Library President Quits After Selling His Own Books to Library

The president of the Middletown library has resigned after signing invoices to sell his own books to the library.  After a career total of about $750, the president feels he can do no better and retire before he hits a slump.

We imagine his last statement to be something like, "In the book market, it's all about who you know.  With the landscape changing to ebooks, I don't think i could keep up my conflict of interest much longer.  I want to thank all the fans and Friends that supported me along the way.  It's better to burn out than to fade away."

Well, I guess he is correct and we wish him a long and storied future as we have not heard from a named source that he plans to sell needles to nonprofit drug counciling centers.

Middletown library chief resigns over selling his own books to library - Asbury Park Press

Librarian of Congress In It To Win It

82-year-old James Billington, the 13th Librarian of Congress, has no plans to retire soon.  The forward thinking national librarian has been in the position since 1987, working on materials and libraries in charged political climates from the fall of Soviet Russia to the upheaval in several Arab nations.  He talked recently with The Hill about his career.

“I have no plans at this point — sorry to disappoint you... The Lord’s been very kind, and I’m in the middle of a lot of interesting things. And of course, it’s a time when all cultural institutions are facing lots of challenges... At my age and in this position, my job is to see that as much of what is valuable and important for the United States has a chance to survive in this difficult economic climate, that it has a chance to contribute to a knowledge-based democracy and its place in the world.” thehill

Well, I thank him for his service and his unwillingness to retire, setting a trend across the nation for other librarians to do the same.  I kid.  I also am looking for further employment, but could not imagine doing Mr. Billington's job with a 10-foot-pole.  Do you think he knows something about the social security program that we don't?