And the award for the worst master's degree you can get goes to...

I wanted to pop in and throw out a quick “I told you so”. Alas, it is official; the worst possible master’s degree you can get is the MLIS.

#1 Worst Master's Degree 

With a mid-career median pay of $57,600 coupled with an 8.5% growth rate to 2020, librarianship is going down the tubes exactly as I predicted it would.

Now you might think $57k a year is pretty good, and it is, but good luck landing that job. You are looking at astronomical competition for every full-time position paying over $30k. The last full-time position we had open ($33k) had hundreds of applicants. In the end we interviewed 5 people and they were all spectacular. Every one had a wonderful personality, impeccable grooming, advanced computer skills, communicated well, and had a master’s degree. The latter part is interesting because they did not have to have a master’s degree, it was only preferred. Also important to note is that all of these people had 5+ years working in libraries or related professions, which was also not required.

Think about that for a second… 5 years experience plentifully available for $33k a year.

What do all of the thousands of MLIS graduates expect to make fresh out of college? They would be lucky, extremely lucky, to get $33k. (about 1 in 250 chance in the above case)

So, what do all these new graduates do? The ones that don’t just give up and do something else get jobs in libraries. They get jobs as assistants, shelvers, or counter work and they do it for about $25k a year. They do it well for $25k a year. And there goes the demand for higher paid librarians.

Perfect shit storm achieved… decreased demand, increased supply.

The only solution is to stop churning out as many MLIS degree and possible.

That is not going to happen.

Another pervert caught masturbating in a libary. These are some mighty tricky pervs, "tailgating" their way thru the securtiy system to get access to some porn. Yeppers, even with a high tech security card system installed to gain access to the building, would be secret agents slip on in easily... by simply following the person in front of them.

Me thinks this security system was not entirely thought-thru.

Linky

I also wonder why the frequent trips to the bathroom? The article states he ran off regularly to the bathroom only to return and continue pleasureing himself. I am no expert on male plumbing (ok, maybe a little) but would you not just stay put by your source of visual stimulation until such time as the stimulation has served its purpose? Crazy people antics, always interesting.

The very last line in the article kind of rubs me the wrong way tho....

"I'll never say never, but I'd be surprised if another one [incident] like that happens," he said about the masturbation incident earlier this month.

Smaller incidents have been handled internally.

What? Am I the only one that thought that could have been worded just a little better?

Another Warrant Issued - Strange Bias Continues

It happened again, somebody got into trouble with the law for stealing library books. This time it is 21 year old Victoria Rogers. You can read about it here and here.

And yet again, there is a clear bias against the library for putting a warrant out for a poor single mother. This just chaps my ass. If single mom had just so happened to forget a DVD in her purse from Wal Mart, the same thing would happen. So why is keeping a library book permanently any different? Some of you may be thinking "because she paid for the book with tax money so it is hers already!". Well, yes and then no. Yes, she did pay for the book, but you conveniently left off how much of the book she paid for. Lets examine that for one second....

The City of Killeen Public Library brings in $1,294,710 a year. City population is 102,003. That is about $12.70 per year per person goes to the library... or about $1 a month. The library has a materials budget of about $157,840 a year. There are 102,012 items in the library. So every person spends about $1.57 a year on books. Lets just keep it simple and assume every book is replaced every 5 years. That gives us an inventory value of about $789,200. Divide that by the number of people in Killeen and you have $7.73 which is the amount each citizens has invested in the total collection specifically. Therefore Victoria owns about $0.009 of the book she stole ($7.73/$789,200). We can round up to 1 cent to keep it easy.

Yep, she paid for 1 cent of the book. I think that pretty much proves it is a collective book and not her own. Not that anyone was debating this fact.

I read her case closely, and it seems there was indeed another party involved, her ex husband. It seems this stellar individual went ahead and kept all the communication from the library a secret from his ex wife. I guess the moral to this story is fill out a change of address form as soon as you move out of your ex's house.

$13 or Goto Jail - Jail FTW!

Another patron gets into trouble with overdue books. This time it is Shelly Koontz from Jesup Public Library. It would appear that Koontz was making some sort of statement when she chose jail time over a $13 library book. I figure the statement was something along the lines of "I like to make bad choices in life, here is another".

linky

The library stated that arresting somebody over an overdue book is unusual, but there were some extenuating circumstances. I would love to know what those were. I suspect she had used up all her friends on the library staff. Kinda like spitting on a cop and wondering why you get arrested. I know at my library it is very difficult to get arrested. You have to pretty much threaten somebody or go completely nuts... which happens. I would like to take a moment and point out the arresting officer. This was the actual picture they used in the article. Sgt. Boos looks way too happy for this to be an appropriate picture,,, either that or the arrest of Koontz marks a happy day in Jesup. His name seems appropriate in a way, at least from Koontz's perspective.

