What's going to happen now?

Honestly, I had nothing to do with it.

Sure, no sooner had I received my degree and could call myself a "real" librarian than the library world collapsed in on itself. Rockford Public Library announced that it would cut staff and hours by 25 to 30 % before 2010. Other libraries began slashing jobs and/or hours, mandating furloughs, and closing branch locations.

Believe me, it wasn't my fault.


I had absolutely nothing to do with the collapse of America's economy. Oh, sure, I did vote for some of those bozos who allowed it to happen, but I trusted in my elected officials to regulate financial markets and pevent unconscionable risk-taking by bankers and investment gurus. I trusted them.

And I was wrong.

I've never been wrong before. Yeah, I thought I was once, but it was only a mistake.

Wrong is wrong is wrong.

I'm beating myself up for allowing this to happen. I was so busy with school and having my attention diverted with wars and terrorist attacks and other such trivialities that I neglected to watch what was happening with the money: who was gettin rich by doing what.

That was not only a mistake, it was wrong.

I wasn't alone. No one else was watching what the thieves were doing, either. No one, that is, except the thieves and their cronies.

Because we weren't watching, my colleagues and I were blindsided when libraries began closing and/or curtailing services and/or laying off people.

And, when we were told by Rockford Public Library adminitrators that 30 staff would be cut before the end of the year, we were shocked, traumatized, and left with few viable options.

The end of the world as we know it

Things are changing. Things always change, of course; nothing ever remains the same. Everything in the universe is evolving, growing, shrinking, expanding, contracting, moving, becoming. Quiet and stillness--and peace--represents death and an end to becoming.

Then why do all religions and most societies consider peace to be the highest good?

Peace and quiet are anathema to most human beings and the mortal universe. They are the province of god and god-sayers. We get to partake only after we shed this mortal coil.

Though I graduated from UW Madison School of Library and Information Studies program in August and looked forward to a modicum of peace and quiet, that peace and quiet and the much-desired time of rest and relaxation failed to materialize. I should have known. It is, after all, the way of things.

You can visit my other blog at http://pauldaleanderson.blogspot.com and get an inkling about what has happened with the Google book settlement and its possible impact on libraries, librarians, booksellers (both new and used/antiquarian), publishers, and writers. What I foresee happening is the end of libraries as we know them.

Not that it's Google's fault, mind you. It isn't. It's just the way of things.

Libraries have had their time in the sun. There is no place for the old library as we knew it in the new world order. Ot's just the way of things that libraries will be replaced with something else that does the same job--maybe not better--but differently.

About the time I graduated from library school and became a full-fleddged librarian, Rockford Public Library (where I have worked on-and-off for nearly 45 years) announced that it would lay off 30 full-time-equivalent staff members and significantly reduce hours of operation.

Google didn't cause that to happen. Capitalist excesses during the past eight years have led to the demise of many cherished not-for-profit organizations, and libraries may be among them. What Google did do, however, was to mitigate the public outcry when it was announced that library services and staffing could be cut.

Many people reasoned thusly: We have Google, so who needs libraries and librarians anymore?

This train of thought will be continued in future blogs. Tune in again tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel (or URL).

Change is inevitable. Nothing remains the same forever.