The tyranny of distance...

So, I was having some interesting exchanges on twitter following my last post, where a couple of points were made to me, the first being that organisations need to change to stay relevant, and sometimes that means disruptions to staff, which is unfortunate but necessary - referring to the case of moving staff from the CBD to the outer suburbs.

To which I say, we're talking about the lives of real people here. Whilst the industry is fairly unstable, it's not so dire that we will take any old job we can get. Furthermore, there are staff who would have quit their old jobs for that inner-city role. I mean, cutting an hour or two of travel every day is as good as a pay rise! Not to mention the improvement to one's quality of life, living and working close to the centre of town. It's a major factor in the decisions we make about our jobs and the homes we buy / rent, and to substantially change that is a huge imposition on a person, affecting their mental health, attitudes and feelings of being valued by the employer. And now, many of those people are going to be considering new jobs elsewhere, and generally unhappy at work, which also impacts on the wider workplace. It's not just a case of people being fussy about distance, and whinging unnecessarily!

The second point made was that often, overlooking distance and taking jobs at a farther or less desirable location can open up your career prospects, and be a fast-track to developing valuable skills and experience.

Now this is something I can relate to! Moving to Darwin as a new graduate, I learnt heaps in a couple of years about collection development, digitisation, staff management, events programming and team leadership, not to mention a unique set of knowledge about Australia's heritage in the Top End. Things I would never had the opportunity to learn in Melbourne as a new graduate looking for that first professional role.

Others I know have gone overseas and worked on International Development projects to build and hone their skills and experience.

BUT...

The problem is in the return to "reality" - that is, coming back to Melbourne and establishing oneself in a similar role with the same levels of expertise and challenges. It seems that we work in an industry where context is king, and just because you were able to lead a team or head a project in a regional or remote location, doesn't necessarily mean you can do the same thing in a more urban setting. Apparently. But here's a roster of reference desk shifts and shelving duties, if you don't mind! Try again once you've worked in our organisation for 3-5 years.

Or you could go interstate / overseas again...

When it sucks to be a librarian...

There's been a bit of bad news popping up amongst my librarian friends at the moment... in one case, a substantial number of them are being relocated from their Inner-City campus library to another campus in freaking ZONE TWO - adding over an hour of extra travel each day to work

Another - at Melbourne University - was told yesterday that the university needed to cut 540 "administrative jobs" - which included members of the library teams. This is despite the fact that the Vice Chancellor Glyn Davis has already indicated that once University fees are deregulated with the 2014 Budget, fees will be increased by up to 61%.

I couldn't help but feel a little guilty about my recent reckless attitude to employment - although, working in Melbourne anywhere outside of Zone One is a deal breaker for me, regardless of my career ambitions.

I often find it annoying and somewhat bewildering that there are so many articles and presentations where librarians are obsessed with their image and public perception. It seems ridiculous to me that any profession should feel the need to justify their existence as a profession, and frankly, it's almost pathetic when they get obsessed over traditional stereotypes of being old-fashioned and bookish.

Similarly, when I hear librarians talk about needing to have an "elevator pitch" to promote libraries, which phrases like "They're not just about books anymore!" I can't help but think, "You're trying to hard." Just do your job well, and people will appreciate the profession work that you do, and value the service that your library provides.

And yet, when these staff are seemingly dismissed as expendable admin staff - purely an overhead cost that needs to be trimmed - then I start to think that maybe image and perception is an important thing.

The only problem is that when it's us librarians making all the noise, it sounds like we're only doing it to serve our own interests - after all, it's our jobs that are on the line. We need to find our own champions - outside of the library - to advocate on our behalf, and get active when libraries and their professional staff get slashed.

So, don't just get angry when these things happen - spread the word so that others can get angry too. For starters, there's a petition here to protest the changes happening at Melbourne University. It's more than our jobs on the line - our students deserve a quality education.

The path more or less travelled...

So, last week I quit my job. Yes, the job that I've been in for a total of four and a half months.

It's a strange feeling, especially in this financial climate, to be giving up what some people would call a dream job - a permanent position, 20 minutes walk from the CBD, with a decent rate of pay, and 11 weeks off a year. What's more, it's a good place to work - the staff are dedicated and the students are inspiring, with strong and empathetic leadership, and a great view of the cityscape from my desk. I certainly don't feel like I've made a sensible decision.

But at the same time, I realised from very early on in the role that this isn't a job that I could stay in for the long haul - meaning more than a couple of years. And for that reason, I felt that the most professional thing I could do is resign whilst I was still in my probationary period, and there hadn't been too much invested in me yet. I've set myself some short-term goals, and achieved a few good things, so my time there certainly hasn't been wasted.

It's strange - when I started out as a new graduate, I had this idea of my career progression - which was the traditional model of moving upwards in terms of level of skills, responsibility and, of course, salary. However, somewhere along the way I strayed onto the path less-travelled. I found that doing interesting project-based roles, and developing specialised skills in unique circumstances was far more fulfilling than working toward replacing the next person above me in the industrial hierarchy.

