CONGRATULATIONS AND APPRECIATION
By Roy Stone

New Seniors - finally the fits and starts of the examination process are behind us, the list with all its goods and bads will be reset minus the promotions, interviews are complete, the start dates and assignments presented. Many stayed, many moved, most are happy and some are not...but we now move forward in a new phase of LAPL. More appointments than have ever been done at any one time for Seniors and Principals just a little while ago. So, the Librarians’ Guild offers wishes of success and good luck in all of the recent promotions, including former Guild members, the Division Librarians.

Appreciation is extended to everyone who served in the difficult months and years of filling an ‘acting’position. We know it was not the easiest position to hold and some of you had some seriously difficult branches to handle. But the vagaries of the City of Los Angeles’ promotional process doesn’t always end up the way we think it should, and this time, like every other time left some people who worked very had in the acting positions but were unable to be considered for promotion. There are some things that just don’t seem right, but didn’t our parents always tell us that ‘life isn’t fair’? So on behalf of the Librarians’ Guild we offer our appreciation for doing your part to keep a department or branch functioning for a long time under not so easy circumstances. What we were able to do was work with Management and Branch Library Services so that you could, at least, have a choice in your new assignment. 

PRESIDENT'S REPORT APRIL 2013
By Roy Stone
 
We hope you’ll be checking in on the blog often and there will be quarterly PDF newsletters with articles from the blog coming out quarterly. The new editor Elyse Barrere welcomes all articles from members and past members of the Guild, short ones are just fine. She is probably mentioning that elsewhere.

HIRING--PROMOTING....The Guild has been actively promoting and encouraging Library Management to hire and promote as quickly as possible. And when the Managed Hiring Committee (representatives of the Mayor, Chief Legislative Analyst, City Administrative Officer) continued to obstruct the hiring of new staff, this time the budgeted Clerk Typists, Henry Gambill and I visited some of the key participants, including the Budget and Finance Committee, several City council offices, and two thoughtful people in the CAO and CLA’s offices. Within two days John Szabo called to tell us that we were successful, and that the Managed Hiring Committee had authorized the hiring of the Clerk-Typists. Of course all the hiring was now colliding in the Human Resources office, but as you know we are moving forward.

MIGRATION II....The Great Migration of 2011(or was it 2010?), as it came to be known, caused a lot of people to change their jobs and their home branches as they were forcibly moved to other agencies in an effort to equalize the staffing. It was a very difficult time for everyone. This third major staffing disruption, the first being E.R.I.P. - the early retirement plan that saw quite a few library staff leaving, followed by the tragic layoffs of librarians and clerks and the firings of over a hundred messenger-clerk, was a very difficult time for everyone. Our great library system was continuing its rush on a downward spiral. Service hours and then days were reduced again and again so that the few remaining people could maintain some sort of library service. However after literally clawing our way back by fighting for the passage of Measure L, fighting for the rehiring of laid off staff, fighting for the hiring of regular civil service staff we are facing a new and much happier migration.

Coming Soon! Stopping the destruction of the Pio Pico Koreatown Branch.  Negotiations for our contract are coming up.  Training for the new seniors.  The City budget...the Library budget.

Welcome to the Communicator!

Hello and welcome to the all new Librarian's Guild Communicator. If you've read this introduction before, feel free to scroll down and read our newer posts.

We're going to try out something a little different with this new incarnation.  This website will be run like a blog.  If you would like to submit a story all you have to do is write it up and send it to libguildcommunicator at gmail dot com.  The terms of submission are listed to the right side on this page. 

If you have questions or ideas please feel free to email me at libguildcommunicator at gmail dot com.

Your entries can be short.  We don't expect research papers.  Although, we wouldn't reject them either.  But if you want to make your point in just a paragraph or two that is perfect! 

Unsure of what to submit?  Here's a few ideas you can start with...

Librarians After Dark - What do you get up to when you leave the library?  Are you a rock star?  An artist?  Are you raising llamas in your backyard?  Let us know about your life afterhours.  Or maybe you know a coworker with an interesting hobby.  Ask them to sit down for an interview with you!

Funny Reference Questions – Did you get a reference question that made you giggle?  Tell your coworkers and give them a laugh too!

Potpourri - Did you recently have an epiphany about work?  Discover that you really enjoy a certain kind of patron, question or project?  Want to relay a funny anecdote (let’s change the names to protect the not-so-innocent)? 

There are no official "deadlines" for this blog.  If you send me an article I'll go through it for spelling and grammar and then I'll post it to the blog ASAP! 

If you're shy and you want to write something but you don't want your name attached, that's fine too.  I will need to know who you are (since I can only accept submissions from current and retired LAPL librarians) but I won't put your name on the blog with your article.