Sadly, being the blog thief that I am, I am once again stealing an idea from the Krafty Librarian. After reading her post today about the current/impending shortage of librarians I feel the need to take a moment and address a question she asks at the end of her post:

So who is right?! Is there a shortage of library jobs? Do we need to educate, train, and hire a lot more librarians to replace those retiring? Or are we promoting a myth and the reality is that we are over populated with librarians?

I'm not sure if it is as simple as myth vs. reality. As harsh as this may sound I don't think there is a shortage of librarians, but there is a shortage of competent librarians. And no, I'm not being mean. The LJ article Krafty mentioned touched on this, so this is just more than my opinion.

I think the problem is that the majority of students in MLS programs now think that having the degree is enough since they are being told that there is a shortage. So they don't bother to acquire any skills outside of the classroom. They weren't predicting a librarian shortage when I was getting my degree, but I could see the laissez-faire attitude in many of my classmates when it came to seeking skills outside the classroom. I hate to be the bearer of bad news to these people, but a classroom education just won't cut it.

I obviously can't speak about the experiences of other librarians at their first professional position, but for me what I learned in the classroom did not prepare me at all for being a reference librarian in a public library. I loved my reference instructor as a person, but the man never talked about reference books in class. He just gave us a list of questions to answer and expected us to figure out what books to use. The textbook we were assigned helped somewhat, but it would have been much more helpful if he had actually pointed us to possible sources. Usually when faced with a questions assignment I would wander the reference stacks hoping that if I browsed enough I would find the right book. In some ways I'm amazed that I managed to muddle through the class.

Another thing that was kind of scary about the reference class I took, was that the instructor was super high on the Internet but didn't spend anytime in class covering it. Anytime a question came up in class about locating information he would say, "I'm sure you can find that on the Internet. You can find almost everything there." Did he ever show us (or even talk about) websites he liked to use? No. Did he ever talk about the best way to search the Internet? No. Did he even address evaluating Internet resources? No. I think this is why I'm such a hard ass with my students. They may hate me at times, but at least my conscience is clear because I know that when they leave my classroom they will be better prepared for reference work than I was.

Which leads me back to the idea of myth vs. reality. Maybe the myth is that graduate schools aren't producing enough qualified candidates because they don't have enough of an enrollment, while the reality is that some schools are churning out unprepared librarians like they are puppy mills.

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Today the Krafty Librarian has an interesting post up about the trend of information commons in academic libraries. Be sure to check out her thoughts, as well as the Chronicle article that inspired the post.

The information commons issue has popped up from time to time in my reference class, and I'm always a bit unsure how to address it. Generally the question is broached as a books or computers - death is not an option type of question. Personally, I can't work up outrage that rows of books are being replaced by computers. Okay, I could probably work it up, but it would take awhile. I'm also not too concerned that students might not be aware of the resources that are available to them whether they are print or electronic. For me, there is a much bigger concern that needs to be addressed before we can truly begin to handle these issues.

I know this may sound terrible, but I don't think the majority of students necessarily care whether or not they are getting the best information. What they care about is that they are getting the most convenient information. I've noticed over the past several years that students seem to be getting lazier. And that's not a slam on my students, but just a comment on students as a whole. I see them at the college where I teach, I see them in my library, and I hear about them from my friends who still teach at the university level. It's something I can kind of understand. For many students doing research is just a hoop they have to jump through to write a paper (hoop #2) to pass a class (hoop #3) to get a degree (hoop #4) to get a job. And that would be tolerable if the student went on to a career that didn't require good research skills. Unfortunately, a sizeable portion of these students will take their sorry ass research skills that they acquired in undergrad with them into their graduate and doctoral work. Scary, isn't it?

So what should we do? My response to that would be what can we do? Teachers and librarians can talk until they are blue in the face about the right way to research, but until students take responsibility for what they learn in and out of the classroom our hands our tied.

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No, I'm not looking at my hair in the mirror. You're Reading...What?, an article in today's online Wall Street Journal, came up on one of my listservs and I decided to check it out. If you are a reader of YA literature you should definitely check it out. I don't know what was most disturbing:

1) The fact that the article actually had the phrase It's the summer book season: Do you know what your child is reading? in it. I hate alarmist garbage like this.

