Librarian Jobs

Peig Sayers

Are they handled by Dublin City Council? Would love to do some part-time work in one. Do you need a degree?

AARRRGH

My flatmate used to have a Librarian girlfriend.

I remember her telling me that to be a Librarian you need a degree and some kind of post graduate librarianship qualification.

I know it looks like they just stack books all day but they are highly qualified.

Would you consider working in a book shop instead?

Peig Sayers

dublindude wrote: »

Would you consider working in a book shop instead?

Yes, I would but would prefer a library. Surely they can't all have degrees?

AARRRGH

Peig Sayers wrote: »

Yes, I would but would prefer a library. Surely they can't all have degrees?

I think they do! And more, they would probably have a post graduate qualification as well.

Honestly, it's just one of those weird jobs where everyone is really overqualified.

Have a look here: http://www.library.ie/weblog/category/current-vacancies/

eth0_

Peig Sayers wrote: »

Yes, I would but would prefer a library. Surely they can't all have degrees?

To be an actual librarian, yes, you need a post-graduate qualification in librarianship. There may be some ancillary posts which don't require this.

Peig Sayers

eth0_ wrote: »

To be an actual librarian, yes, you need a post-graduate qualification in librarianship. There may be some ancillary posts which don't require this.

Yes, it's the ancillary posts I would be interested in.

hunter164

hahahahaha degree to work as a librarian.

AARRRGH

hunter164 wrote: »

hahahahaha degree to work as a librarian.

You could probably apply that logic to most jobs.

Unshelved

To be a Library Assistant you don't need a degree - although many do.

To be an Librarian you need a primary degree and a postgraduate diploma or masters degree in Library and Information Studies/Science. You can do that in UCD or by correspondence course from somewhere like Aberystwyth or Aberdeen.

If you work as a Library Assistant in one of the city or county council libraries they may send you to do the postgrad qualification in UCD on full pay!

AARRRGH

Unshelved wrote: »

If you work as a Library Assistant in one of the city or county council libraries they may send you to do the postgrad qualification in UCD on full pay!

Nice to see our tax pay being put to good use!

Unshelved

Nice to see our tax pay being put to good use!

Are you being sarcastic? If you are then why do you think having properly qualified staff in public libraries a waste of public funds?

If you're not then discount the above!

AARRRGH

Unshelved wrote: »

Are you being sarcastic? If you are then why do you think having properly qualified staff in public libraries a waste of public funds?

If you're not then discount the above!

No, I'm not being sarcastic!

Would your employer (if it's a private company) pay your full wage as you go off getting other qualifications?

And let's be honest here, being a Librarian is hardly rocket science. I'm sure a bit of on the job training is all that's required. (Just like my job, there is no need for a Computer Science Degree, I could teach you everything on the job.)

Unshelved

Would your employer (if it's a private company) pay your full wage as you go off getting other qualifications?

Plenty do - the banks do, as do many multinational companies - ICI for one springs to mind. You normally have to sign up to work for a number of years for that company afterwards. The qualification only takes an academic year - October to May - so it's not that much time out, and the organisation gets a qualified member of staff.

I'm not going to argue with you about the job description of a Librarian. You have clearly made up your (narrow) mind.

AARRRGH

Unshelved wrote: »

Plenty do - the banks do, as do many multinational companies - ICI for one springs to mind. You normally have to sign up to work for a number of years for that company afterwards. The qualification only takes an academic year - October to May - so it's not that much time out, and the organisation gets a qualified member of staff.

By "plenty" I think you mean a couple do.

Unshelved wrote: »

I'm not going to argue with you about the job description of a Librarian. You have clearly made up your (narrow) mind.

Why the insult?!

Do you honestly think a Librarian needs a post graduate qualification? Come on... of course they don't. That's not an insult.

Why can't the trainee Librarian get her qualification the way normal people do, i.e. pay for it herself? Is there no part-time option?

TBH it reeks of more tax wastage.

