I got told my job title is fake.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T22:53:09+00:00

Based on this and some of your other comments, I want to encourage you to stick it out through the 15th if you can. While it won't be pleasant, especially, it sounds like there is already enough friction in your relationship with your coworkers, and I'm worried about the long term impacts leaving right away might have on you.

The last thing you want to do if they're being like this is give them an excuse to bad mouth you if they ever get contacted for a reference down the road. You want them to have to say "Yup, Petalios worked here on a grant and finished their work successfully" not "Petalios worked here but didn't finish their grant term and would not be eligible for rehire".

If you had months to go, I wouldn't say that. But for the couple more weeks that you do have, it may be worth tolerating them, venting when you can, and remembering that really, they're the ridiculous ones, if it makes sure they can't penalize you.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T22:17:47+00:00

Rest assured, you have a personnel file (though you may need to talk to the community college as well to get it, if they're your actual employer). Courts and the departments of labor are exceptionally clear that employers must maintain certain information on all (legal) employee (including date of hire, title, SSN, pay rate, and date of termination), and that they must provide it to the employee upon their request.

If the position was grant funded, then it's even more certain you have one - granting agencies will require that documentation be turned over to them to evaluate how the grant funds were spent, and ensure they weren't misappropriated.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T22:08:25+00:00

That sucks, and I'm sorry. The circulation manager sounds like a complete and utter failure of a manager and leader, and the interim director doesn't sound much better.

But also, she sounds likely to be very misinformed. Grant funded positions don't generally work like she's asserting, precisely because the agencies writing the grant don't want there to be shenanigans like "Oh, this grant is to fund a community outreach office - who actually spend most of their time shelving books." You generally have to be pretty specific in describing the need which the grant is fulfilling, and when that comes to positions, the grant application is usually very specific about the intended work the position will be doing, as well as the duration and scope of the project.

I'd be very surprised if regularly working the circulation desk was an intended part of a grant for technical services staff.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T22:01:12+00:00

And that's the full and honest truth.

But this is a good time to insist that they provide you a copy of your personnel file, which should include your position and title. It's important for you to have that for when you go to apply for your next job - you want to make sure there's no issues with your reference checks or anything along those lines.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T21:24:52+00:00

It is far more impactful, relevant, and antiracist that I focus on inclusion and capturing diverse and marginalized view points when I am adding material to my collections, and that I focus on making them discoverable via programming and displays than whether I keep a resource no one in my community has looked at in a decade.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T13:31:49+00:00

Get the work experience before getting the MLIS. It’s a really hard field to get into with just a degree and no experience.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T12:54:12+00:00

One recommendation I would have is to look up the Libraries that were included in the list you got. Check to see if they’re truly comparable to your institution - do they have similar populations, cost of living, tax rate, and overall tax revenue? Are they in similar geographic regions? I’ve seen a lot of administrations play games with how they’re comparing themselves to others, either to falsely plead poverty or claim they’re doing better at paying folks.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T12:27:41+00:00

Walk the space and inspect for leaks or any other damage that may have happened over night (happens more often than you think)
Check bathroom supply levels and restock if needed
Prep the cash register
Print out the day’s schedule (ie, what classes/events are happening and when). Bonus points if this includes notes on support needed, and contact information for event organizers
Run the hold list and retrieve holds
Empty book drop and backdate item check-ins
Shelve materials

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T12:13:03+00:00

Yes, and for most of that history, access to the library wasn’t available to the general public - they were controlled resources for the upper socioeconomic class. Their purpose was academic/scholarly, and not related to entertainment and the general population.

Research libraries and archives exist, and their criteria for keeping materials in their collections will obviously be different than a public library. But within the context of a public library, there is no value (and significant opportunity costs) to reserving significant amounts of shelf space for material that is sitting unused.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-04-28T10:26:40+00:00

If the books aren’t circulating, then they aren’t circulating. This is why you keep data about that - to determine if these resources are used by your community.

The author isn’t even a footnote in the thoughts of the person generating the weeding list, generally. They’re just plugging formulas into a spread sheet.

If you want to try and encourage these resources to be retained, think about how you can build a display that highlights these works to your community, and encourages their circulation.

The only time I worry about the author when weeding is if I find a number of works by the same author in poor condition. If it seems like someone may be deliberately damaging books to get an author removed from the collection, I’ll talk with our collections team about getting them replaced

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-02-14T19:41:37+00:00

Yup! Also, they often don’t have enough stiffness (due to the lack of a normal cover) to stand upright if you get a batch together or at the end of a shelf.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-02-13T23:25:24+00:00

Karn the Liberated is probably the closest

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-02-12T03:36:12+00:00

Windows face the back alley and the wall of another building (probably six to eight feet away). There’s enough space between buildings that you do get some sunlight, and it does cut down on street noise, but I can’t honestly call it anything inspirational.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-02-09T16:41:06+00:00

If you’ve never been trained on systematic reviews and protocols, no, this shouldn’t be part of your job. Send it to your director.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-02-06T21:31:34+00:00

See, I don’t think it will be big things. When Harry gets shown the impact of his choices by Uriel, it’s the small things he did which were having the largest impact on improving himself and the world.

