Librarian Stress

There was an article published a while back touting the stress levels librarians claim to be experiencing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4605476.stm

What struck me as funny was what was causing the stress…

“Librarians complained about their physical environment, saying they were sick of being stuck between book shelves all day, as well as claiming their skills were not used and how little control they felt they had over their career.”

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but this does not sound like stress, this sounds like boredom. And AFAIK, boredom the complete opposite of stress. How weird is that?

I think I know what is going on here. I have had other jobs in my previous lives. I worked with lawyers in a law firm. I also worked in construction. I can tell you from experience; those jobs were far more stressful then working as a librarian. I suspect we have a lot of career librarians who have no good base point for measuring their stress levels. Think about it, any stress at all, no matter how little, will seem like a lot if you have never really experienced sex. Err,.,, stress. You get my point.

Law firm: The night before a deposition we would often work all night. This was normal. On a sidnote, lawyers are cool people to work with. Really cool. Out of 30, only 2 were your stereotypical wastes of flesh. Loved the rest of them. Miss ‘em.

Construction: Yelling and screaming at contractors and employees was normal. Office cussing and inappropriate behavior (sexual harassment anybody) also a norm.

Nursing: My mother is a nurse (RN) , peoples lives in your hands… nothing more stressful then peoples lives depending on you. You screw up, somebody dies. No thank you!

No matter how bad a librarian screws up, nobody dies (they may be raped in the stacks, but that is the below blog). Librarians are not that important in the scheme of things and when you start to think you are “all-that”, it is time for a reality check.

another ridiculous article...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article787479.ece

Boy Raped in New Bedford Free Public Library

Another sad story about perverts in libraries.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/library_boy_assaulted;_ylt=Arcn2usvLSXm.WJUZA3r_hUDW7oF

Corey Saunders, 26, is accused of luring the boy into the stacks and raping him while the child's mother worked on a computer less than 10 feet away from her son.

There are a lot of things wrong with this scenario.

First, you have the mother. She drags her boy with her to the library so that she can get on the computers. It did not say what she was doing, but I can tell you from experience, it was probably just farting around on myspace or gambling online. We have a name for these kids around my library. We call them "Internet Orphans". Before we limited daily access to the computers to just a few hours, we would have kids in here for 10+ hours straight! Poor kids. Bad parents.

Second, you have the library policy on the internet. Or, lack of automatic enforcement of the policy. Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert uses a term I love. Weasel Words. "Weasel words are deliberately misleading or ambiguous language used to avoid making a straightforward statement while giving the appearance that such has been made. This type of language is used to deceive, distract, or manipulate an audience." ref

Instead of just saying "we do not filter", the library states...

"The Library cannot control and is not able to monitor any information on the Internet for either content or accuracy."

http://www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us/Library/internetpolicy.html

What does this mean exactly? I can tell you,, it means they do not filter. I did further sleuthing into boring meeting minutes to confirm this. "Yes-sir-ree, no filters for me!".. sang all the perverts in New Bedford, Mass.

Third and finally, you have the boy. I am not in any way saying it is the boys fault, but it is sad that he did not think to scream or yell or run or bite or something. Especially considering his mom was ten feet away. I have told my kids to scream their bloody heads off if anybody tries anything 'funny'. I certainly hope they would follow thru with it. It is sad this poor fellow did not.

In conclusion, perverts are bad.