/No offence
//I would be a supporter of libraries

Dudess

I did a bit of temping as a library assistant in Cork City Library one summer - no librarian qualification needed. I got it the same way as I'd get a temping job in any of Cork City Council's departments - sent my CV to Personnel in application for temping work (library/museum assistant fits in under the clerical officer umbrella). My hours were part-time too - one full day, three three-hour shifts.
Have to say though, it was the most boring job I've ever done in my life. A day felt like a number of days. I mostly worked in the central library but sometimes got sent out to one of the suburban branches - a day seemed like a week in one of those places! When I lived in Dublin I went into the Irishtown library one day to use the internet. I was there about an hour and I honestly don't think more than one person came in.

I thought I'd love it too, so OP, don't do it if you've a low boredom threshold. Plus, it's not actually a particularly good place to work if you're really interested in literature. A book shop would be far better for that. The vast majority of people I served were auld ones and auld fellas taking out/returning Mills & Boon/Josephine Cox/Catherine Cookson etc and westerns respectively. Do younger people with a more interesting taste in literature even use the library any more with the advent of the internet and far more money in our pockets?
I'd be more inclined to go for Waterstones/Hodges Figgis... or what about an academic library? I personally would consider that more interesting than a public one, but that's just me.

Also Unshelved, I too have wondered why the need for an archiving qualification. How complicated can archiving be? Could a person not be trained up on the organisation's database? Places like RTE and the Irish Film Institute also expect those who go for archiving jobs to have such a qualification too. Would it even be a popular choice of course?

jd83

N.C.I library in dublin are looking for library assistant:

http://www.ncirl.ie/site/vacancy_details.asp?pageId=1023&sectionId=15&level=2&id=231

Not a librarian but could be good experience for someone interested in entering the field.

AARRRGH

Dudess, I reckon it's like a private members club. You must have so and so a qualifcation to gain access.

Tails142

dublindude wrote: »

By "plenty" I think you mean a couple do.





Why the insult?!

Do you honestly think a Librarian needs a post graduate qualification? Come on... of course they don't. That's not an insult.

Why can't the trainee Librarian get her qualification the way normal people do, i.e. pay for it herself? Is there no part-time option?

TBH it reeks of more tax wastage.

/No offence
//I would be a supporter of libraries

How else are librarians supposed to learn how to be snotty, inefficient and give poor service?

haha, ok only joking but in DIT Bolton Street there were a few librarians who were quite unhelpful, though one guy who always wore an ireland jersey who was great!!

I think specific training is important, and I dont see why a library wouldnt want to train up an assistant who they feel is a good worker to become a fully fledged senior librarian just like any other business would

Red Hand

Dudess wrote: »

I once did a bit of temping as a library assistant in Cork City Library - no librarian qualification needed. I got it the same way as I'd get a temping job in any of Cork City Council's departments - sent my CV to Personnel in application for temping work (library/museum assistant fits in under the clerical officer umbrella). My hours were part-time too - one full day, three three-hour shifts.
Have to say though, it was the most boring job I've ever done in my life. A day felt like a number of days. I mostly worked in the central library but sometimes got sent out to one of the suburban branches - a day seemed like a week in one of those places! When I lived in Dublin I went into the Irishtown library one day to use the internet. I was there about an hour and I honestly don't think more than one person came in.

I can't belive that! Think of all the books that you could be reading on a quite day?

Black Swan

But Jeremiah, they don't have THOSE kinds of books (or magazines)!

Red Hand

Huh? "Thumbtacks and their impact on the 20th centuary?" Yes, I do have a deep interest in top shelf thumb tack magazines for sure.....my secret shame.:pac::p

(Just don't bandy it about!)

Unshelved

Why can't the trainee Librarian get her qualification the way normal people do, i.e. pay for it herself? Is there no part-time option?

From my previous post -

You can do that in UCD or by correspondence course from somewhere like Aberystwyth or Aberdeen.

