Ugh

[owlmoose]

This is not a good time to be reading library news blogs. Closures, layoffs, unpaid furloughs. Yet another reason to add to the list of why I'm glad I didn't go into the public library sector.

Why, when people need the services a library can provide more than ever, are they the target of the most ferocious budget cuts? I will never understand.

Comments

[pearlrose86]

Ouch. I die a little inside every time I read the blogs, because I'm hoping to break into the field in about nine months or less.

It's going to be the death of me, I think. I wanted to go into the public library sector, but at this rate, I'm beginning to think almost anything would be tolerable. (That it's come to that depresses me slightly.)

[owlmoose]

I'm sure that, as disconcerting as all this is for me, it must be a whole lot scarier for you and everyone else in library school right now. Definitely keep your options open -- any library or information-related job will be good experience. I actually did the dotcom thing for the first few years after graduating, and that worked out well for me. But don't give up hope, either. Even in the grimmest economy, there *are* jobs out there.

[pearlrose86]

Sometimes, okay most of the time, it's pretty overwhelming. The problem with knowing how to find job hunting information is well, I think I find too much of it sometimes, and it's hard to wrap my head around what wants which information, and who belongs where, that kind of thing. And the more disconcerting it is when your first half-dozen choices are under a freeze at best.

Mmm, I really want to work in a library, and being a GA puts the pressure on to find something else quickly, since I don't have fallback options in regards to continued work at FSU. I'd work not-in-a library, but...I have to figure out where to begin with that first. I'm so terrible at "selling myself" and "being charismatic at interviews" that it's even harder for me not to get discouraged.

One step at a time, though. Starting with my current wreck of a resume. At least I have two semesters.

All Free Philadelphia libraries closing, effective 2 October

[giandujabird]

http://consumerist.com/5358416/philadelphia-to-close-public-libraries-+-all-of-them-+-october-2nd

and

http://libwww.freelibrary.org/closing/

YOW.

Re: All Free Philadelphia libraries closing, effective 2 October

[owlmoose]

This came up at dinner last night. :\ I tend to think it's a power play by the library system to spur their users into pressuring the state legislature, but it is certainly possible that they would have to follow through with it, for a time at least. Truly frightening.