Renewals should be automatic if your shit arrives late

 Renewals should be automatic and unquestioned if your material arrives late to my library and vice versa.  It's neither library's fault the courier or USPS somehow delayed the delivery, and the patron should not suffer because of it.  Don't be a jerk and refuse to renew just because the item now has a hold back home.  The book does nobody any good in transit between libraries, either coming or going.  If you couldn't spare your copy and holds build up, you shouldn't have lent it in the first place.

I'm only asking for a renewal as a courtesy.  If you stiff me, screw you.  I have the book and you don't.  It's here now and by god it's gonna circulate one way or another, whether you like it or not.  If you invoice me, fine.  But my patron is going to get a normal circ out of the title you sent.  We don't pay overdue fines, only replacement costs.  If you don't like that, don't do business with us.  Answer my renewal requests promptly and don't waste my user's time.  If you dilly-dally, I'm taking matters into my own hands and circulating the material for a month no matter what you say.  If you come back belatedly and want to give MORE time than that, great, I'll take it.  But the material doesn't do anyone any good sitting on my desk over multiple days waiting on you to get around to answering my renewal request.

If we're both in the TAE courier system but I marked delivery method "postal" it's because there are also non-Texas or non-TAE Texas libraries also further down the lender string.  I leave it to your best judgement to use the courier or not.  Just seems obvious to me you'd use the courier, why would you bother calling to confirm?  Just pop it in a purple bag and get it out the door.  End of ILL rant.

Deprofessionalization STILL SUCKS

 So subsequent to and concurrent with my petition to have my position upgraded formally to that of Librarian I, I have since encountered job postings for Interlibrary Loan managerial type positions in two separate Academic Libraries, one in Texas, one out of state, and both positions list the educational requirement as Bachelor's Degree, and decidedly NOT an American Library Association accredited Master of Library Science (or Information Science, what have you).

This is very depressing because I feel like this kind of work requires a myriad set of skills that one does indeed sometimes pick up in Library School, especially cataloging courses and database design.  You can learn to ILL on the job, for sure, but Library School is an actual help here.

If you are in charge of an entire Document Delivery Unit or Interlibrary Loan staff then you should be a Librarian I.  Period.  It's clearly a managerial role if you have underlings, and regardless it is a very demanding and multifaceted job that deserves compensation on par with other Librarian professionals.

I deplore and lament the merciless march of deprofessionalization according to neoliberal economic logic that eats away at the heart of our profession like a corrosive acid.

We deserve fair pay not hyper-explotation.

Yeah, if I'm not getting extra help imma need some extra pay.

So had a open and honest discussion with my Support Services manager just before lunch today and she let it be known that it looks as though instead of filling the Clerk II position that I vacated to fill the Paraprofessional position I currently hold after my workplace partner abruptly quit instead of taking ordered medical leave and time off to retool and de-stress and come back ready to work would not be filled after all but eliminated.

Since I'm able to run all of ILL operations so efficiently by myself at present there's no need to hire a Clerk II that can even do ILL just part time to help me out.

Reminder that I have an ALA-accredited Master of Library Science from the University of North Texas (2004) and have work experience as a professional librarian, too.

I told my boss that as complex and multi-layered a job it is running ILL operations for the ENTIRE library system BY MYSELF, I should at least be promoted to Librarian I if no additional help is forthcoming, if I am to be denied a formal cross-trained back-up person as my assistant.  I would be a lot more flexible as a Salaried librarian than an hourly Paraprofessional.  I could stay past 5pm, I could come in on weekends, all kinds of stuff to get caught up than an hourly worker cannot.

I was fine being the Paraprofessional running everything in ILL as a temporary thing, with the promise of future help arriving sometime.  But no future help?  No, I'm gonna need another promotion to feel right about that.

Also, according to our library's Public Information Office, we had to make our email signatures uniform system wide.  And according to their own requirements, Interlibrary Loan Department is where I work.  And in a Library, a Department Head should be led by at least a Librarian I; it only stands to reason.
I don't think this is an unreasonable ask.

They will probably resist / deny, and not like I have any leverage on them, but I wanted to make the affirmative moral case that if they don't promote me, they're engaging in immoral exploitation.  I'm going above and beyond what a simple 8-5 library staffer should reasonably be expected to do.  I'm doing professional work.  I was and remain a superior searcher to my predecessor & former partner, who eventually just permanently switched primary functions with me.  I was originally the primary Lending person while my work partner was the Borrowing Paraprofessional.  As someone with an actual library education, I was far better skilled at Borrowing & Requesting and thus she pushed all of that work off onto me while taking on the less skilled Lending job full time.  My former work partner was good at understanding ILL from a top down systems level better than me, perhaps, but I was good at focusing on keeping current operations running at peak efficiency.  