I also included a police report. I found the part about the derelict cars in the front yard to be,,, interesting,, if only for the mental picture it provided me.

Bomb Blown way Out of Proportion

I have seen patrons get upset about fines they have generated, but this individual takes it to a whole new level. Tonya Butts managed to rack up some fines for keeping her materials out too long. Instead of throwing a hissy fit at the volunteers running the front counter, she instead went ahead and issued a bomb threat.

Linky

There are couple fascinating facets to this story. I would like to start with the mental logic used by this Butt. I just cannot grasp how one makes the leap from "I was late with some books, so I may complain" to "I am going to go ahead and do something that will for sure get me arrested, making things 10x worse". But she did it. And it did.

Second, the manner in which she issued the bomb threat is quite unique. Normally, to make a proper bomb threat, you call it in. That way, the odds of you getting arrested decrease significantly. What you don't typically do is trot on in there all uppity and submit it at the counter personally. She did. Hard core! ...and she was promptly arrested with $3500 bond.

There was never a bomb.

She should do what everyone else does....

smear fecal material all over the bathroom walls or pee into the book drop.

Rude library patron arrested

I am a sucker for stories about nutjob patrons. This latest story comes to us from Boston.

Linky

It would seem that Tommy was having a bad day. He decided that it would be best to go ahead and start throwing pencils around and spitting at people to ensure that it would get worse.

It did.

He got himself arrested.

Not a surprising story, but entertaining for sure.

Books are Doomed

Books are Doomed, doomed I say!

Ok, maybe not completely doomed, but they are about to get a run for their money. I recently purchased a Sony e-reader (@ Target). At first, I was a little apprehensive about spending over $200 on a gadget, but my apprehension was short lived once I got to know my new device. I downloaded a few books from various sources, some free, some not. The ones that were not free included DRM software, which was not any big deal for me to use. There is a version of Adobe Acrobat with DRM (Digital Rights Management) built right in. The books first downloaded to my PC, then transferred over to my Sony reader. I read all of them (over 1200 pages worth), and it was a pleasure! I LOVE my reader!

I would like to clarify a misconceptions about these devices....

1) They are hard to read. The text is too small and blurry and it strains your eyes.
The 'digital ink' these devices use is actually crystal clear! Clearer then most printed type! Yes, really. With the possible exception of glossy paper type, the digital ink does not have the bleed that print on cheap paper exhibits. Furthermore, any book that you download comes with a LP (large print) version right at your fingertips. Actually, it comes with several LP versions of varying print sizes. Just tap the zoom button and the text enlarges incrementally based on how many times you touch the zoom button.

Additionally, there is no 'back-light' on the screens, so you have no more eyestrain than you would have with a wooden book. Less, actually, since there is no bleed.

2) You cannot curl up in bed with them.
Yes, you can. And I did. These are as portable as a regular book. More so, if you are using multiple books.

3)The Screen is too tiny
This was a valid argument for older e-book with tiny 3 inch screens. But, as you can see from the picture, these new e-books have huge screens. No longer an issue.

4) They are complicated and hard to use.
If you are reading this blog, you will not have a problem with the complexity these devices present. Granted, your grandma who has never used a computer is not an ideal candidate for one of these,,, but those that do own computers and have used Acrobat Reader in the past should be good to go. Oh, and did I mention the batter lasts days? You can read an entire book on one charge! ...or two... or three.

Here are some other good factors that make these e-books viable alternatives to wooden format books.

1) You can put 200 books into one reader.
If you are tight on space or would like to take large numbers of books with you, this device is perfect for you.

2) The e-versions of the books are far cheaper then the wooden format version.
You can save 1/3 to 1/2 off the cover price on books if you go with the electronic version. This just makes sense as just about all the middle men and materials are cut out of the process. The e-book reader pays for itself in under 70 books.

I have only 3 complaints about the device...

1) Not all books are available for the device.
Not all publishers are on board with the format,,, yet. This is the largest and most crippling complaint I have about the product. Amazon offer the Kindle (Sony reader competitor), with has a larger selection of books to choose from, but there are still tons of titles not yet available for either reader.

2) Only Black and White.
This is a cheesy complaint tho, since most books in the library are also black and white. Still, would be nice to have it all.

3) Cannot read them in the dark.
Because they lack an eye-straining backlight, you cannot read them in the dark. But, you cannot read a book in the dark either. You can use the same little book-lights that you would use on books on this device. The new 700 series Sony will have one of these lights built in.

Once titles become readily available I predict these devices will really take off. Until then, we will bide our time and wait for the publishers to pull their heads out of their hineys and step into the 21st century. When this happens, prepare to see the way books are bought and sold changing significantly.

Job Security for librarians? That is another matter. =P

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