2) The fact that one mother after discovering her daughter reading a book from the Gossip Girl series decided she would keep closer tabs on her daughter's reading material. The women wen on to say that wished publishers would help out by rating books. "It would be nice if they had a big rating on it, like at the movies." Oy vey. What is wrong with people? I think I would have to stop being a librarian if this were to actually happen.

3) The fact that WSJ elected to offer parental guidance on some of the newer YA titles that are out. I know I'm not a parent, but if I was I don't think I would be turning to WSJ for parenting advice. That's not their forte.

4) The overuse of the word risqué in this article. I hate that word. I know I've used it a time or two in classes, but I absolutely hate it and don't use it in everyday life. Why? Because when someone tells me a book was risqué all that means was that it was challenging to them or was something outside their comfort zone. Get. Over. It.

I could keep bitching and moaning, but that does nobody any good. If your interested take a look at the article and let me know your thoughts. And don't worry, I'm not going to ask your to rate them before I read them.

To quote Ang: Grrrr, just, grrrrr.

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On Tuesday I talked about my anal retentive need for a plan. It turns out that it is genetic. Last night I got a call from my mom because she wanted to plan out what movies we were going to see when I'm home over the Fourth of July. And yes, I was incredibly excited that we were making some headway on a plan.

Anyway, while were on the topic of movies she asked me what movies were coming out during the summer. She had her calendar out and wanted to map out her summer movie watching (See! It is soooooo not my fault I am this way). I hopped on IMDB (thank you brand spanking new DSL line) and found her the information she wanted. I told her every movie that was coming out, regardless of whether or not I thought she would be interested in it. When we got to August 5 I told her that The Dukes of Hazzard would be coming out. And then she said the most disturbing thing to me ever: I bet you'll run right out to see that.

No. Not in a million years. Not if you paid me an ungodly sum of money. Not even if you bribed me with books. No, no, no!

And it hurts me to say that. Anyone who has known me for a long time or knows anything about my childhood can tell you that The Dukes of Hazzard was very important to me growing up. Friday nights were all about the Dukes in my neighborhood. All the kids would get together and watch the show, and then for the rest of the week we'd play Dukes in the street (I lived on a dead end street so it was safe). Try as hard as we could however, we never got our big wheels to jump as high as the General Lee. Sigh.

As sad as this might be, a lot of my early childhood memories are Dukes related. The first (and only) fit I ever threw in a public place was when I realized that our food hadn't come yet and I wouldn't be home in time to see the Dukes. The first time I injured Kurt the neighbor kid was when I was trying to make my hot pink Tonka jeep fly through the air like the General Lee. This was accomplished by climbing to the top of the tall slide in Platt Park and sending the jeep hurtling down it. Kurt sat at the bottom of the slide as the object the jeep was going to jump, however he ended up taking a jeep in the face. The first time I refused to get out of bed and go to school (I like my sleep) my mother told me she wouldn't let me watch the Dukes that night unless I went. She knew that was the only way she was going to get me out of bed.

Looking at all of this evidence you might be saying to yourself, she'd be the kind of nut to stand in line a week ahead of time for tickets for the movie, but you'd be wrong. Is it because I am opposed to television classics being remade into movies? No, I'm fine with that. When I first heard about it I thought a Dukes movie would rock the house. I was cool with Stifler playing Bo Duke, and Johnny Knoxville as Luke Duke was fine too. I thought the idea of Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg and Willie Nelson as Uncle Jesse was simply inspired. So what's the problem? Two words: Jessica Simpson.

Is it because Daisy Duke should not be a blonde? No. Is it because no one other than my friend Melina could capture the true spirit of Daisy Duke? No, although Melina would make a great Daisy. Is it because Jessica Simpson is evil? Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! So even though a Dukes movie is something I would dearly love to see just so I can relive a small part of my childhood, there is no way in a million years I will set foot in a theatre that is showing it. I can't, it's just too painful.

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Yesterday over at Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books Sarah asked this burning question: What is your A-book? And this got me thinking about my A-book, which will forever be at the tippy top of my A-list not because the author is awesome (which she is) or that the book was great (which it was), but simply because it made me fall back in love with reading.

