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Monday, September 5, 2011

ALA: It's So Hard to Say Goodbye...

ALA, I'm not going to lie to you and say that, "It isn't you, it's me," but it really is you.

At first I thought we could have a good, mutually beneficial relationship but then I realized that our beliefs and personality just do not match up.

First, you fell for that book burning troll, NEVER FEED THE TROLLS.  I cannot believe you wasted time on him.

You don't seem to have a sense of humor at all.  If you can't take a joke from Jay Leno, I really doubt you can appreciate/handle the librarian jokes on 'Parks and Rec,' and your last April Fool's Joke was utterly miserable.

Also, I think you purposely don't tell the whole truth.  You tell people to pursue an MLIS because of the "graying of the profession" but I personally find that to be pretty deceiving.  The economy has been in the tank for awhile now and library budgets are still being cut left and right, yet you still pretend that there will be jobs for every librarian out there as well as for future prospects.  Yes, there are a lot of librarians who are reaching retirement age, but 1.) they are staying longer in those positions because of the economy and 2.) if/when they retire a lot of those positions are not being refilled.  I believe in being hopefully realistic, not deceivingly delusional.

I also feel like you don't reciprocate much.  You know that MLIS's can be pretty expensive and that the vast majority of librarians do not bank 6 figures.  So why are your fees for everything so damn high??  You would think you'd look out for those that you claim to speak up for.

Lastly, you've given me another example of libraries hating trees.  You've sent me 4 of these thick renewal letters in the past few months.  If I didn't respond to the first two, you should have taken that as a hint.  Sure, we may see each other in the future at a conference but other than that just let it go.

2 comments:

  1. Don't feel too bad. I left ALA a while back as well, and much of it were reasons you mention here. Overall, I don't think they pay much attention to librarians unless they come from well-heeled libraries or they have celebrity status.

    Best, and keep on blogging.

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  2. Hey A.L.E.,

    In all honesty, some of the 'realest' advice I have ever gotten about the profession have come from librarians like yourself, they gave ALA a chance but in the end realized it wasn't what it's all cracked up to be.

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