Anyway, my work partner suddenly quit and much to her surprise no doubt the heavens did not fall and ILL kept on chugging away under my direction.  The irony is she felt like ILL should be its own department and SHE should run it, but as someone without an MLS, that was never in the cards for her.  The ultimate irony will be if ILL becomes its own thing but I'm the one in charge as the actual librarian.

I'm middle aged now and feel embarrassed to still be an hourly employee.  I would like to retire as an actual Librarian with Librarian in my job title, even if I only ever make Librarian I.

The special mission of Interlibrary Loan in a time of crisis.

 We Interlibrary Loan Librarians have a special mission in a time of crisis, especially the one faced by us librarians in Republican-dominated States in the present era.  Capital F Fascism is a genuine threat to Western liberal democracy at home and abroad.  Whatever can be said for library neutrality as a virtue, in the present time merely asserting a Freedom To Read IS NOT NEUTRAL.  It never has been.  And that's OKAY.  We are unabashedly small d-democratic civic institutions.  We oppose authoritarian rule EVERYWHERE as contrary to the library's mission.

(Pictured above:  Freedom to Read t-shirt sold by the Chicago Public Library, featuring the artwork of Art Spiegelman of the series MAUS, recently banned in some schools).

It is our civic duty to provide reading materials to our patrons, especially in cases where such books have been challenged and (temporarily or permanently) removed from our shelves locally....as Mister Universe stated in the movie Serenity, you can't stop the signal.  We have a duty to provide such material on the down low via Interlibrary Loan whenever and wherever possible to #resist.   Our opponents are brutes but they're also quite stupid and just as likely to forget ILL exists as an option to patrons.  Hell, I even obtain the craziest right-wing dreck and religious drivel for my patrons.  They love me for it.  I may privately deplore them for wanting such material but I still work hard to get it for them nonetheless.  Benefit of the doubt, maybe they're doing Op-O research... Probably not but I'm in no position to judge that particular question.  A freedom to read means a freedom to read even that garbage.  But it also means I will obtain whatever LGBT+ material my patrons want, regardless of local collection policy.

I definitely salute the Brooklyn Public Library for making its ebook collection accessible all teens nationwide in an effort to fight #censorship and make materials available virtually and remotely what local tyrants are trying to stamp out locally, from so-called "CRT" (e.g. any material providing an open and honest account of historic and systemic racism in the United States) to LGBT+ material,  They are doing heroic work and are worthy of our support.  The Brooklyn Public Library has a webstore where you can support their library system directly and land yourself some dope-ass swag like this:

(Brooklyn Public Library t-shirt)

It might seem trivial, it might not seem like very much at all, but let me assure you, this too is a form of #antifascism and it matters.  I renewed my American Library Association Membership and Texas Library Association Membership on my birthday this past year because it matters to me that much.  It matters for me to bolster civic institutions like this as a move to defend small-d democracy in the United States.  I support the one political party left in the United States that actually cares about democracy but that alone is not enough.  Direct action and bolstering of civil institutions vital to the lifeblood of democracy also matter very much.

Publicly reaffirming The Freedom To Read as an American Value is vitally important at this time.  Libraries as institutions cannot wade into the political discourse directly but we can make it known we do stand for democracy against authoritarianism.  We stand for FREEDOM versus autocracy, we stand against narrow bigotry and for pluralism.  This we must do as Librarians and dedicated professionals.

I love my job and the part I play in sustaining the democratic discourse in a free society. 

Could we stop valorizing Patron ignorance as any kind of guide?

 Recent discussion on a thread about my Alma Mater's campus library, one contributor noting how she spoke to librarians who said "our newest users don't know Dewey or how to use a card catalog, they use iPads and smart phones...."

I replied with a brief caveat:  "Academic Libraries use Library of Congress Classification, not Dewey.  Dewey is for public libraries."

More to the point, we still have to use Dewey or LC Classification if we want to have a coherent way to organize physical books in our physical library.  Each has its shortcomings, sure, but while patrons may proudly profess their ignorance of our classification schema, it's absolutely necessary for library staff to have a working knowledge of it and organize the collection accordingly.

A more experienced patron will at least learn the rudimentary outline of our classification system(s) so they know where to find more books on their specific area of interest.  My Russian history professor at Texas A&M told us where to look for Russian History books in Evans Library (6th floor, as I recall).  This kind of thing matters, it still matters today.  There is no binary "either/or" when it comes to physical books vs. digital media...it's not one or the other, it's how to utilize both to meet patron's information needs and also make the most efficient use of precious library shelving real-estate.  Large, unwieldy reference works used mostly for looking up discrete bits of information can definitely go all-digital...are probably improved by doing so, since search-ability can be enhanced that way.  

