9 to 5*--what a way to (sort of) make a living.
I deeply apologize for the thirteen months I haven't written a word. One day is melding into another, and frankly it's getting harder for me to care.
In my last post, I wrote about the state of the Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library, and what chaos existed a year ago. I looked over that post and realized absolutely nothing had changed--and wasn't going to as long as I was working here.
A) The lighting in the stacks is truly awful. It's made for the warehouse it is and no visible attempt has been made to improve it. No improvement.
B) The fiction stacks are, frankly, a jumbled mess. They have one person doing shelf reading, so he may be done by the time we move back to Powell Street. It's to the point where I'm going to refuse to pull fiction titles for ILL shipments until the management gaggle (I hesitate to call them a team) gets their collective shit together and comes up with a plan. Yes, we've been in this location for over two months, and it's nowhere close to being realized. My guess is that it'll be 2026 before that happens. Welp, it's September 2026 and while the fiction stacks are settled and properly signed (!!!), the juvenile fiction and non-fiction isn't.
C) There's no map for patrons to find things, and directional signs and shelf signage are out of date and incomplete. More frustration. That hasn't changed, either. Juvenile Fiction? one sign on each side of the stacks area, with no alphabetical signage. Adult non-fiction? The signage is a joke. Still out of sync with the actual collection. Worse, various entities move whole collections and don't inform the other departments. Biographies have been re-arranged at least twice. Short Story collections are now a separate department off away from the 800s in their own little back corner of the stacks, right next to audiobooks and oversize items. I wouldn't have known if I hadn't had to go looking for items in those categories.
I complain to my supervisor, but he offers no real solutions. No one does here. They all keep doing their own thing and pat themselves on the back when something works. In spite of my best efforts, I'm still "saying 'yes sir' to Klinger" (M*A*S*H, season 11, episode 14, 1983). No one listens. No one cares. I keep telling my wife that when they hire someone younger and prettier for my job, they will promptly get all the training they require to both the ILL Librarian AND Clerk's position. Just wait and see. Silly people don't know their own silly business--or just don't like me.
This place obviously never heard of Ranganathan's fourth rule of libraries: "SAVE THE TIME OF THE READER"--or library worker--or researcher--or library professional. Libraries would do well to review, remember, and apply Ranganathan's rules for libraries, and not self-congratulate themselves into obsolescence. Are you listening? Anybody?
*--Dolly Parton, music and lyrics; 9 to 5 and other odd jobs. Originally released in 1980, it became the title track for the 1980 movie of the same name.
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