I’m Perky!
One commenter over at The Annoyed Librarian is apparently “disgusted” because I write “perkily about a dying profession.” (I’ll know I’ve made it in the biblioblogosphere when the AL targets me her own self, but will take it! I don’t think anyone’s ever described me as “perky” before, though; it makes me feel all rah-rah-rah.) Meanwhile, on newlib, a perennially disgruntled poster suggests that I write a book on “The Librarian’s Guide to Marrying Rich.”
I’ve gotten somewhat used to people slamming my writing and points of view — the NextGen book pretty much brought that to a head, and one of the points of writing professionally is to stir up discussion. I find it fascinating, though, when people object to the very idea of someone writing positively about professional issues — this seems to say more about their personal problems than about the work itself.
Over at Get Rich Slowly, a personal finance blog, J.D. occasionally posts on topics like “You Are Your Own Worst Enemy” — or, basically, on people’s inability to get “unstuck,” to take the steps they need to take to get out of debt, budget for the future, solve their personal finance problems. We face similar issues in librarianship: Yes, maybe the librarian shortage was overstated when you went to school, maybe the job market sucks in your geographical area, maybe you’re woefully underpaid in your current job, maybe your current workplace is tradition-bound and bureaucratic and enervating.
So, how do you get unstuck?
Spending precious time and energy blaming your library school, the ALA, or even me might feel good, but it’s fairly unproductive. At a certain point you need to take responsibility for getting yourself unstuck, for moving your career forward, for taking the steps you need to take. Maybe that means moving. Maybe that means changing careers or looking for alternative ways you can use your library degree. Maybe it means taking a crap-paying job for a couple of years to gain the experience you need to move up. Maybe it means getting someone to look at your resume and cover letters and give you advice on why you may not be getting interviews. Maybe it means taking online courses or learning how to design web pages or making professional connections or otherwise gaining the skills you need to become more marketable. Whatever it may be in your particular situation: make it your new year’s resolution to take one step toward getting unstuck.
I can’t apologize for writing “perkily” about this profession — I chose it for a reason, and most of my writing and online activity has one goal: to help people get unstuck and move forward professionally. It’s all here when anyone’s ready to listen.
Courtney M:
Rachel,
Thank you for your “perky” writing. It’s nice to hear a positive, encouraging voice, and this profession needs it. As one entering the profession, I have appreciated your writing. Hearing a positive voice has encouraged me to stick with it when I had second thoughts, and I’m glad I’ve stuck to it.
Yes, you have arrived when AL goes after you. Kudos to you!
28 December 2007, 4:02 pmBob Watson:
Some folks apparently think a profession should be easy. Not so, if you’re attacking the problems.
Keep up the good work, Rachel.
29 December 2007, 4:48 pmJanieH:
While I sympathize with recent library school graduates and their difficulty to find work in many cases, I also agree that sometimes drastic measures are needed to get “unstuck”. I graduated from library school at a time when library jobs were extremely scarce in Ontario (Canada).
I spent months applying to jobs all over the place and did not get a nibble. So I went to ALA Annual in NYC (spent over $1000 to do so of my own $) and interviewed for 3 days straight. End result: 3 solid job offers within a month. That was the best $1000.00 I ever spent. I took a crap paying job and emigrated to a new country, but I knew it was temporary and sucked it up. I know that not everyone is mobile, but sometimes we just need to take a leap of faith with our careers.
30 December 2007, 11:18 pmThe Liminal Librarian » Blog Archive » Call for Contributors: Getting Unstuck:
[...] thinking more about perkiness and being stuck, I decided to make “getting unstuck” the theme of an upcoming issue of Info Career [...]
6 January 2008, 10:09 pmShelley:
People who complain and point fingers are going to do that in any situation. I’m currently trying to get unstuck and it is frustrating, but I’m certainly prepared to do what it takes. JanieH – I love how you attended ALA to get what you wanted. If I don’t hear from someone, soon, I might just steal your idea.
The awesome thing about this website is that you don’t have to do it, but you do. Thanks for that, Rachel. I visit your site daily and have done so for years.
