Nothing Fresh

My old friends Anonymous have been commenting lately that they don't love me anymore, or something like that. I haven't been paying that much attention, to be honest. But I get the comments via email, and every couple of days take a look at them. And so I hear that "this blog is dying." Well, that may be. I'm not sure what makes a blog living or dying. I'm not posting much lately, and don't know when I will be, but then again there's always the 400 or so posts in the archives. Lots of stuff there.

But maybe it's not dying. Here's another comment: "This blog is not dying. It is just going into hiatus because all the beautiful people are getting geared up to go to ALA and then have a relaxed summer while the academics take a MUCH deserved break. People in the real world will still be working and doing what it takes, but of course we are no where near the cutting edge like the AL. We are just martini less peons."

I'm not sure why it is, but the AL always seems to bring out the resentment in librarians. It's true, we beautiful people are getting ready for ALA, and that in itself is annoying, especially since it's going to be in Anaheim, which from what I've heard is a city without a city. However, I'll have to report on that when I get back. I love the snarky remark about the "real world," wherever that is. "Working and doing what it takes," indeed. It's just a library. We're not saving lives here. It sounds like the "real world" is that place where people work crappy jobs and complain about their lot instead of bettering themselves. Oh well, nothing to do with me.

Part of the problem is that there's just nothing fresh to get annoyed about. The regressive librarians have remained blessedly silent recently. Not much talk about how they're going to socialize the world one library card at a time. The twopointopians are becoming so tedious they're even putting themselves to sleep. How many pictures can one post of library signage before the thrill is gone?

There are some things that might annoy people, such as these "wacky" librarians, but this seems less something to be annoyed about and more something that just makes it embarrassing to be in the same profession, if one can call it a profession.

So you see, the problem with writing a reactionary blog is that one must have something to react to, and it's just a slow period for annoyances. I'm still getting some stuff through the mail, but it's often more of the same old annoyances, fun to read but nothing you haven't heard before. Bad jobs and worse jobs, mostly, though there was the part-time temporary librarian job at a church where one of the duties was to "pray for librarian program and volunteers." I wondered how one might be evaluated on that. "The library program has failed, which means either that you weren't praying or that your prayers were not efficacious. Either way, you're fired."

Thus, if I find something annoying, I'll post about it, but don't get your knickers in a twist. This is only a blog, after all. Enjoy the summer. Lounge about the park. Read a book. Have a martini. I've had a lot of fun writing the AL, but one does start to wonder if anything in librarianship is even worth getting annoyed about. Maybe out in the "real world."