Dear Frank

This is an open letter to the CEO of Library Systems & Services regarding his flagrantly disrespectful statement about library employees.  I was turned onto this story by the wonderful people over at Unshelved who do a great job helping the rest of us keep up on library issues and humor.


Mr. Pezzanite,

I am about to graduate from the University of Washington MLIS program and will be working as a professional librarian very soon.  I have also worked in libraries most of my working life.  I have never worked in a library that was not understaffed and overworked with the many services that we provided to our local communities.

After reading about your company in the New York Times article "Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries" I found myself very disquieted.  I was appalled by this quote in particular:

"A lot of libraries are atrocious," Mr. Pezzanite said. “Their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work.”

Your assertion that public library employees don't work hard to give the best service possible just dosen't coincide with any of my personal experience or that of other librarians I have spoken with.  Statements of this sort degrade my work environment by continuing the myth that private industry can always do things more efficiently than government and by encouraging the communities I serve to expect more than I and my staff can possibly give of our time, energy and low salary.  All the librarians I know do the work for the love of it not for the pay check or some cushy job with a pension.  We often demand certain benefits in exchange for our hard work and taking the lowest pay of any master's degree field. But we are NOT lazy nor do we expect to simply show up for 35 years to hang out in a library and get a nice pension out of it.

You are sadly misinformed and I hope that your staff (who I am sure work quite hard) let you know just how repugnant such statements are.

Sincerely,

Tiny Feminist in My Head

MLIS Student

New project

I've decided to embark on a new website project: How-to be an Adult in Portland.  This came to me as I prepared to buy a house with my husband and some long time friends.  I discovered that there were many things I knew nothing about and thought a website that aggregated resources would be nice.

This project also gives me the chance to put together a website that I can use for my MLIS Portfolio.  I will aggregate and organize information based on subject, source and economic requirements of the resource (low-income only vs. need substantial income).  I will also link to this blog from the website and hopefully keep information about my progress up to date here.

Here is a diagram of roughly what I'd like to do:

Justice is not Weak

Dear Mark and Billo,

I'm a liberal and I'm not weak.  I will not role over when you bully me, I will not cede my rights to your "morality".  And if you think that aggression will get you your way, then you are sadly mistaken.  I will dig in my heals and fight you.  I will be respectful and diligent and I will leave no stone unturned until your uncivilized behavior wreaks its havoc on your own goals.  You DO NOT hold the moral high ground for you use threat and violence to scare people into doing your will.  You are tyrants and will fall to the greater will when you have bullied too many.  I am a civil servant and I will fight for civil society despite the threats the you muster for I work for the common good and do not care for fame, infamy or ratings.  I am  Librarian, hear me roar!

I recently ran into a podcast from a Wisconsin conservative radio host (Mark Belling) that railed against liberals being weak because they push for due process and restrictions on torture in terrorism cases.  He says that he could shut down the terrorists in Yemen by torturing the information out of Mutallab (the Christmas Day bomber) and others.

Here's the thing -- I'm not weak.  The reason that I don't want my government to torture people is not out of some touchy feely sympathy, it because it DOESN'T WORK.  If we could get good, actionable intelligence that saved lives by doing totally egregious things to people I might consider it an option, but we can't.  What works is skillful interrogations that take into consideration the life experience and cultural background of the person being questioned.

The other major reason that I can't abide torture and other suspension of rights is that an innocent person caught in this has no hope.  The rules are in place because innocence isn't always clear and the innocent should never by unjustly imprisoned or tormented.  I understand that he wants to "save American lives" at any cost, but he has not considered what abridging others' right could mean to his in time.  We are all vulnerable to political whim if we destroy our system of due process and while the conservatives may have been on top for the last decade, this is not a permanent state and they are deluding themselves if they theink they are beyond the reach of wrongful imprisonment and torture.

Unfortunately the same mindset that thinks torture is a good idea also seems to lead to generally aggressive behavior that becomes very evident in customer service situations.  The customer becomes angry, aggressive and belligerent, they give orders without any respect for process.  This attitude generally leads to one outcome: dissatisfaction.  Why? Because no matter how much I want to help my customers and no matter what liberal views I have about people the fastest way to make me clam up and be my most unhelpful is to be mean to me.

Mark and Billo seem to think that aggressive behavior will get them the things they want in life and that the liberals in this country will role over out of fear.  I admit that elected officials do that most of the time when they run up against any resistance, but for the rest of the civil servants, we are sick of bullies and we will not stand for it.