Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Territorial, Being

Librarians often find themselves in uncomfortable situations where there is not a clear consensus on who has jurisdiction over a certain library collection or service. Some examples:
  • Who orders the DSM-IV for the reference collection -- the head of reference or the subject bibliographer?
  • Should the music education collection be managed by the music librarian or the education librarian?
  • Who controls the web page to which everyone contributes?
  • Who has the final say on how the public catalog records display -- reference librarians or catalogers?
Confused as to how one stakes a claim on a given collection or service?

Pee on it.

Yep, like a dog. Pee on your call number range in the reference collection. Pee on the music education books. Pee on the web page. Pee on the catalog. While you're at it, pee in your office. Pee on your favorite chair in the director's conference room. Pee on the reference desk. Pee on your coffee cup.

Note: Do not pee on people, even if they do report to you.

Drink lots of fluids. It can take a lot out of you to have so much control.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm the only one at my library who knows HTML and CSS, yet the Systems Librarian (who knows next to nothing about Web design) insists on controlling anything involving Web design and won't let me near anything. He's done just about everything but pee on the Web pages! So nothing can ever be improved because he doesn't know how to improve it.

Why in the world would someone want to control something they aren't competent to improve or make changes to?

You totally brightened my day with this!

Anonymous said...

Ewww! I don't want to go to your library!

Anonymous said...

I peed on the server, once.

Norma said...

Well, you write a lot of funny stuff, but this is one of the best. Worked in nicely with my cat story.

Anonymous said...

The next time one of the Admin Librarians says to ma, "Who is your boss?" I'll just say, "Stop peeing on me beeaach!"

Anonymous said...

I'm going to pee upwards next time my boss tells me i've violated the "Chain of Command"