Wednesday, August 04, 2004
I'm stressed out and depressed. Having finished the mad rush of book ordering for The Closed Library I have a week and a half of relative calm before I go back there, so my thoughts turn to my Professional Development Report. I've looked at my report and looked at the marking I received from it and that's what depresses and stresses me because I can't reconcile the two. I received a letter from CILIP saying that if I haven't submitted a report by December then I have to start fresh, obviously not an exciting prospect as that involves a year of supposed 'training and development' before I can think of writing a PDR, it's almost like the requirement for pre-operative transsexuals to undergo the real-life test.
I can see absolutely no value to a professional codifying of my skills, other than it keeps several hundred timewasting parasites in Ridgmount Street from having to beg on the streets. Trying to tie professionalism to an actual ability to do the job, which my managers would seem to think I posess in spades, is dishonest.
Of course, if I have the knowledge and ability, I should be able to write the PDR. The problem I've got is I don't understand, looking at the mark sheets, why what I gave them before wasn't sufficient. I'm wondering whether there are any librarians out there who are finding that the lack of professional recognition from CILIP to be no bar to their career, whether I can actually tell CILIP to stuff their meaningless games up their organisational arse and get on doing what my employers have employed me to do.
I can see absolutely no value to a professional codifying of my skills, other than it keeps several hundred timewasting parasites in Ridgmount Street from having to beg on the streets. Trying to tie professionalism to an actual ability to do the job, which my managers would seem to think I posess in spades, is dishonest.
Of course, if I have the knowledge and ability, I should be able to write the PDR. The problem I've got is I don't understand, looking at the mark sheets, why what I gave them before wasn't sufficient. I'm wondering whether there are any librarians out there who are finding that the lack of professional recognition from CILIP to be no bar to their career, whether I can actually tell CILIP to stuff their meaningless games up their organisational arse and get on doing what my employers have employed me to do.
