Shakespeare would have a field day on this one. On the same day, two seperate news stories appear. In one, a man returns his mothers 100 year old overdue library book. In another, a woman is sent to jail for failure to return 53 DVD’s to her local library.

Is the difference that the book was checked out years ago when libraries didn’t consider collection agencies or pressing charges? Or is the difference the value of the DVD’s in today’s market? I wonder if a hundred years from now people will still be able to return century overdue books, or will they they have been retrieved by the police and the offending patron thrown in the clink?

No, not on the phone silly blog reader. I am talking about a library item that is on hold. At my library I have to go up and ask at the desk for it. The nice clerk checks the computer then checks the shelves behind her (I say her because there are no male circulation clerks at my library) and retrieves my item. It makes me happy that my item is there waiting for me. I don’t mind having it retrieved.

In fact when i was at my local library today the clerk next to me was helping an elderly gentleman. He wanted to know what books he had placed on hold. The clerk had to speak loudly so he could hear and it made me glad he only had fiction titles on hold and not nonfiction books on any embarrassing or personal health issues otherwise everyone in line would have known.

The Chicago Public Library has implemented a new hold system where the patrons retrieve their own hold materials by having shelves out in the open. [Read the article]. Of course some of the public are nervous and outraged. I would be too. What’s to stop your neighbor who sees your name on a book to stop and see what you are waiting to read? CPL says its to streamline the hold process. Since when is efficiency paramount to privacy? When I lived in Salem, Oregon the public library did something similar with having the holds accessible to the general public for self retrieval. Needless to say I was not comfortable with this arrangement. I like the fact that I can place a book on hold and have it be held away from prying eyes. If I lived in Chicago and had to deal with this new system I might stop placing holds on books.

Adventures of a Guybrarian. What exactly is a “guybrarian” and what sort of adventures does one have?

The annoyed librarian defines a guybrarian this way. Another thinks they should be called Librarymans. Bu pretty much its just a guy who is a librarian. Pretty simple right? And his adventures are, well, adventurous!

Why should someone care about the random musings of a male librarian?  Well, there don’t seem to be many of us.  Someone  has said that 79% of public librarians are female (Dickinson, Thad E.’Looking at the Male Librarian Stereotype’, The Reference Librarian, 37(78), 98).   Not that men are better than women, but in a profession with a large number of women, a male perspective can be different.

I hope this blog can help provide some of that different perspective to the library profession.  I wont be taking a “guy” perspective, but just my take on things from a librarian who happens to be a guy.  I’ll blog about issues and trends that effect libraries and how I see them.  I hope to share some things that I learn and I hope to learn from you too oh wise internet.

While not related to libraries, James Chartrand blogged about the issue of pay as it relates to gender in “his” profession as a writer in his post “Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants.” It is an eye opening piece and something to think about.

Are librarians not paid as much because there are more women than men? If men dominated the profession would there be a huge pay increase? It’s something to think about.