lack of work

Hmm. Still suffering from the lack of jobs available for subs. While I can't say that it isn't nice to have a Saturday back, I know that some of us are wondering what we do if we start having to thumbwrestle for the one 3 hour job available.

Maybe this is always a slow time of year. Maybe vacations will pick up as managers stop feeling nervous about their hours. Maybe the system shouldn't have hired ten of us last July...NOT that I am sorry, mind you. (Thank you, thank you, powers that be! I do love my job and I don't want you to take it back!)

After a night of intense herding and WAY more sushing than I like to do at the library, I'm thinking about the effectiveness of libraries in dealing with tweens and teens without some kind of interaction with other community and social groups. We're getting pretty friendly with security guards and the police, but what about boys and girls clubs? Boy and Girl Scouts? After school care? Engaging parents who drop off and pick up? It just seems there is some opportunity that is being lost.

The kids are there, they are bored and need direction. Some are studying, but they are also hanging out with those that aren't. (I saw a second grader last night watching her younger brother, hanging out and chatting with her friends, completing a worksheet on our lovely state, and updating her MySpace page, all at the same time.) I think we owe it to these kids to get them connected somewhere, but I don't know how much responsibility libraries have to direct that, other than to make it know that we have a healthy population of kids looking for something cool to do with their time.