Change of Profession (sort of)

Times change and people change and I'm no exception. After several years as a community college librarian, I have now returned to working in K-12 education. I've taken a position as a student advisor (guidance counselor without the clinical counseling) at a small, rural Kansas high school. Thus far I love the work and hope to stay there until I retire. Those who knew me in high school are probably amazed at my current position, considering some of the deeds (and misdeeds) I pulled off during my own high school years. But, hopefully, the experiences I gained during those years will help me guide young lives and mold young minds. In other words, not make the same mistakes I made.

As I leave the library profession for the second and, probably, last time, I feel that I should make a few observations in passing. After all, I spent nearly 20 years in the profession - serving in high school, public, college and university libraries - and should have learned a few things along the way. So here goes:
(1) Technology is changing libraries almost beyond recognition and, in general, librarians and their everpresent bosses - the administrators and board members - have not kept pace. Computers are often too few in number at libraries and the people in charge often can't quite grasp the fact that, if they offer a wireless connection, people will actually use their own laptops. What Starbucks has known for years seems to be above the heads of many people in charge of libraries.
(2) The American Library Association is largely a liberal organization, stuck in the late 1960s and unable to comprehend the changing world about them. This applies both to the world of technology and the world of politics. The association dropped the ball badly on Cuba and doesn't seem able to rectify, or even admit, that mistake.
(3) Library science is largely a female dominated profession and, sadly, many of those women fail to see that more men in the profession would be a good thing. They are disgusted by the scarcity of male patrons, but are offended by the suggestion that more male librarians would likely mean more male patrons.

So now, I say goodbye to the library profession and look forward to fighting new battles on the K-12 education front. For those who read this blog, I say that I am basically the same person as before. I'm still a Republican with a strong Liberterian streak who believes that government does best when it stays out of citizen's lives and lets them make their own mistakes. I believe the federal government should concentrate on national security, state and local governments should concentrate on law and order, and school boards should concentrate on producing productive, well informed and clear thinking citizens. I have a tendency to be a protectionist when it comes to trade, but I recognize that battle has already been fought and that free enterprise won. With the advent of the World Wide Web, ideas, knowledge and trade have all become international and nothing short of nuclear war or a massive gamma ray burst is going to change that.

So, stay tuned. I'm still in the commentary game.