Satire or Serious? Librarian Edition

Click on the link in the header, and answer me this--do you think that letter writer is being serious?

I do. And that letter disturbs me. It disturbs me that there's someone out there who will brag that she can't afford a damn second banana because she is so self-sacrificing. It disturbs me that American Libraries would publish that letter as matter of factly as it does. And it disturbs me that librarians recognize it immediately as being serious, because we all know someone who is like that and recognize that that attitude is encouraged and rewarded within the profession.

I have said before that I don't see myself going back to being a librarian, especially since I made 20% than I would as an entry level professional. Yes, I have a mercenary side, but I also like the validation that my pink collar combination of hard analytical skills combined with the ability to get people to talk to me and trust me has value. Because too often when your skills fall into that dimension, your mental fallback is that the only thing you can do other than whatever job you currently have is be a secretary or work at Sonic.

When the meeting about layoffs happened, The Auditor General explained why she made the decision to cut jobs instead of trying to cut salaries or do furloughs. One of the reasons really struck me--she said in the future, if and when things get better, she can go back to the legislature and ask for funding to replace people due to need. She can't go back and get them to raise our pay when we sold ourselves cheaply and easily. (I'm paraphrasing here, but you get the drift).

And that increased my respect and trust for her. And my gratitude that I wound up in this job, which I still regard as a bit of a fluke.

Because in the library world, we're often treated poorly by the people we serve. We're also treated poorly by our leaders. They raise their hands and say "What can I do?" as they deprofessionalize positions, cry they can't raise salaries, spend endless times in committees and meetings that take years to accomplish nothing, and then say they can't find adequate applicants and continually recruit for the MLS.

Good people with strong work ethics and skills are worthy of respect. It's not entitled or arrogant to think that you have worth. What's arrogant is treating people badly and thinking they'll stick around for it.