I was merely stating that scholarships are available for some people. If county library boards send a couple of people every year to get qualified then it represents an incentive to the rest of the staff to stay motivated. You obviously disagree. I'm sorry I can't provide a complete list of all the private companies that offer similar incentives but I thought a couple of examples would suffice. When I was a Library school out of a class of about 50 there were three people from county libraries, three people from large law firms and one from a large accountancy firm, all getting their qualifications on company time. The private sector obviously felt that it was as worthwhile as the public. Everybody else, I assume, paid for themselves (as did I).

On a typical morning this week I was asked to find a patent covering a specific air conditioning machine, where to find peer-reviewed periodical articles about French-speakers under the age of 12 learning a second language, and where to find out about the history of a specific 18th century fireplace. If you can do that then perhaps Dublindude you should consider an alternative career!

To answer Dudess's query, archiving is an extremely complicated and painstaking job and it is unlikely that you would find a position without the qualification (available only in UCD I think). I know relatively little about it but you MIGHT find more details here - http://www.ucd.ie/archives/

AARRRGH

Unshelved wrote: »

On a typical morning this week I was asked to find a patent covering a specific air conditioning machine, where to find peer-reviewed periodical articles about French-speakers under the age of 12 learning a second language, and where to find out about the history of a specific 18th century fireplace. If you can do that then perhaps Dublindude you should consider an alternative career!

No offence but:

<snip> (Let's not go down this road...)

Those things you do on a typical day, I am sure some on the job training could show you where to look for the answers.

I don't think your job is pointless (I've never said I thought it was), and I am a big supporter of life long education (I'm doing an MSc, and will be starting another MSc in September), but I do have a problem with tax money being spent on unnecessary things like a qualification someone should pay for themself.

eth0_

Dublindude, i find your above post offensive and i'm not even a librarian.

It actually takes quite a bit of training to learn how to research documents etc, to say it's as simple as doing a google search is pretty cheeky.

You reckon you could work in a place like the Pearse Library historical archives, helping local and visiting students/historians/people researching their family tree with just the aid of knowing how to use Google? Give me a break

AARRRGH

eth0_ wrote: »

Dublindude, i find your above post offensive and i'm not even a librarian.

Yeah, I didn't really want to type it, but she did ask me...

I don't at all think Librarians are useless. My only issue is our tax money paying for them to do full-time librarianship courses. I don't think that makes any sense.

I think we can all agree that a lot of jobs can be learnt with on the job training. They may require qualifications, but frequently most of what you learnt in college is irrelevant. This would apply to my job. I think I could train anyone to do my job, including a Librarian!!

But I apologise if I offended anyone. It wasn't my intention. (I actually never set out to offend people, but I appreciate my "say what I feel" way of writing can probably be offensive sometimes.)

Degsy

dublindude wrote: »

And let's be honest here, being a Librarian is hardly rocket science. I'm sure a bit of on the job training is all that's required.

That very much depends on whether you're working in a public library where you might have a small number of customers,a few books to order and maybe a couple of Public Acess PCs or an Academic Library where you could have 12,000 users,a staff or a couple of hundred and a daily influx of several thousand books a day.On top of which there are electronic databases,assitive technology,online rescources,printed catalogues,special catalogues for older books,restrictions,copyright issues,varying degrees of user privilege,(outside readers,undergrads,postgrads,staff members),reading list indexes,ordering,cataloguing,shelving,signage,processing,moving,changing records,tracing missing books,replacing,buying,binding,stamping,labelling,fitting security tags,updating and writing computer systems,reports,conservation and one or two more things i've probably forgotten.You could be asked about ANY of those things any day of the week by anybody at all and if you dont know what you're talking about library users have been known to raise merry hell.

AARRRGH

I'm sorry, but I don't think any of those things warrant our tax money paying them a full wage while they go off doing a full-time course for a year.

Government departments should be run like a business, not a charity.

Btw, that quote -

And let's be honest here, being a Librarian is hardly rocket science. I'm sure a bit of on the job training is all that's required.

