The demise of public libraries.....is it happening?

Having worked in public libraries, I have been reconsidering staying within this area. This was underlined via a story by MaintainIT, which pointed to a Boing ,boing story about internet access being filtered and unfiltered in California. In the article RandomReader makes the following comment:-
As a former public library librarian, I can say that unfiltered Internet is simultaneously 1)important for intellectual freedom reasons and 2) a giant pain in the rear end. More broadly speaking, computers are transforming the texture of libraries and attracting new demographic slices that previously had no use for the library. Add to that what Amazon and Half.com have done for allowing book lovers to access books, and the impact of Google on giving people access to basic reference information, and you have even more more upheaval in public library land. Just today I predicted to a colleague that by 2025, the stereotype of public libraries as being about books and a quiet environment will be replaced by something having to do with computers, community programming, and probably the taint of Internet addiction/e-stalking/etc.

I'm in agreement. The days of looking for books are dead. Being an expert on e-mail is soo the vogue. No wonder i'm looking at legal libraries.

Reading on the way to work

Having started my new job has given me time to catch up on plenty of reading (1,2,3) I have just started The Devil's Cup, which looks at the history of coffee. As a blogger, I was interested in the London Coffeehouse's, especially Richard Steele, who created Tatler in one. The book quotes the coffeehouses of the time, who could be writing of bloggers when they says:-
Coffeehouses had made civilised conversation into a popular sport.

Job satisfaction

Having said previously of starting my new job, I am getting into the swing of things. Yesterday, was exceedingly good. Just the simple things make it enjoyable, like getting on with work colleagues and assisting people who need it, and best of all learning from my mistakes. Shame the jobs short-term, but its nice to be enjoying a job.

Shelfari feel the stress

Having discussed previously Shelfari's bombarding of users and none users with spam, it seems there trying to climb out of a hole. Tim Spalding quotes Book Patrols article, in which they accuse Shelfari of Astroturfing, saying:-

Shelfari has engaged in some pretty dubious behavior including astroturfing (posting on blogs pretending to be users, not employees) and partaking in widespread spamming campaigns.

Shelfari CEO, Josh Hug, has defended himself from the claim of astro-turfing, by saying:-

As for the astroturfing, that was an unintended work of an unexperienced but well-meaning intern who failed to make himself known as he commented on blogs. That was not our intent and we were unaware that was going on. It has stopped.

If it was a rogue intern, why was he needing to do it? With $1million investment did they really require such a transparent way of doing this. I maybe a librarything fan boy, but shelfari have really been very stupid, and allowing an intern to do this (without keeping an eye on them) is dafter still.

Sad news

I was informed sunday of my grandfather passing away and am in the midst of preparing myself to be a bearer. I will miss him so much. He watched me as a child play football, he got me interested in football (which in turn made me interested in statistics and classification). He also taught me more important lessons. That money does not make you happy. That you should look out for your fellow man. That you should always remember your family. And most of all, that life is for living. I Salute you for that grandpi.

Shelfari gets shot down........

Librarything has brought to my attention that its inferior competitor Shelfari has been spamming people. Whom Tim Spalding(the owner of librarything) describes (via another source as this):-

in the words of the well-known blog Gawker, "basically social networking rapists."

I've noted also that Shelfari has been emailing me a lot lately and its very annoying (and something librarything NEVER does).

Hopefully, shelfari will stop it soon.

Does Professionalism extend to A major library employment agency?

Having started my new role (which lasts till the end of december), I was still looking for a position after I finished there. Therefore in looking on a library agency website, I noted a role I felt I suited. They asked for a cv on the website, which I sent. After a good few hours no response. So I rang them, to show some degree of keeness (it was a good job, so I wanted it). I spoke to the relevant person, who said my email had not arrived. THEN SHE CHECKED HER JUNK FOLDER. It was in there (first off, that made me feel tremendously undervalued and incredibly angry). As is the way, I kept my cool, asked if I could put myself forward and sending me more information on the role. She did (surprisingly).
I wrote back, said I liked the job, but lacked a few skills but was willing to learn would she put me forward.
Response. None.
I had to ring again. She was at lunch, and would contact me if anything occurred.
Response. None.
Now, most large library and non library agencies (1,2,3, have a professional attitude. Even if they do not have a role, they don't put your email in junk folders, ring you if you got nowhere in the position.
But this one (no names, but very large and so web 2.0 organisation they have a blog) feels they have no need to offer feedback. Well, thanks for nothing. Diatribe ends.
By the way, I had also rung them to see if a half day voluntary role was still available. It wasn't and they were taking it down friday. Funny, I just checked and its still there.