While writing yesterday’s article, I wondered what 23 Things might look like through the eyes of many public library directors in this area. Might they say something like…
“I’d love to learn more about web 2.0 – but I struggle every day to get my job done. We’ve got more patrons then ever coming through the doors and we absorbed this year’s budget cuts by not replacing the staff who left last year.
Many of our patrons need help with basic computing and using job search databases—Flickr just isn’t a priority for them, or us.
Right now, my priority is preparing the documentation our town needs to support its request for a state certification waiver. And after that, I need to step up my search & application for grant money. I need to get this done even though 20% of my time is now spent working the front desk to cover for the staff we didn’t replace.
And yeah, I’d love to offer my staff prizes and incentives – but I’ll tell you – even if we could afford them, my staff is so demoralized right now that a laptop computer or mp3 player wouldn’t mean much to them. It’s hard not to take years of disproportionate budget cuts personally or to continually hear that your work can be replaced by a Google search. These things wear on you.”
