In Which I Feel Rage, But Mostly Just Sick And Bored Of It All

Oh, THE RAGE, as my friend Mandy would say. Why are librarians so...arrrrgghhh! Frustrating. Dumb. Oblivious. Self-righteous. Pompous. Annoying.

It's coming from my alma mater's listserv these days. First it was a fellow who in all seriousness wondered if he could count a webcomic as his "scholarly publishing" requirement once he hit the big time as an academic librarian. I restrained myself from responding that if he wanted to write webcomics, he should do so (and Jeph Jacques manages to do it as a fulltime job!) and why the hell was he getting a MLIS then or that no, a webcomic isn't what most academic institutions consider a scholarly publication contributing to the body of research and knowledge about the profession. Even if your webcomic presents your findings about federated searching and student populations or bibliometric analysis. And frankly, who the hell would read that?

Oh, it gets better.

So in case you haven't heard, Sarah Palin was of the mind to ban books and fire the librarian when she got elected mayor of Wasilla. Pro-Palin, con-Palin, whatever political affiliations my 5 readers have, I don't care--it is a big deal, and she scares the shit out of me on general principles. So now we've been inundated on the list by people posting links and stories, getting in a huff about "that's not appropriate!" and my favorite "Stop cluttering the listserv with your comments and wasting my time." And when I say inundated, I mean 12 posts over 3 days.

For the love of Mike.

So I am going to have to drop that listserv like I dropped the new librarians, because I just can't take it.

So I have to wonder, as my best options for employment are increasingly coming from non-library sources and the more time I spend away from working in libraries and the more my frustration level with them increases and I worry that my skill level is decreasing--why should I bother? Face it, getting rejected for jobs in your field sucks, and after a while it feels like chasing after a guy who doesn't want you. What would you say to that girl? GO FIND ANOTHER GUY WHO WILL APPRECIATE YOU, right?

"But Kerry," you may ask, "didn't you go through this dilemma in your romantic life? And didn't you just wind up with a crush that has lasted 14 years now, a relapsing and remitting malarial fever of lust and regret?" To which I reply, "YES. AND THANK YOU FOR BRINGING IT UP."