I'll admit that college pretty much killed any desire I had to read. There was something about all those lit classes I took that made my brain seize up and say no more. So I went through a span of about two years where I read only a dozen or so books. Then a co-worker of mine started a genre study group for library staff and gave me Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie to read. It may sound melodramatic to say a book changed my life, but in a way it did. Reading something as good as Welcome to Temptation reminded me that not only were there books out there that I could enjoy reading, but that I actually used to enjoy reading. It was a wake up call of sorts. Since then I've been an obsessive reader, and I will be eternally grateful to Jennifer Crusie for that for the rest of my life.

If you don't believe that Jennifer Crusie had such profound impact on me, consider this: the last time she was at Anderson's I managed to work in a field trip to the signing into my reference class. That's how important it was to me. I didn't feel too guilty though as the students really seemed to enjoy it. :-)

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I'm not someone who can fly by the seat of my pants. It just goes against my nature. Teaching the RA class last quarter was incredibly difficult for me because I knew going in each night that no matter what plan I had the students would promptly throw it out the window. And that was okay and made the class a lot more interesting (or at least I hoped it did). But it still caused a lot of anxiety for me as I made my way to the college each Wednesday night.

I like a plan for everything, not just work. When someone comes to visit me I usually have an agenda in my mind of what we are going to do for the entire time they are here. They might not be aware of it, but I do. If I don't have a full agenda or (heaven forbid) ask them to help me plan the agenda and they don't properly contribute, I get super crabby. And mean. Because with me crabby and mean go hand in hand. I'm like a two-year-old that way.

I've managed to create a plan for almost everything now. My latest one involves a reading rotation schedule (and yes, I can't believe it has taken me this long to create one, but the need just wasn't there before). I now have a plan where I rotate the genres I normally read. Once I'm done with a book in a particular genre I have to read something from a different genre next. I can't read another book from the genre I just finished until I have gone through the entire rotation of genres. Will it make me a more well rounded reader? I'm hoping. Will it help me get through my TBR stack faster? If there is a God, yes. Is it torture to wait on reading a book until its genre is next? You have no idea.

The reason I'm bringing up my Anal Annie-ness is because I am taking a mini-vacation over the 4th of July to do some stuff back home. So before coming to work today I called my mom to discuss the plan. Even when I'm going home, I need a plan. Carol wasn't really up for coming up with a plan though, so I am currently without a plan. And in case you are wondering, panic has already begun to set in. I just know my entire vacation will be spent at her house going:

Me: What do you want to do?
Mom: I don't know. What do you want to do?
Me: I don't know. What do you want to do?

Imagine this over and over with me getting more irritable with each passing moment. But I digress. The real reason I'm blogging about this is because I worry. Does needing a plan for everything make me un-fun? I like to think of myself as being fun, but now I'm not so sure.

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Sorry for the week of silence on the blog. I'm in the midst of working on a project that is not going well. More on that later.

I put in some extra hours at the library this week working all day Saturday and half of Sunday. The patrons who came in were all up in my business. On Saturday one patron asked me if I had ever thought about dating my boss. Uh, no. When I pointed out that there is an age difference of well over 20 years between us, she told me she thought we were much closer in age than that. To quote my friend Melina, oh the pain. I knew that turning my scary age wouldn't be pretty, but apparently I hadn't realized how truly hag like it would make me.

Today another patron came in and asked me if I had wished my father a happy Father's Day. I politely told him that my father had passed away two years ago, but if he was still around then yes I would have. I was then treated to a lecture about how lucky I was that I had even known my father as my patron never got the chance to know his. I really didn't know how to respond to that so I just sort of sat there and blinked back at him. Queen of the Awkward Silence, that's me.

Tomorrow is Monday and I am looking forward to a good week. I hope. :-)

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Today a reader gave me the heads up about an interesting article that just appeared in The New York Times magazine: A New Romance. The article discusses Scott Pomfret and Scott Whittier, authors of the new novel Hot Sauce (a gay male romance novel).

After reading this article I couldn't help but think about gay fiction vs. genre fiction vs. gay genre fiction. I never really thought about gay genre fiction as a term before, but after reading this article I think an argument could be made that gay subgenres could grow out of all the major subgenres ( mystery, horror, science fiction, etc.). In the article the public relations manager of RWA said that she would consider Hot Sauce to be a nontraditional romance. As I told my RA class, if you can find enough titles to make a booklist called Gay Male Romance, you've got yourself a subgenre. Now I'm going to be keeping my eye out for other subgenre examples.

