TARDIS on "randomize"

From Director to Former Director in 5 months.

I don't know what it was, I was told, "We are getting too many complaints about you, so we are giving you a choice: resign or be fired." I chose resignation, with pay through the end of the month and all earned leave paid out then.

When I asked the nature of the complaints, I was told "I have no idea. One of the commissioners just said he's getting a lot of complaints about you and so you have to go".

So I got let go for doing my job, as the Human Resources Head stated incredulously. Commissioner in question did not run for a new term, and is outta here himself in November.

I suspect a) a member of my staff (or two?) who is being made to actually work and b) she recruited a few friends to constantly make complaints.

Now I am a statistic, among the unemployed masses roaming the streets of the State looking for work. In my case, however, I'm roaming the internet.

In everything, my motto is "God will provide". He always has.

There you have it, the latest update. Financially, we are ok, have enough in savings and checking to get us through for a good while.

Prayers, as always, is appreciated.

TARDIS controls set on Randomize, let's see where it takes us this time around.

Patriot Day, 2008, seven year remembrance

Never forget! Never surrender!

Nightmare of Eden

I have just found the giant serpent in the garden of Directorship Eden:

Paperwork!

More specifically, State Aid and E-Rate paperwork.

Dealilng with the budget was a breeze compared to this!

I was just minding my business last week when a rep from our multi-county consortium stopped by and said "Oh, by the way, here is the packet of material you have to have filled out by October 1 to make sure you get State Aid this year", and pulls out this packet of information that made her briefcase look like an inter-dimensional TARDIS-sized case inside a little-bitty outside! "You need to sign here, and here, and here, and, oh, you need to fill in the local expenditures from Oct 1, 2006 to Sept 30, 2007."

Um, where am I going to get that? I've only been here since May 1!!! The files here are a mess, totally indecipherable. The Clerk's office says, "Hum! That's interesting. I don't know if we can provide that in the form you need." 8-O

Then there is the E-Rate. I have to go back through the files for the last e-rate year (which is different from the Fiscal Year) and provide the monthly figures for all our telecommunications: internet/DSL, long distance, local, and whatever else we had.

Due by -- you guessed it -- October 1.

in short -- YIKES!

"The Director"

AP story on Library use and the economy

Take heart, financially strapped Library budgeteers! The AP published a story called

In an economic bind, families turn to libraries

It was carried (in an heavily edited form) in the Wall Street Journal. A patron pointed it out to me this morning. I passed it on via email to my County Coordinator, perhaps y'all could do the same with your budget makers.

Here are some key points (IOW, my own edited version):

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Check it out.

That's what users of public libraries are doing in record numbers these days. In an effort to stay entertained and informed without breaking the family budget, Americans across the U.S. are increasingly taking advantage of the best deal in town: everything -- books, CDs, even video game sessions -- is free.

"When the economy goes down, public library use goes up," said John Moorman, director of the Williamsburg Regional Library in Virginia.

While the trend bodes well in the long-term for libraries, whose funding depends on visits and circulation, it is placing strain on branches faced with tighter budgets as counties try to keep spending in check.

The American Library Association says usage nationwide was 10 percent higher in the past year than during the 2001 economic downturn, when it tracked a similar spike in visits and circulation. Libraries recorded 1.3 billion visits and patrons checked out more than 2 billion items from April 2007 to April 2008.

Libraries aren't only being affected by the difficult economy, they're trying to help guide patrons through it.

The Queens Library in New York, which is the highest circulation public library system in the nation, is offering seminars for people facing foreclosure. And in the small California town of Lompoc, which was hit this year by layoffs at local employers, the public library has a computer reserved for people searching and applying for jobs online.

A bad economy is also a mixed blessing for libraries.

In Bartholomew County, Ind., the public library has frozen hiring and postponed buying some new items until 2009. The Jackson-Madison County Library in Tennessee was warned in August it may have to lay off some of its 20 full-time employees. And a proposal by the Long Beach, Calif. city government to save $1.8 million by closing the library's main branch has drawn protests from residents and famed author Ray Bradbury.

As local governments struggle with falling tax revenues, more libraries could be facing similar threats.

"When the economy gets tough for people, it usually takes a year before it gets tough on counties and municipalities," said Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at the University of Richmond.

Without public support, library budgets can be tempting targets for governments looking to cut.

Consequently, some librarians see the surge as a chance to make people not only habitual patrons, but advocates for libraries.

"It's a good time to educate people about all the benefits the library brings to their community," Moorman said.

Fay update

Well, we survived -- with a record amount of rainfall, but almost no wind. Almost 20" of rain, and many roads closed due to flooding, including major roadways that is really making travel from one part of town or even to other counties (even via interstate) difficult.

And now we are bracing for Gustav! Not to wish ill on other states, but I really hope it goes somewhere else.

"The Director"

Tropical Storm Fay: Fear her? Not I!

Well, we are getting ready to batten down our hatches here at the Library. Which, to me, is strange because there is nary a cloud in the sky.

The forecast is for the storm (or, rather, what's left of it) to hit around here Saturday or Sunday (but at the rate it's going, more like Monday!).

Schools have announced closings for tomorrow in our and a neighboring county. A meeting will be held tonight in both counties (independently) to see if 'non-essential personnel' (our job description, to a "T") need to go home tomorrow after noon.

Personally, I think it much ado about nothing. If "the Powers That Be" get so upset over a minor tropical storm, how are they going to react to a real Hurricane?

"The Director"

Silence in the Library

I have a question. It's been nagging at me for some time now.

When did the Library STOP being a quiet place?

And when did patrons being asked to "please quiet down" get the right to complain about the staff enforcing the rules and having that compliant taken seriously by "the powers that be" so that the staff person is written up and not the noisy patron???

When did we (as a profession) decide "People can be noisy in the library now and screaming babies are to be tolerated"?

At an Unconference I recently unattended, one director said that when she gets complaints about the noise, instead of quieting the 'offending persons' (my words, not hers) she suggest that the person COMPLAINING move to a different area of the library. Pardon me, but I think that is rude.

Call me old-fashioned, but I still think that the Library:

[is] a place for reading, study, gathering information, cultural and educational enrichment, and/or programmed activities. People using the Library have the right to expect that the Staff will maintain decorum by requiring courteous and reasonable behavior from everyone.

(From our posted "Code of Conduct")

Am I wrong? Am I out of step? Or is everyone else?

"The Director"