- was in the context of people being sent on year long courses at our expense, rather than the more efficient system of on the job training.

Saying all that, and I know I am repeating myself here, I do think most jobs can be taught "on the job", including my own (which also "requires" a degree.)

catho_monster

To answer the OP's question, yup Dublin City Council and the Dublin Institute of Technology are the ones you need to be keeping an eye out for.

Both will be advertising in the job sections of Times etc. whenever jobs come up or panels need filling.

What you're looking for is the Library Assistant job which you dont need a qualification to get.

Degsy

dublindude wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I don't think any of those things warrant our tax money paying them a full wage while they go off doing a full-time course for a year.

Government departments should be run like a business, not a charity.

Btw, that quote -



- was in the context of people being sent on year long courses at our expense, rather than the more efficient system of on the job training.

Saying all that, and I know I am repeating myself here, I do think most jobs can be taught "on the job", including my own (which also "requires" a degree.)

Only some jobs will pay to send you on the course.A lot wont and our tax money is safe.Also as was already explained the course isnt a year long,its only 6 months.In order to be employed at union-staff office-agreed marker grades you must be in posession of the agreed third-level qualification.A "Ful time equivilent" cohort of jobs within a certain grade has to be maintained unless there's a change in work practices and legislation.This is to stop somebody unqualified doing the same work for less money..this is what labour laws and trade unions are there for.

AARRRGH

Then surely they should stop hiring people who are under qualified? Or as a compromise fund part-time study?

Forgetting about the political stuff, do you honestly think it is necessary our tax money should fund Librarians' full-time further education?

Something like FAS, helping the unemployed, I would support 100%, but when someone already has a job, is already doing the job, they should not be paid to go back to college to do a - let's be real - unnecessary further qualification.

Red Hand

dublindude wrote: »

Saying all that, and I know I am repeating myself here, I do think most jobs can be taught "on the job", including my own (which also "requires" a degree.)

That's true, indeed. Many jobs should have apprentice style training on the job. Like, my own job is science based, and we don't use any of the in depth theoretical stuff that we spent weeks, months and years learning off.

Unshelved

I do have a problem with tax money being spent on unnecessary things like a qualification someone should pay for themself

I'm sorry, but I don't think any of those things warrant our tax money paying them a full wage while they go off doing a full-time course for a year.

Last answer to this one, because it's getting tedious.

It's a scholarship
2-3 people per year qualify - everyone else pays for themselves, apart from those that are sponsored by their employers in the private sector (3-4 people per year)
It lasts about seven months
In most cases staff are expected to work evenings and Saturdays during this period as well as study full time
It qualifies them as Library Assistants to apply for jobs as professional Librarians

I really can't see why you're getting so annoyed by this. You obviously don't rate libraries or library staff at all. I'm not going to defend my profession any longer, but I will point out that all third level qualifications -including your own - are subsidised by the tax-payer to a greater or lesser extent.

In the meantime, the Library will always be there when you need it!

AARRRGH

Unshelved wrote: »

You obviously don't rate libraries or library staff at all.

What...

Have you even read my posts?

No private library would ever pay someone to head off for seven months to get a qualification for the job they are already doing. Why? Because it would be seen as a ridiculous waste of money.

Just because it's the Government doesn't mean it's no longer a waste of money.

I don't have a problem whatsoever with librarians or librarys.

I love education, I will (hopefully) be starting a Ph.D in about three years.

I have no problem with librarians going to college for twenty years. The issue is not education. The issue is our tax money paying someone to get an unnecessary qualification, or at least a qualification they should already have had before they got the job.

Unshelved wrote: »

I will point out that all third level qualifications -including your own - are subsidised by the tax-payer to a greater or lesser extent.

Apples and oranges.

I did not get paid a salary to do my degree.

Sangre

dublindude wrote: »

Would your employer (if it's a private company) pay your full wage as you go off getting other qualifications?