I checked around to see if any libraries in my area had added Hot Sauce to their collections, and was pleasantly surprised to see that several had. And before anyone emails me to ask this, the answer is yes, I have placed myself on hold for it. Although I have a feeling that I may be too impatient to wait and will end up going out and buying it instead (I'm very short on patience and understanding right now -- don't ask). Am I the target audience? Not really. Am I still going to give it a whirl? You bet. :-)

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But I'm going to blog about this anyway. I'm sure Michelle won't mind. :-)

Today my good friend emailed me about Janet Evanovich's Visions of Sugar Plums (the Stephanie Plum novella). She just finished it and wanted to let me know what she thought (warning: do not continue reading unless you have already read or do not wish to read Visions of Sugar Plums). Michelle wrote:

Let me just say that I was very disappointed in it. I really think it did not live up to the usual Plum novels. First of all Morelli was just a bit character, but he showed up a lot more than Lula who was only there for one chapter and it was an excuse to get Stephanie to do something crazy. Most of the book focused on Stephanie and Diesel in their search for Sandy Claws. Here is where I take issue with the book the most. Diesel is considered a special person. He has special powers (like unlocking doors without keys and teleporting). He is human, but he is a human with special powers and he is a sort of bounty hunter for other special humans with powers. The reason I don't like this is because Stephanie Plum and her world (while different and extreme sometimes) does not include the paranormal. I like paranormal as you know, but I do not like my regular world fiction books to dabble in the paranormal. It was like if you dropped Spike into the Gilmore Girls, very distracting.

I had not read Visions of Sugar Plums (somehow I missed it when I was tearing through the series), and after reading Michelle's assessment I was pretty confident that I had not really missed out on anything special. Then I got this next message from Michelle:

Oops. I remember you blog about book reviews... I bet you were grinding your teeth when I told you about Sugar Plums.

I wasn't. Personally, I think there is a big difference between reviews and opinion. Maybe I'm wrong, but to me when a friend, colleague, or reader offers an opinion on a book they aren't critiquing the storyline, writing, etc. (which Michelle did not do). Instead Michelle emailed me her honest response as a reader to a piece of fiction, worded in a way that gave me insight into what kind of readers would not want to read the book. For example, I would never offer this book now to an Evanovich fan who hates paranormal fiction. On the other hand, readers who enjoy paranormal books might find Visions of Sugar Plums to be an interesting (albeit incomplete) introduction into the world of Stephanie Plum.

So please, continue to send me your opinions about what you are reading. You won't offend me, I promise. :-)

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Tonight a friend sent me a link to this article that appeared in the June 3 issue of the Wall Street Journal. The article discusses what the author refers to as the dark side of the book world: returns. Publishers are sending more books to bookstores than ever before. In return bookstores are sending more unsold copies back to the publishers. As one would expect, this is causing some major problems for publishers. For those curious about what goes on behind the scenes in the bookselling world, it is a very interesting read and I highly recommend reading it.

As a business practice, a bookstore's ability to return unsold books has always boggled my mind. It's not like the majority of other retail stores are privileged enough to make use of this practice (as the article notes). Can you imagine if libraries had this option available to them? Whenever I order books I always keep the interests of my patrons in mind. Once a book is in the collection, it's in the collection. However, imagine how nice it would be if I could order a title, have it catalogued, shelve it in the new book section, and then if it turns out to be a dog and no one checks it out, I get to return it with no questions asked. How freeing would that be?

The one thing that I found most disturbing in the article as a reader, however, was the fact that new releases are only promoted for one or two weeks. One or two weeks! How can readers discover new authors in such a short amount of time? They can't. The time is just not adequate. Most readers don't haunt bookstores they way I do. And they shouldn't have to.

I don't know what the solution is, but there has to be one. It may involve booksellers like Borders or Barnes & Noble becoming more responsible for what they stock. As it stands right now they exist in a consequence free world. I don't see how that can continue.