The thing is, everybody talks about how interesting the path less-travelled is. They never talk about what it's like when the path rejoins with the main track again; it's far less satisfying.

Fortunately, there will always be another path less-travelled to choose further down the track.

It's funny - I'm delivering a conference paper in September, and the title was originally "There and Back Again". However, due to another librarian using the same nerdy pop-culture reference for the title of their presentation, I've changed it to "The Road Goes Ever On and On."

It seems like an apt change, all things considered.

Book clubbin'

It may be a stereotype that librarians are into books, but it's one that's largely based on truth.

I'm even in a book club. Tomorrow night is book club night.

Which means that tonight is "read three quarters of the book" night.

No time to blog - must get reading.

Libraries. Because information!

Let me start by saying that I think makerspaces are awesome. I love the idea of having a space where anybody can come in and have access to technology and art supplies and can just make stuff. And they're starting to pop up here and there, which is great.

The thing that I find curious is that it's libraries that have seemed to have taken ownership of the makerspace. Which is great for makerspaces, but what does it mean for us as librarians? 

I read an article on journal article about makerspaces lately - yes, it was one of those "Breaking News: Libraries aren't just about books!" articles. The reasoning for makerspaces? Well libraries have always been about information. And makerspaces are about democratising the creative process and making creative technology accessible to all, thus promoting the free flow of information.

Just like 3D printers and gaming consoles. Pretty awesome, huh?

You know what else promotes the free flow of information? Internet access, music, films, meeting rooms, recording studios, performance spaces... and caffeine! On the weekend, I visited the opening of the new branch of the Melbourne Library Service, simply called The Dock, and it had all of the above and books! If anything were to epitomise the modern public library, it was this place.

But you know what was sadly lacking? The word "library". 

I think the "libraries are about information" argument is a little dangerous, because by definition, we could put pretty much anything in a library and it would be about the transfer of some kind of library. But the more we become about anything and everything, the less meaning we hold for ourselves as a profession. Besides, we already have the internet for that.

Maybe I'm just self-conscious, because the moment something ceases to be a library, then the value of having a librarian there will also diminish. Then again maybe, like the library, we need to cease to exist as librarians and evolve into something more awesome.

Librarians and their opinions...

Being a librarian managing a small library, it's easy to lose perpective of all the big issues in the industry. I could spend yeard in this role, buying books, managing print collections, subscribing to e-resources, and working with kids in improving their various literacies, without really feeling the need to do anything that different. It's what plenty of librarians do.

On the other hand, reading other librarians' blogs, it's easy to gain an inflated sense of professional entitlement. I could start feeling frustrated because my manager won't let me overhaul the system, install open source software, build a makerspace, set up a console gaming suite, and let people pay for printing using BitCoin! After all, this is all part of being an information profession, right? Why won't they let me do my job?!.

And everywhere along this spectrum, we have librarians, with their opinions on where best practice and innovation lies. And their opinions on other librarians, and whether they are too strident in their oushing of innovation, or whether they are holding the industry back with traditionalist views.

And I think the feal danger is the idea that there is One True Path for profession practice in the library and information industry.

When I was living in Japan, there was a saying amongst the English teachers - every situation is different (or ESID). At the time it felt like a copout excuse for not demanding a consistency of standards and conditions for workers. However, libraries are as varied as the people who frequent them. It's one thing to have principles of best practice, but the reality is that best practice is ultimately the best service you can provide for the specific needs of your patrons within the available resources.

And this is going to be different for every library that I ever work in.

So, things I blog about won't necessarily be relevant to any other librarian who reads it, and the blogs I read might not be relevant to the practice in my work. Is this a problem? Possibly - especially if we want to appear united as a profession in the services that we can provide. But our opinions are still valid, nevertheless. And who knows, we might even learn something from one another.

Getting my blog mojo back...

So... Lately I've lost my blog mojo! The only blogging that I've done lately has been for uni, and whilst it's been an interesting exploration, I've hardly felt the kind of momentum to keep me blogging.

I'm not entirely sure why... So in the spirit of lazy and uninspired blogging, here is a list of ten reason why I don't blog at the moment...

1. Can't be bothered.

2. Even if I could be bothered, I don't really have the time.

3. Even if I felt the inclination and had the time spare, I'm not sure that anybody would read it!

4. Even if people read it, I'm not entirely sure that I have anything important to say that really matters.

5. If I had something important to say, it would possibly be an exercise in frustrated ranting, and nobody likes a debbie downer.

6. Such opinion breeds contempt on both sides, and I'm not one for fighting on the internets.

7. Blogging and naval-gazing is no substitute for actions. It's a well-known fact that the more somebody blogs, the less they do.

8. Besides, library blogging is so passé, right? Does anybody do it anymore?

9. It's all been said before. Many times.

10. Nothing is new, right?

Well, it's BlogJune, and I'm going to set out to prove myself wrong on all of the above points! Hopefully the peer pressure of my fellow librarians out there will help keep me motivated, and we can have some interesting conversations...

Wish me luck!