Mine will, twice actually. First time for 9 months, other for about 4. Both will be on a full wage. Starting work in September but because I'll be straight into college I won't be in the office until this time next year, hurrah!

AARRRGH

Sangre wrote: »

Mine will, twice actually. First time for 9 months, other for about 4. Both will be on a full wage. Starting work in September but because I'll be straight into college I won't be in the office until this time next year, hurrah!

Nice one. It's not my tax money, so I don't mind.

Anyway, this topic has gone enough off topic!

nesf

dublindude wrote: »

And let's be honest here, being a Librarian is hardly rocket science.

Depends on what you're doing as one. I take it from your posts that you'd be very hard pressed to actually explain or describe many of the activities that are actually undertaken in a library.

AARRRGH

nesf wrote: »

Depends on what you're doing as one. I take it from your posts that you'd be very hard pressed to actually explain or describe many of the activities that are actually undertaken in a library.

That quote looks bad out of context.

Dudess has already stated she worked for a while in a library and doesn't see what the big deal is.

I think libraries are important, for obvious reasons, but I do not think it is necessary for us (the tax payer) to have to fund a librarians further qualification (and more, we're funding the qualification AND her wage) to the extent that she can leave her job for seven months, with full pay, and return to the same job.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable.

Should every Government employee be allowed leave on full pay for a few months while they get further qualifications?

nesf

dublindude wrote: »

Dudess has already stated she worked for a while in a library and doesn't see what the big deal is.

Indeed. However, I worked there also and got to see what the big deal is on the back office with cataloguing, database management etc. Technology is rapidly becoming an integral part of the library and this shift is actually producing pressures for eduction and formal training in the methods of sorting information, it is actually quite interesting if you're into that kind of thing.

If you're just working at the desk, taking returns and helping people find books, yeah there isn't much to it that you couldn't pick up in a week's training. If you want to get more into the back office stuff it gets more complex. It isn't the most complicated job in the world but there's a lot more to it than a lot of the other office work I've done.

AARRRGH

nesf, I am sure there are plenty parts of the job which are tricky, and I am sure the librarianship education is useful, but is the extra qualification so necessary that they should get seven months off work, with full pay?

It seems wrong.

I'm sorry if I am offending Librarians, that really isn't my intention. You could replace Librarian with a hundred other Government jobs and I would have the same opinion.

Enii

dublindude wrote: »

Why can't the trainee Librarian get her qualification the way normal people do, i.e. pay for it herself? Is there no part-time option?

What about the male wannabe librarians? Do you expect them to pay for themselves too!!?!

Unshelved

No private library would ever pay someone to head off for seven months to get a qualification for the job they are already doing. Why? Because it would be seen as a ridiculous waste of money.

Oh God - for the LAST TIME - I have already stated TWICE that in my class in Library school there were four people who were from the private sector - three from law firms and one from accountancy firms - who were paid by their jobs to attend the class. They were on their full salary and they had their fees paid. It's common practice in the profession both in the public and in the private sector.

However, the vast majority pay their own fees.

I accept that you think it's a stupid job that any monkey could do. However, getting het up over 2-3 people getting paid to spend 7 months in college WHILE THEY WORK EVENINGS AND SATURDAYS IN THEIR LIBRARIES is really incredibly petty. Remember that these people are taxpayers too - perhaps they are paying for something that you are taking advantage of that we might think is wasteful.

nesf

dublindude wrote: »

nesf, I am sure there are plenty parts of the job which are tricky, and I am sure the librarianship education is useful, but is the extra qualification so necessary that they should get seven months off work, with full pay?

If it's any consolation the Cork people do the course part time through distance learning. The course is paid for but they don't get any time off.

The extra qualification is specifically on librarianship. You can also do it as a degree in UCD iirc. It's actually relevant to the job. As an investment, in that most people who would actually get the nod for doing it are "lifers", it's not actually a bad idea. It's not like there's a high turnover of staff or anything like that and it's not like they can disappear and go off to the private sector for more money after getting the qualification. There isn't as many potential problems involved in the investment as there is in other areas of the public service where the qualifications are actually worth a fair bit in the private sector.