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Today Ang sent me a link to a review of Melissa Bank's new book, The Wonder Spot, that appeared recently in The New York Times. The author of the review is Curtis Sittenfeld, author of the novel Prep. Not that you can really call Sittenfeld's "review" a review. Is it critical? Yes. Does it discuss the content of the book. Sure, you could say that. Is there an agenda behind it what the reviewer is saying? Absolutely. To say that I was irritated after reading the review is an understatement. But I'm not going to get into all of that here. Jennifer Weiner did a much better job of voicing her disgust at the review. So please do check out her response to it.

What I would like to address here is the issue of reviewing. You all know that I'm a librarian (the URL for this blog kind of gives that fact away). What you probably don't know is that I have what could be considered mild contempt for reviews. Now you might be saying to yourself, How can that be? Don't you regularly read reviews for your job? Yes, I do. And I believe that reviews are important in helping me and other librarians select books to add to our collection. However, I do not think reviews are the be all, end all factor in selecting books -- whether it be for my library's collection or my own personal collection. I will be the first to admit that a stellar review has swayed me to purchase a book. On the other hand, there are plenty of other times that I have gone ahead and purchased a book despite mediocre reviews (heck, I've been known to purchase books that haven't been reviewed at all). And yet mysteriously these books circulate just as well, sometimes better.

I think I'm one of those rare librarians/readers who believes that there is some piece of good that can be found in every book written. There is an article I sometimes make my students read that talks about how there are no poorly written books, just books written in a manner that is unappealing to some readers. Maybe it is me being naive, but I do believe that there is a reader for every book.

I get the importance of reviews. Really, I do. I understand why it is important to look at a work critically and point out its merits and flaws. But I just can't put that much stock into one reviewer's opinion, especially the way reviews are written today. As a librarian (and a reader) it would be much more helpful to me to know what kind of reader the book would appeal to, rather than you loved it or hated. Some reviewers do make an attempt to do this. Many, however, do not.

And before wrapping up the topic of reviews, I do have one more thing I would like to add. I have not yet had a chance to read Prep. I did put it on my summer TBR list after hearing Michael Cart talk a bit about it recently. And in case you are curious, he referred to is as ChickLit -- Sittenfeld would be so upset. But after sampling some of her nastiness in the Times it is one that I am voting off the island. Just a friendly heads up to all the authors out there. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is a bigger turnoff to readers than nastiness towards other authors and genres. You may think it makes you look all cool and smart, but to steal a phrase from Chris Jericho, all it does is make you look like an ass-clown. Consider yourself warned.

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Melina, The Trophy Wife, posted her own version of the music meme. I was a little sad to see that KLF's Justified and Ancient (known in my heart and mind as the Moo Moo Land song -- technically mu mu land, but whatever) didn't make the list. You so have to love a dance song that features Tammy Wynette. Anyway, since Melina is largely responsible for cultivating my craptacular taste in music you should definitely check it out.

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Or rather don't, because doing this is a big pain in the booty. Kirsten tagged me to do a music meme, and like Lola what Kirsten wants Kirsten gets.

The last CD I bought was...
The soundtrack to Bride and Prejudice. Loved the movie, love the soundtrack. While I don't own as many CDs as I do books, I do own a lot. And I would have to say that of the CDs I do own, almost 60% of those are either soundtracks or collections. I buy very few artists nowadays and prefer to check CDs out from my library instead. Although I will be going out on Tuesday to get Monkey Business, the new Black Eyed Peas album. And now that I know Def Leppard has a double disc collection out (how did I miss that?), I'll also be picking up their Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection.

Song (CD) playing now...
Confessions (Special Edition) by Usher. My mom got it for me for Christmas, but I didn't even remove it from the plastic until last weekend. Not sure why, just not in the mood I guess.

Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me...
Lucky Star by Madonna -- My first exposure to Madonna, so of course it is first on the list. I remember being really excited when I saw the video and telling my parents, "There's someone just like me."

Crazy in Love by Beyonce -- This is the top booty shakin' song of all time. I dare you to listen to this song and not shake your booty. Can't be done.

Little Bird by Annie Lennox -- I love Annie Lennox's Diva album, but Little Bird has to be my favorite song on the album (although Why and Money Can't Buy It run a close second). It is one of those songs that whenever it is on I have to sing along with it. I can't explain it, it just makes me happy.