16 January 2008, 6:48 pmSuzanne:
Anyone who chooses to become a librarian chooses a low paying field. If you haven’t done research into what the field pays, and what the full-time job outlook is in your preferred geographical area, you’re not really librarian material!
The ALA recommends a minimum starting salary of $40,000, but I will have to work in my current job for at least four years to get up to that rate. I work in a major metropolitan area, in a town where the median home value is over $280,000. With my salary, I could not qualify for a mortgage.
I knew all this before I even started to research MLIS programs, and I made the best choice for me.
5 February 2008, 1:43 pmPaige Fujisue:
Thank you for your work Rachel,
I can understand why people can get frustrated with things and with life in general, but to direct a personal (and snide) attack on someone for being positive/perky/whatever(!) that I don’t understand. And thank you for your grace and compassion to redirect people’s energies to something that can be fruitful for them. Not only that, but you’ve laid out specific courses of action to make it a little easier for them. I applaud you for that Rachel, don’t let ‘em get you down! =)
13 February 2008, 9:26 pmBuckeye:
Thanks so much for this post. I’ve just accepted a new job and its not great in pay or location but in experience and chance to get unstuck – Wow!
16 April 2008, 7:47 amI’m trying to be perky and hopeful and doing what I can to stay alive and growing in this profession I love. Viva libraries!
Bennie Visher III:
Suzanne considers librarianship “a low paying field.” But the librarian profession pays significantly more than many clerical jobs!
As for JanieH’s comment that “we just need to take a leap of faith with our careers,” I concur. That is why some persons who are frustrated with the state of the librarian job market in 2009 ought to leave the librarian profession permanently. This extreme approach can only help such individuals to get work for the long haul.
Hopefully, I helped someone to get “unstuck” from the malaise.
7 April 2009, 11:40 amJason Castle:
It is most unfortunate but true. After spending about 15 years in this profession, I have decided to leave Librarianship and take my skills and myself to a higher level. To begin with, the profession is generally not managed well. While librarians are generally well educated in the libral arts, they lack – as a group – significant training in management and the sciences. While some librarians are naturally good managers, many others do not have the background, training or experience to manage their organizations well.
Often, as many new graduates are finding out, library funding is one of the first expenditures to be limited in a business cycle correction. Superimposed on all of this is the rush to substitute information technology for professionaly trained librarians; and when people are required, the tendency is to use para-professionals in an effort to reduce costs.
Those who would seek a tenured position in an Academic library are often attracted to the prospects for tenure and for the security that tenure affords. Obtaining tenure is another matter entirely. University administrators are moving toward a more flexible staffing arrangement that holds at the center of this model, the increased use of: adjunct, part-time and temporary workers, both in and outside the library science field.
Employees that find university – based work under this arrangement, may not have medical or pension benefits that previous generations of librarians enjoyed.
Information technology and the Internet is at the heart of a rapid deconstruction of the library profession. Engineering, accounting and medical professionals for example have increasing access to vast amounts of information delivered to the desktop; librarians are being increasingly cut out of the process. Since most librarians are not trained in business, management or the sciences, they will not be looked upon as co-equals by university professors that are trained, to the level of the Ph.D in business, mathematics or the sciences. Infact it is this very group of academicians who tell the provost – behind closed doors – “that much of what is used is now avaliable over the net; So why tenure a librarian who is not trained in my field, In fact you give me that money for a laboratory, and I will conduct research that may generate patents and possibly a corporate spin-off.”
Considering the blistering pace at which information and computer technology is enabeling people, outside of the traditional library setting, to gain access to digitized information, the library profession is a bad bet for those
who are looking for a career.
Poor management, decreased funding and the increasing capability of computer and information technology is generating a critical mass of complications that Library associations, library schools and librarians are simply not equipped to handle. If your thinking of going to library school…save your money and your time and find another profession. If you are already in the profession and are in a good steady position with benefits, pension, etc great.
If you are bouncing from one poorly paid library position to the next,or if you are working without medical or pension benefits, leave and find another profession that values your skills. Today, I manage a store for a large supermarket. My cataloging skills are being put to fine use and I make a living that is dependable, with all of the fringe benefits, including stock-options.
Let’s fact it……it’s the end of an era.
Good Luck!
6 April 2010, 3:44 pmJason