Deep dive monographs on the other hand will be with us as long as we have libraries.  Proudly ignorant dismissals of Dewey or LC because of some techno-utopia just around the corner is so late 90s and I wish folks would just STAHP already.  It wasn't true then, it's not true now.

It behooves the average Public Library user to at least learn the top level distinctions for DDC...000s, 100s, 200s, etc.  The more fine grain distinctions are less important for everyday users and mostly of concern to cataloging staffers.  Every library puts their own spin on things, too.  There are local cataloging practices in place if DDC allows books to be placed in multiple locations; the head cataloger will make a firm decision and keep all books of this general type within that chosen call number range, even if valid points can be made to shelve the book elsewhere.  This tweak is in keeping with one of Ranganathan's Laws of Library Science....save the time of the user! It's not just a fun intellectual exercise for the individual cataloger; it's a matter of institutional policy to facilitate ease of access for the end user.

Another quick & dirty secret of YA & Juvenile cataloging of "controversial" subjects while working in a conservative community is to classify these books as adult materials and shelve them with other adult material, but to let YA & Juvenile users where to find them all the same.  It's a low key way to avoid unnecessary confrontations while still providing access to marginalized youth.

Similarly the dumb trend in search interfaces to offer only a single search box.  I'm glad some catalog systems allow more experienced users to use more fine grain searching.  I can live with the single box as the default setting "because that's what most users want/expect" but I don't see any point in hobbling and making life difficult for smarter users who actually know what they're doing and need more refined searching capability.  For the experienced library user, it's often as much about excluding irrelevant info as it is gathering available info.  Another example of "both and..." that's a win-win for everyone.

Sure, we need to "meet users where they are", but we also are, as librarians, also teachers and mentors.  We need to help our users become more informed and capable, so they can eventually reach a point of self-directed searching that is fruitful for them without intervention from us.

Goofing off on Social Media is Library Work.

 Not only is goofing off on Facebook and Twitter fun, it's fun to do at work on the clock.  And it is NOT a "waste of taxpayer money", either.   How else are librarians and library workers supposed to stay on top of the cultural zeitgeist and keep their fingers on the pulse of the community they serve?  Do it on their own time off the clock?  That's unpaid labor.  Screw that.  Besides, I got anime to watch, manga to read, etc. in my leisure time off the clock.  Twitter happens in real time, and so long as "normal" library services are not disrupted or hindered, it should be normalized and okay to keep a tab open with Twitter running in the background.   Ditto Facebook, for similar reasons.

Look, we all freakin' do it, alright?  If you're an Gen Xer or younger you know you do it on the sly.  We should be okay with doing it out in the open, without fear of reprisal or disciplinary action.  It should be a normalized part of regular library work, not this hush hush taboo thing we do on the down low.  When left to individual departments you get uneven and unfair enforcement.  Some library staff get away with watching MOVIES at their desk while others get griped at just for looking at Facebook for a few minutes.

I'm honestly at my happiest when I'm doing some low-level necessary but repetitive mindless work like barcoding new books for the catalogers while I can do a deep dive listen on podcasts I love.  I feel too guilty to sit at my desk ONLY listening to podcasts if I'm not actively doing library ILL work also.  I refrain from it until the work picks back up in intensity.  My daily routines with ILL are often feast or famine....either we're REALLY busy, crunch time, etc, or else it's dead as a doornail.  The barcoding tasks are awesome but sometimes there just aren't any new books on trucks that need my attention, so we just kind of do other low-level maintenance work but even that only goes so far.  That kind of down time is ripe for hopping on social media....scrolling Facebook & Twitter, interacting with other users, etc, or maybe even writing a brief post on Tumblr about an anime I watched recently.  

