I have personally advocated a national strike--only partially
tongue-in-cheek for years and years. I think we (including myself) won't
ever do it though because we, ironically, don't have enough income to carry
us through what would undoubtedly be a long and grueling fight. I think it
would be a long fight because I think secretly we all fear we would not be
missed! :-)

I think that to some degree that is a legitimate fear. We would not be
missed because, after all, the folks stamping the books could still do
that. It would take a long time for folks to notice that books they would
like aren't available, but with ever tighter acquisition budgets would they
just think that was normal? And wouldn't the folks that needed the books
either buy their own copies (happy publishers!)

I get infuriated with the "commensurate with experience" scam. Especially
when it is even prevalent with public institutions such as state
universities when all the salaries are public and there is a fixed range.
However, VR people are most often NOT in the librarian lines so we are left
in a vague category with titles like "research associate" with no fixed
range. Even so, the salary information is public, you just have to go to
the library to get the information, usually behind a reserve or reference
section. This does not help the out-of-town applicant.

I have repeatedly adovocated the position that all ads should contain
salary ranges but have been told we can't mandate what people put in their
job ads.

I don't see why not. When I was in vocational school for my first career as
a graphic artist, the school recommended that no one be seduced by a lower
than recommended starting wage because it hurt everyone in the profession
to do so. I think that doing an action like this would be great in an ideal
world, but we all gotta eat too -- so it is a delima.

I also find it infuriating to read newspaper headlines like "faculty to get
raises" and "staff salaries to increase" but as an EPA-non faculty,
librarians and especially VR people never catch either wave.

It would be good if this discussion could help trigger some ideas for a
concrete plan, even if it has to be longer term than I would like, to take
action. I got my degree in 1985 and nothing has changed despite this
problem existing for years. If I knew then what I knew now I would probably
have advocated starting a strike fund or something so that we could afford
to go on strike now 15 years later! It seems like people feel strongly
enough that maybe we can put that energy to good use to do something about
this sad state of affairs. PH

Paula Hardin
Curator
Visual Resources Library
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
919-962-3034
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