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 11:13 AM
To: rballiot at gmail.com; jessica at tcpls.org
Cc: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Backwage and the Sacred Cow


By their description she really liked books, but was very shy and did not like people.  So, they were postiive she would be perfect to work in a library.
That's all so not right.  If she was outgoing and didn't like people she'd have been perfect.


-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Balliot <rballiot at gmail.com>
To: jessica at tcpls.org
Cc: publib at webjunction.org
Sent: Thu, Nov 12, 2009 9:54 am
Subject: Re: [Publib] Backwage and the Sacred Cow

We were approached by some family members at a social gathering.  They wanted to recommend the perfect person to us to work in a library and hoped would could use our connections to make it possible..

By their description she really liked books, but was very shy and did not like people.  So, they were postiive she would be perfect to work in a library.

The people making the recommendation were an architect and a nurse.  So, you would expect that in the course of their studies they would have used a library once or twice.

Speaking of jobs -  I am still building this resource -

http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/library-jobs.htm


If anyone is  aware of local library job library related websites, please send me the link.

R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com<http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/>




On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 11:50 AM, <jessica at tcpls.org<mailto:jessica at tcpls.org>> wrote:
 fred.judi at myfairpoint.net<mailto:fred.judi at myfairpoint.net>,

I don't think anyone is suggesting that librarians are bad people, only that some library staff members are rude and that public library directors seem to have a habit of not addressing this issue.

Regarding your statement about not knowing that this was such an issue, I only realized that it was one when I started taking online MLIS classes 2 years ago.  In a program with over 150 other students, the majority of which already work in libraries, we were able to discuss a variety of issues, and regardless of the class, whether childrens literature or reference practices, the overarching theme of these discussions were rude staff members and library directors who didn't do anything about them.  Don't get me wrong we've talked about lots of stuff from cats in libraries, how the dewey decimal system drives our patrons crazy, to patrons who come in with poo on thier shoes and how to deal with them.

jessi



>
> Forgive me for not joining in this rant. I find it quite amazing
> that so many people on this list seem to have encountered so many rude
> staff members in public libraries. In the 30 years that I was closely
> involved in libraries (and I only retired a year and half ago!), I
> never met these rude people. And yet, from reading this thread, I
> gather that many on this list believe rudeness to be pervasive in
> public libraries, caused by the ineptitude of administration and the
> recalcitrance of unions.
>
> Come to think of it, I did have one staff member who started to lean
> in this direction. She left the library not too long after. Don't
> know where she ended up. Not in a library.
>
> Come on people, lighten up. Librarians are really pretty good people.
>
> Judi Crowley
>
> Retired
>
> Quoting Tony Ross :
> "Were the public library a business like any other, these rude staff
> members would have been fired long ago. Why don't public libraries deal
> with rude or ineffectual staff?"
>
> My impression is that there are a few different reasons:
>
> 1) Many systems are unionized, and that can often mean that there are
> very specific parameters about what is "actionable" and what isn't.
> Fuzzy things like "rudeness" can be very hard to address.
>
> 2) Along the same lines, even in non-unionized systems, the guidelines
> for taking action can be very onerous and time-intensive. The people in
> management positions who have the authority to "write up" poor
> performance or behavior are often trying to juggle a gazillion things
> and may not see the hours and hours spent on paperwork/meetings to
> address poor behavior as worthwhile. (Personally, I think that's taking
> the short view, since one bad apple can kill morale for all the staff,
> and it's worth taking whatever time needed to deal with such problems.)
>
> 3) Warning: huge generalization coming... Librarians, as a profession,
> tend to be confrontation-averse compared to the general population. As
> a result, sometimes librarians who are in authority positions may be
> less willing to have the difficult conversations required to change
> poor performance/behavior.
>
> 4) In some systems, there may be hiring freezes (official or
> unofficial) that prevent you from replacing any staff you lose for any
> reason. So, the thinking might be that it's better to have an FTE with
> a bad attitude than no FTE at all...
>
> I should note that I'm not a supervisor, and have no direct experience
> with any of the above, but it's definitely a topic of conversation
> among staff in my system.
>
> T. Ross
>
> -------------------------
>
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