It would also be useful to point out that since librarians are public servants and not civil servants, the pay isn't as good as the civil servant grades. It might be different in Dublin though.

AARRRGH

Unshelved wrote: »

I accept that you think it's a stupid job that any monkey could do.

You're not even reading my posts.

There's no point continuing this conversation.

nesf wrote: »

If it's any consolation the Cork people do the course part time through distance learning. The course is paid for but they don't get any time off.

I have absolutely no problem with that. In fact, I would support that kind of thing: working during the day and studying part-time.

nesf

dublindude wrote: »

I have absolutely no problem with that. In fact, I would support that kind of thing: working during the day and studying part-time.

Working evenings and Saturdays is also equivalent. Especially when you consider that these are far more anti-social hours to be working than a normal 9-5.

eth0_

dublindude wrote: »

.

Should every Government employee be allowed leave on full pay for a few months while they get further qualifications?

That's a ridiculous question to ask, given that unshelved said there was 2-3 people in her course that were sent there from work on full pay. Given that there are only two universities in the country which offer this course, I think it's insane to try and rationalise this with giving 'every govt employee' time off on full pay for education...!

Chinafoot

I'm a library assistant for a local authority and I started an MSc in Information and Library Studies in Aberystwyth University via distance learning. My course is paid for by my employer and I am still working full-time.

I really don't want to get into the whole "why should my taxes pay your college fees?" debate because I find it ridiculous tbh and nesf's response sums up what I think. The local authorities are helping to provide qualified staff and if you reckon it shouldn't happen because you think the job is a piece of píss, the you need to seriously educate yourself as to what is involved in the job. It's a lot more than just shelving and stamping.

To answer the OP's question, if you want to get into libraries your best bet is to keep an eye on the jobs section of the various local authorites. You should apply for library assistant positions as they don't require any experience or a degree. Fingal County Council recently advertised so it may be a while before they do so again.

It's a really good job and there are loads of different things to keep you interested, although obviously starting off you're not going to be handed all the responsibilty in the place. You'll need to build up experience first but there are definite prospects to be found in libraries. I personally get bored quite easily but I haven't with this job and I've been in it almost 2 years now.

AARRRGH

nesf wrote: »

Working evenings and Saturdays is also equivalent. Especially when you consider that these are far more anti-social hours to be working than a normal 9-5.

Unshelved only mentioned the "they still have to work" part about an hour ago.

That changes things slightly...!

Not sure why she waited so long to mention it.

eth0_ wrote: »

That's a ridiculous question to ask, given that unshelved said there was 2-3 people in her course that were sent there from work on full pay. Given that there are only two universities in the country which offer this course, I think it's insane to try and rationalise this with giving 'every govt employee' time off on full pay for education...!

OK, let me rephrase. Should 2 or 3 people in every course be Government workers, off doing a college course for seven months on a full-time wage?

AARRRGH

Chinafoot wrote: »

The local authorities are helping to provide qualified staff and if you reckon it shouldn't happen because you think the job is a piece of píss, the you need to seriously educate as to what is involved in the job.

No, god, what?!

How many times do I have to say this...

My problem is a person who is lacking a qualification is allowed go off work for seven months to do a college course while keeping their full-time wage.

If it was a private company doing this, I wouldn't give a ****, but it's the Government doing it, with our tax money.

The Librarian is already doing the job. Do you really think the extra qualification is really necessary? Could the Librarian not get on the job training or do a distance course instead?

Could she not have gotten the extra qualification before getting her job, like most non-Government workers? (Or at least, get the qualification in her own time?)

Shouldn't our Government only be spending our tax money on necessities?

nesf

dublindude wrote: »

OK, let me rephrase. Should 2 or 3 people in every course be Government workers, off doing a college course for seven months on a full-time wage?