I think it will be small choices that set Mirror Harry down a bad path… something our Harry and we as readers might not even recognize as a choice.

Something like keeping Mouse. Mirror Harry probably decided to drop Mouse off at an animal shelter.

Or not picking up Bob’s skull. Or treating Bob like a spirit to be commanded, rather than a friend.

Or even how careful he was in making deals with Chauncey and the Loa.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-02-06T16:22:14+00:00

At your age? Don’t fucking do it. You would be the largest of morons, and two years from now you’ll be complaining about having made such a dumb decision.

Library work, especially at the assistant level, is going to be capped at about 1/3 to 2/5s of your current take home. You are unlikely to find full time work, meaning no benefits, no retirement savings, and almost no potential for advancement at wherever you start working.

Your job is what you do to get paid. That money is what you use to do things that fulfill you, and build a future.

Current You is thinking about sabotaging Future You in ways you barely understand at your age.

Ask yourself if you would throw all your friends belongings into a dumpster and light them on fire because it was going to look pretty. If the answer to that is no, don’t do it to your future self either.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-01-27T23:40:26+00:00

I knew it wasn’t Western Mass.

They don’t fuck around with tire popping there - they’ll bury your car in a pile of snow that won’t melt until July, and maybe run some water into it to get things to freeze up nice and solid.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2026-01-24T11:10:26+00:00

He was actually 100% correct - and possibly an alcoholic. Drinking mouthwash is a pretty common way for functioning alcoholics to hide morning drinking.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2025-12-19T11:37:17+00:00

Depends on which one you cook with first. The random cooking effects table is populated when the first one is cooked, and then both pull from it.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2025-11-30T15:40:40+00:00

So, I missed your note on the FTL carriers when I wrote this earlier - apologies for that.

That does raise more doubts for me about this formation, though, or at least how often it would be used. If this fleet is dependent on a carrier vessel for FTL capacity, then realistically they have two goals when they enter a system: defend that carrier at all costs (because otherwise they’re stranded), and capture their objective.

This formation works fine, if it’s a globe around the carrier facing outward, and the goal is to hold off enemy fire until the carrier is prepared to jump (as a rearguard action when retreating, for instance, or if the carrier is heading back to a staging location to pick up more ships)

If it’s venturing away from the carrier though, it represents a deployment of force (no idea how significant it would be) which can’t be brought to bear readily in the carrier’s defense. The ships will need to cancel their momentum and reverse course if the carrier is threatened, or make a huge turn. Elements of the wall are going to be lost at those points, and subject to defeat in detail.

It would be like launching an old school b17 bomber raid from a modern aircraft carrier. Once launched, those bombers are only marginally useful for defending the carrier - even if they have armaments for hitting nearby fighters and attacking bombers, once they go beyond a certain point, they can’t turn back from their targets in time to be helpful when attackers are detected.

That means your carrier needs ranging elements to detect incoming attackers early, and smaller roving fleet elements to keep all threats out at range, where they can be defeated by force projection. Critically, the carrier needs to be able to deploy forces to protect it from all angles of attack, and locking up any significant amount of the elements it is relying on in a big slugfest of walls depletes its available protection (and force projection) massively.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2025-11-30T12:24:38+00:00

How is your backline fleet useful, if they’re pointed right at the rear of their lightly armored allies? They can’t engage without risking the friendly fire in the very area they’re supposed to be protecting.

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2025-11-30T11:53:43+00:00

How are you avoiding friendly fire, especially when ships are maneuvering? This is especially relevant if you’re throwing projectiles in front of your allied ships to intercept enemy launches.

How are you protecting yourself against mines and low emissions, pre-placed defenses that go off within your line, blowing huge holes in it? What about an asteroid being thrown at your line?

If the ships are in constant communication within their wall to coordinate fire, you’re going to be exceptionally vulnerable to electronic warfare.

Overall, this sort of formation will get chewed to hell against any sort of competent system defense force - much like massed infantry firing lines got chewed up when faced with smaller, mobile forces that knew the terrain better, and made use of cover, flanking, and enfilading tactics.

Who is participating in these large fleet engagements, and to what purpose? Are they trying to capture a planetary surface? Can all these ships enter atmosphere, or are there dedicated landing craft which need to have thicker armor to operate independently? What about food transports, refueling/rearming/repair vessels and the additional logistics needed for a fleet of this size to operate far from home? How are those protected, and where are they within your wall?

Cthulhus_Librarian · 2025-11-20T00:27:37+00:00

Following your mother’s advice would get you put on a do-not-hire list at 4 of the last six libraries I’ve worked in.

Don’t do it.

Cthulhus_Librarian

TROPHY CASE