Let's Go Crazy by Prince and the Revolution -- When I was little I was the first girl on the block to get a boom box (I so dated myself there). It was a really big deal at the time because you had to drop a huge chunk of cash to get one. While I didn't have mad cash to spend on one (lemonade stands do not rake in the money when you live on a dead end street -- go figure), my grandfather was more than happy to buy one for me. I remember it as being one of the few things me and Grandpa did together, just the two of us. He took me to Target and let me pick it out, and in addition to buying me batteries so I could be more mobile with it, he also let me buy one tape. Even though I had tons of records/albums, I didn't have one single cassette tape, so the choice had to be good. When I wandered over to the music aisle the soundtrack to Purple Rail called out to me like a beacon of hope. I then spent the entire summer not only listening to Purple Rain, but staging huge dance numbers in my front yard to the songs (except Darling Nikki of course, I so knew that would get me in trouble). Just so you don't think I was a weird kid, I wasn't alone. I would organize all the neighborhood children and we would work on choreography together. Let's Go Crazy was always our favorite song to do though because there is that big guitar solo at the end, and that just called for tumbling run. And when your little there is nothing like sprinting across the lawn to work up enough speed for a kickass cartwheel. And yes, I know what you're thinking. Chubby girls don't tumble. I'm here to tell you they do my friends, just not very well. Back in the day I could do a mean cartwheel and a decent round-off. Somersaulting, however, freaked me out. I was convinced that it I ever tried to do one my neck would snap in half, so I avoided somersaults like the plague.

Angel by Aerosmith -- This song goes on the list because it was the first song I ever slow danced to with a boy. I was in sixth grade (crap memory can't remember) and the dance was held in the local Catholic church's basement. At the time I thought it was the most romantic thing ever because the guy was singing the lyrics in my ear. He stepped on my foot several times, but I didn't mind. It was romantic. Ahhhh. To be in sixth grade again.

I'm done. Woo hoo! And unlike Kirsten, I will only tag one person:
I'm tagging Melina (The Trophy Wife) because it has been almost a year since she last blogged (and I thought I was the lazy blogger). Besides, she is the only person who has more craptacular taste in music than me, so I am dying to see what she selects.

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Oprah has a new book club pick for summer. Actually, she picked three books that are going to be sold as a special Oprah set. How jealous are those contemporary fiction authors now?

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As any Reader (note: not reader) will tell you, there is something thrilling about getting a book early. I must admit that I feel all twitterpated (stealing Dakota's word here) when I see a book sitting on my library's shelves or a bookstore's shelves early. The desire to check it out and/or purchase it is overwhelming. And don't get me started on ARCs (advance reading copies). Getting hold of a book several months before its release date is like crack to this book addict. And just like crack, early books and ARCs have their downside.

For example, over the weekend I finally got a chance to read Ready by Lucy Monroe. After reading about Bella and Daisy in two earlier novellas, I was really curious to read their brother's story (especially when I found out his story was a full length release and not a novella -- woo hoo!). My wish was granted when Lucy gave me an ARC of Ready, and I was spared having to wait until July. Feeling like a lucky girl and knowing I would regret diving in right away, I managed to hold off on reading it for a couple of weeks but finally gave into temptation over the weekend. Loved the book, loved the characters, loved the story. All good right? Nope. Now I'm dying to read the next book, Willing. Seriously. I finished reading Ready and said to myself, okay, I want the next book right now. Guess when the next book is coming out. January 2006. That is a long ass time for a girl who has almost zero patience to wait.

I don't think I'm alone in my impatience as a Reader though. A few days after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out I had someone in the library inquiring about when I would be able to get the next book in the series for them. It is something Readers unintentionally do. We burn through new books (regardless of whether we are reading a favorite author or a newly discovered one) with alarming speed, and then are left not sure what to read next. The good news is that there are always new books and new authors to be discovered. The bad news is that if the last book you read is part of a series that you are dying to keep reading, the wait for the next book (no matter how long) will seem interminable.

And even though I know better, I will still stay up reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince all night when it comes out. And the next day I will be crabby not because of lack of sleep, but because I will be impatient for the final book of the series. Readers -- we'll never learn.

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