Eh. What the **** are you on about. The vast majority of college courses are academic and not professional qualifications. You're talking rubbish.

Government workers being sent to get qualifications that they need to be good at their job is hardly a waste of fecking money. The wastage comes from overstaffing and pushing paper around etc et al, not assistant librarians being sent to get qualifications to become librarians.

AARRRGH

nesf wrote: »

Eh. What the **** are you on about. The vast majority of college courses are academic and not professional qualifications. You're talking rubbish.

Haha No... my point is if there were 2 or 3 people in your graphic design course on their Government wage, or 2 or 3 people in my Computer Science course on their Government wage, we'd be thinking:

"What the ****?"
"Why can't they do this part-time?"
"Why can't they do this via distance learning?"
"What a waste of tax payers money".

nesf wrote: »

Government workers being sent to get qualifications that they need to be good at their job is hardly a waste of fecking money. The wastage comes from overstaffing and pushing paper around etc et al, not assistant librarians being sent to get qualifications to become librarians.

Extra qualifications are great. But not full-time for seven months, with full pay!

I don't think my opinion is going to change, so maybe we should agree to disagree...

Since I'm the only one arguing my side of the battle, I will accept I am probably wrong, if that helps things.

Chinafoot

dublindude wrote: »

The Librarian is already doing the job. Do you really think the extra qualification is really necessary? Could the Librarian not get on the job training or do a distance course instead?

The Librarian? Have you read any of this thread? Without this qualification you cannot be a librarian, so yes, the qualification is really necessary. I'm a library assistant, do you think I'm "already doing the job" that someone 2 grades above me is doing? Of course not. I'm not qualified yet.

People can do it distance learning but it takes a lot longer (often 3 times as long) and often requires a number of trips to the university involved. For example I had to spend 5 nights in Aberystwyth in April. The distance learning courses also cost pretty much double that of the 7 month full-time course here.

dublindude wrote: »

Could she not have gotten the extra qualification before getting her job, like most non-Government workers?

You won't get accepted to these courses without library experience. If she's been in long enough to be chosen to be sent on the course then she more than likely has been in public libraries since she started in libraries

dublindude wrote: »

Shouldn't our Government only be spending our tax money on necessities?

So qualified staff in public positions such as libraries aren't necessary? Well sure, we may aswell just scrap the libraries altogether since you clearly don't deem them necessary. Libraries have a set budget every year and the money for staff development is factored into it.

If you were a shareholder in a private company that was spending thousands on training staff and sending them off to college would you be this indignant? Would you rather the money was kept for the shareholders? I'm guessing you wouldn't because you'd realise that having highly skilled and qualified staff allows the company to provide a better service which is in turn beneficial for you. Why should libraries be any different? You say you think the libraries are great but you don't think the powers that be should help their staff to progress and provide you, the public, with the best service possible?

dublindude wrote:

Extra qualifications are great. But not full-time for seven months, with full pay!

See this is the problem....."extra" qualifications. It's not just a few more letters to bump up the person's CV. If you do not have this qualification you are not, nor will you ever be, a librarian. Libraries need librarians and library assistants need this qualification to be librarians.

As for the "not full time...with full pay!", 7 months with full pay means the local authority get their qualified staff a lot quicker than if someone did it distance learning and still worked. It makes a lot more sense for them to try to give their staff the opportunity to get the qualification quickly as it benefits the entire library service. Fingal County Council (and I'd imagine the other local authorities do the same) send two people every year....TWO. The way you're going on you'd swear they sent them off in droves. The competition for these courses is huge and UCD is the only fulltime course available in this country at the moment. Also, do you have any idea how much money library assistants make?! I love how you refer to it as a "government wage" as if we were making the same as those at the top of the public service. Trust me, what we get is not enough to head off to college on our own steam for 7 months and still manage to pay our mortgages.


I don't expect you to change your opinion on this but I do find your attitude saddening. You'd probably be the very one to give out about the crap library service if the staff weren't qualified.