Librarians and the job market

The career of librarian was recently written up in usnews.com as one of the best careers for 2009. Please note that the rosy view painted in this article is true to a certain extent. However the Norman Rockwellian glow hovering over this article is a bit misleading as libraries are, and will continue, to suffer as a result of the economic issues the nation is experiencing. Municipal libraries suffer greatly because their budget is typically tied directly to the county or city in which they are located. School libraries must fight to retain their own budget levels while continuing to explore methods to remain relevant and interesting to the students. Academic libraries face rising subscription prices, lowering budgets and what seems to be a rising view of the collegiate population that libraries are less than useful with the convenience of the internet so close at hand.
Being a librarian requires grit and grace. It can be rewarding but it's going to take some serious effort and time to see those rewards pay off.

300 posts!

Well, this is actually my 301st which is much more than I ever expected to write. Admittedly the bulk of these are from article postings from the NYT and other places. I plan to be writing more here this year which hopefully will prove interesting and helpful.
1)John Oliff, a professor of Greek and theology at PBU has begun a blog that should definitely be checked out. The blog is Mere Student and is promising to be excellent from the several posts that have been written.
2) IF:Book posted this interview with Helen Dewitt, the author of The Last Samurai. This interview is a really interesting take on the writing process and the rather brutal toll it seems to take on the writer's art. Ms. Dewitt does a fantastic job in this essay/interview to balance the sting and maddening spiral of the editing process with an ironic and cheeky tone. Well worth the read.

2008 in Review (at least from my perspective)

My list of best and worst things of 2008
Because it is that time that everyone and their mother's cousin write lists about what they liked/loved/hated in the year, I felt the blurge to join in. (Blurge is a conglomeration of the words "blog" and "urge". The word captures the urge to blog about something essentially meaningless i.e. "I am blurging to write about the snow falling.")
I initially thought about creating a top X number of music or books but that has been done so many times this month it seemed a bit excessive and superfluous. The funniest part of these lists is that at least in my case they seem to revolve around the last six months as mental recall seems to fail at any point past that.

Best thing on TV I discovered this year:
Austin City Limits (Gnarls Barkley is surprisingly good live on television; Thievery Corporation is ridiculously good live; Norah Jones is surprisingly boring.)

My top bands of 2008:
Bon Iver-For Emma Forever Ago
Fleet Foxes--Fleet Foxes/Sun Giant
Okkervil River--The Stand-Ins ( I heard Will Sheff DJ on NPR With Bob Boilen. Amazing range of musical influences and knowledge. Excellent session)
Horse Feathers-House with No Name (stellar!)
I would probably include Margo and the Nuclear So and So's but I haven't heard the whole album yet; my bad!

The one band I really, really hope releases an album in 2009:
MeWithoutYou (They went into the studio in Sept.)

Blogs/Podcasts
First Monday Podcast and Journal AJ Hanna and Joy Austria are fantastic, witty, brilliant and informed. I faithfully listen to their podcast every month, at least once usually twice to make sure I got it all, and I seriously appreciate the range of scholars and opinions they bring through their podcast. Their sessions with Lawrence Lessig and Bloodshot Records this winter were really awesome)
NPR All Songs Considered Podcast (Bob Boilen is a walking, breathing musical encyclopedia with impeccable taste. My favorites podcasts are the ones where Bob Boilen, Carrie Brownstein, (Monitor Mix blogger), Stephen Thompson (editor for Song of the Day), and Robin Hilton (All Songs producer and host of Second Stage) get together and talk about music. I listened to The Year in Review:2008 twice in a row laughing out loud multiple times. This group did a great job with SXSW as well. Great music; great interviews and good opinions. One of the other best sessions was the Bon Iver concert from SXSW; brilliant!
WOXY.com (These guys do an excellent job; good interviews, about 4-5 songs per session, good sound balance, really wide and awesome mix of bands. They make me want to move to Cincinnati.)

Librarian.net: Awesome library blog; diverse and informed.
In the Library with the Lead Pipe:This is also a great library blog which ties connections to library practice and other thought processes; excellent.
LibraryJuice: Great name, great concept. Titled with "On the intersection of libraries, politics and culture" and definitely meets that title quite well. Did I mention that they are also a publishing press? They have some great titles that I am eager to read, check it out here.

Best Books I read in 2008
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -- Jonathan Safran Foer
Control Revolution -- James Beniger
The Life of the Mind -- James Schall
Surprised by Hope -- N.T. Wright
More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Metaphor -- George Lakoff and Mark Turner
Metaphors We Live By -- George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
A Mighty Heart -- Marianne Pearl
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again -- David Foster Wallace
A Dove Descending -- Thomas Howard
Jesus of Hollywood -- Adele Reinhartz


Excellent Coffee
Paradise Roaster's (These guys are super, timely and caring customer service, quick shipping, amazing and top-shelf selections of coffee. I would highly encourage a purchase of their coffee. It's good for your as well as being a spot-on sophisticated gift!!)

Personally exciting
New job as Director of Library Services at Davis College.

Personally horrible:
Not selling our home so that during the week my wife is living in Phila while I live in Binghamton, NY. Anybody want to buy a house, that would make our year!

Merry Christmas! Peace.

Consider the Philosopher

This is an article about David Foster Wallace whom I was not at all familiar or even aware of until his death this past September. However it was not until last week when I came across his commencement speech given at Kenyon in May 2005, that I realized this is someone I need to read. I'm currently his collection of essays entitled A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. Wallace is brilliant in this book and reading the NY Times article above continues to demonstrate this brilliance. I have not yet read any of his fictional works but they are now on my list. It is Wallace's careful and thoughtful handling of language and demonstrating continued appreciation for its power without succumbing to love of language for its own sake.

Turning 100 at Carnegie Hall, With New Notes

Happy Birthday Mr. Carter

“I’d rather hear them play good contemporary music than old music,” he said of the performers devoted to his wworks...20th-century composers “have a spark” and convey “what it is like to be living now,” he [Elliot Carter] said." Bravo sir!

Good News for NY State Libraries

I received this email a couple minutes ago. (I did actually advocate from my desk on behalf of this so this is really excellent. Also this effects our grant money from NY State so hopefully we will get that soon. Now only if Phila would get their act together...)

"Dear Library Advocate,
I want to let you know that your participation in NYLA's advocacy efforts has helped release $26 million in undistributed Library Aid from the approved 2008-09 State Budget. 
As you know, the state was holding onto the undistributed funds pending an agreement with the state Legislature on further mid-year budget cuts.   Since those cuts were not agreed to by the state Legislature (and the NYLA Library Rally on November 18th impacted that decision), the remaining funds have been authorized to be released.   These undistributed funds include aid for the NYC libraries, library systems, Conservation and Preservation Program, Indian Libraries and Coordinated Collection Development Aid (CCDA)  for college libraries.
So thanks again to all of you in the library community who joined us in advocating on behalf of all libraries.  United we stand, divided we fall!
Stay tune for further NYLA Legislative Alerts. The Governor will be releasing his 2009-10 Executive Budget next week on December 16th, and there will be more work for NYLA and library advocates to do.  In addition, President-Elect Obama and Congress are discussing an economic stimulus package for public works projects and we are working with ALA to insure that libraries receive their fair share of any stimulus package.

Michael J. Borges
Executive Director
New York Library Association"