Sidebar, our IT department recently eliminated all physical fax machines in the library system and replaced them with an all-digital fax system accessible from our desktops.  I was even given a personalized fax number for ILL work.  Since it's a tool in my box, I do actually use it.  If a library lists a Fax number in their contact info, I will fax them when I need a book renewal, etc.  Emails can be ignored but a fax usually has to be attended to.  I'm sure other libraries might find it weird or unorthodox but hey, if my people give me this tool, I'm gonna put it to good use.  It's kinda retro but also kinda cool at the same time.  The only downside is our system-wide fax utility is tied to our email server in some way, so if email goes down, so do our fax capabilities...stinks but that's how it is with the software we use.  We found this out the hard way when our email system had to be taken offline for an entire week for a major upgrade/repair job.  We simply had to stop accepting new ILLs completely.  It made for some very long work days.  We could contend with existing requests but that was all.  And so yes, I made covert use of Facebook & Twitter during those lulls in workflow, too.  Even if I don't use a particular social media platform, I also read news articles online from reputable sources.  The "pocket" widget on Firefox is helpful for that, as is the default news settings in Microsoft Edge.  Again, I just feel as though it's a librarian's duty to keep informed about current events, even on the clock--perhaps especially on the clock.  It's not a bad thing and it should be encouraged, not discouraged, so long as it is used responsibly and ethically.   We should be active participants in the wider culture, promoting literacy and good informative books & authoritative resources.  We should bolster small "d" democracy, agitate for accountability in government and from corporations, and we should do our part to dismantle racism and remove barriers to access to vetted & reliable information.  Using social media "on the clock" are a means to those noble ends, for real.  It's detrimental to democracy to pretend otherwise.

I still can't believe my colleagues able to watch entire movies on the clock though...that's WHACK.  But whatever.  Not what I'm asking for.  Just want the ability to participate in Facebook groups and follow Twitter users whose subjects of interests align with my own, whether it's music, art, anime, whatever.  I want to be able to do all that without having to look over my shoulder or get the stink eye from some co-workers who might threaten to narc me out over some personal beef with me.  That'd be real nice.

Courier Services vs. USPS in ILL work

 I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about the use of contracted Courier Services in Interlibrary Loan work.  It's usually an annual membership and can be a potential money saver on postage expenses your institution would otherwise incur with USPS.  Combined with the Navigator (NRE) interface for ILL, it encourages in-state lending within Texas, Texans helping other Texans.  For the most part I have no major complaints with Trans-Amigos Express (TAE) that we utilize here.  Our service level gives us 5 days of delivery and pick-up and constitutes the bulk of our ILL business on a daily basis.  Where there have been issues have been with our partnership agreements with other library courier consortia like Kansas Library Express and the Missouri based MALA and MOBIUS consortia.  On the one hand, it's great to have access to their networks of library and we are happy to lend our materials to them in the heartland.  The problem crops up in the hand-off between them and TAE, which seems to cause sometimes intolerable delays to the point that mailing such items USPS would've been faster and less inconvenient....though with Postmaster DeJoy's apparent ongoing sabotage, who can say for sure.  The sooner that man is fired the better.  The governing board of USPS seems to finally slowly be acting in that direction and I'm eager to see DeJoy get the boot for a whole host of reasons, not just Library ILL work.

The pandemic for the most part has caused libraries to be more generous with each other in their loan terms, etc., and I'm heartened to see it.  I'm less than thrilled with lenders that don't take into account the courier-to-courier delays and refuse reasonable renewal requests to account for these delays that are out of either library's control.  We shouldn't punish each other or our patrons for something that was not our faults.   We can't directly fix the couriers, that's up to Amigos Library Services...but we can be more reasonable with each other, more generous, more accommodating.  Because that's what's best for the users.  Let's not break Ranganathan's 4th Law of Library Science if we can help it:

"Save the time of the reader".

Amen.

Renewing TLA and ALA memberships is bolstering public democratic institutions.

 In light of recent political events I felt strongly motivated to pony up and renew two long dormant professional memberships that I let expire because I didn't feel like they gave me much personal benefit.

In the current climate, it's about more than myself.  I renewed my membership both in the national American Library Association as well as my state-level Texas Library Association membership.  For reasons mainly personal, aesthetic and symbolic I also renewed my membership in the Progressive Librarians Guild that I was more active in when I was in library school in the early 2000s.  Yearly membership in PLG is cheap so tossing them a few bucks is no skin off my back.

No, where I really dug deeper is renewing those aforementioned ALA and TLA memberships and associated round-tables tailored to my current role in Inter-library Loan work.  I feel like it is important to bolster these civic institutions in a time of rising authoritarianism and outright white nationalist fascism on the American political right.  It's about more than myself and how these professional associations may or may not personally benefit my career aspirations.  I want them to remain strong advocates for intellectual freedom, the right to read, etc.  It's also because I lack imagination as to what else to do other than keep voting the way I do in every election (e.g. for Democratic Party candidates and against every Republican candidate).  But it was something I could do so I did it.  If you're still working in the library profession and have let your ALA and state-level library association membership lapse, maybe let the spirit of the season move you to generously revive your memberships and participation in these professional associations.  We need all hands on deck in the defense of small-d democracy and intellectual freedom and civil rights.