I've been following the debate caused by the reporting of Laura Bush's
announcement with some interest since all of us, everywhere, have similar
problems and having such a high-profile ex- [are we ever really ex-?]
librarian in place is a great opportunity.

There have been many ideas floating around but it seems to me that there
needs to be a little clarification of which issues need to be addressed and
how.

The discussion has seen a general mix of Industrial Relations [wages and
conditions] and Public Relations.  While PR is a vital factor in achieving
gains in IR, they are not interchangeable.   PR used for the purpose of IR
needs clearly chosen and targeted audiences and it is the employers , from
the government down, rather than other librarians who really need attention.
Targeting other librarians may help raise your professional profile and have
your particular interests addressed in more wide-scale lobbying but unless
you can be sure it goes further than other librarians it may not do much for
your wages and conditions.

Maybe it would be useful to have a solid session in a future conference to
discuss what the various issues are and how particular issues can be
approached.

I believe the discussion started with the question of salaries.   There are
two major issues here: is there an appropriate salary scale to work
from/compare;  are you placed at the appropriate level on the scale.

The situation in North America seems to be  rather different from that in
Australia.  I believe we have a higher percentage of positions covered by
unions and set scales with attached position classification standards.  Many
of us are slotted into the general scales set up for our institutions in
negotiation with the unions e.g. the National Gallery of Australia has
scales roughly allied to those of other Commonwealth Government Departments
although since individual agency bargaining replaced centralised bargaining
we have slipped behind.  This is the fate of many smaller agencies.
Nevertheless, we are better of than librarians who are isolated from major
groupings which  is a clear demonstration of the importance of being part of
a larger bargaining pool if possible.

One thing I always find interesting is the number of positions which are
advertised on ARLIS-L for which the salary is given as "commensurate with
experience etc." which suggests that candidates must negotiate their own
salary.   This can put them at a serious disadvantage.  How many librarians
have training, skills in this area?

Is there a role for ARLIS/NA in supplying a scale of suggested salaries for
art library positions which applicants could use to support their cases?
The more clearly a scale and definition matches a job the more it can help
so specific scales for art librarians in different situations could be very
useful.   This could be based on a survey of current salaries and
comparisons with other, better paid areas of librarianship e.g. those tied
to academic salaries or where there are union scales for all professionals.
Maybe a conference session on how to package a salary case, how to find
comparative rates, etc.. would be useful.  This could be allied to how to
raise the professional profile of librarians within different types of
institutions with a view to raising the professional and salary status of
librarians within that institution.

Australia does not have specific art librarian scales [we think of ARLIS/NA
as a huge organisation!] but there is a summary of scales nationally on the
ALIA web-site  [Australian equivalent of ALA]
http://www.alia.org.au/employment/salary.scales/  together with other
industrial information.  [Ignore the actual amounts as translated by current
Exchange rates - Australian dollars are worth much more in Australia than
they are over-seas].  This is a useful starting point for anyone here
looking for comparative rates.



J. Margaret Shaw
Chief Librarian
National Gallery of Australia
Research Library
GPO Box 1150
Canberra  ACT  2601

Telephone: 61-(0)2 6240 6532
Facsimile:  61-(0)2 6273 2155
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