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As a "young new member" and a new hire, I would be very interested in having salary information more readily available. This is an essential tool in negotiating with the government or public institutions to raise our profiles and recognize our skills. (I assume I don't have to rehash the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act argument for everyone: transparency is quite simply necessary.)

In Canada, we don't have a fantastic amount of information, but the average salary is quoted at around $50,000CAD.
(http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/qc/job_futures/statistics/5111.shtml)
We have a few surveys done in various niches, but nothing performed regularly or comprehensively (law librarians haven't seen one since 2006; can't find one on health librarianship ....).

For arts librarianship, ARLIS/CARLIS should be the group to spearhead this. I agree that specializing to the degree of museum libraries, for example, would de-anonymize the data, so a larger survey would be needed.
And since we can't depend on our organizations to include us intelligently (as in the case of academic institutions), I think a discipline-specific survey is the way to go: perhaps we can specialize the survey for arts librarianship but allow non-arts professionals to answer as well, for comparative purposes. 

I'd love to be included in further discussions on the topic. (And I'd hate to see the discussion die!)




On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 4:28 PM, Joan Benedetti <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi Elizabeth:

 

I could not attend the Museum Libraries Division meeting at which a large-scale survey--a survey of all sizes of art museum libraries—not just small ones (which the one I did in 2001 was)—was discussed.  So this is second-hand.  But my understanding of that discussion is that there were art museum librarians at the meeting who expressed a fear that the salaries of art museum libraries generally were so low that this would be detrimental to, as you said, “new hires, people getting promoted, etc.”  I haven’t heard the arguments against sharing high salaries.   All I know for sure is that an elaborate, wide-ranging survey of art museum libraries was stopped dead in its tracks as a result of concerns that were expressed at that MLD meeting.  When it was suggested that the survey could be published anonymously, i.e., with the participating museum libraries not identified, the answer was given that readers of the survey would be able to guess at the museum identities, especially the larger ones. 

 

My much smaller-scale 2002 survey of only small art museum libraries did include budget information for both the art museum libraries and their parent institutions; however salary information was not included as it was considered too sensitive at the time.  I believe that the AAM salary survey (not sure when the last one was done) does include salaries for museum librarians (I don’t remember if they break their data down by type-of-museum).  Can someone check on that?  I don’t have any answers, but I have a gut feeling that occasional salary surveys (at least every ten years) are necessary.   When the subject of museum librarians’ salaries comes up, what are they compared to—other librarians in other types of libraries?  Or other museum staff salaries?  And if the latter, are our salaries comparable to curators?  To registrars?  Museum educators?  How do we know if we never ask?  Surely the occasional gathering of this type of information is the responsibility of professional organizations such as ours.

 

Joan

 

 

From: Lane, Elizabeth [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 12:36 PM
To: Joan Benedetti; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [ARLIS-L] Library Salaries RE: Pew Research Chart

 

Joan,

 

Would you kindly elaborate? I read your comment as saying that sharing museum professionals’ low salaries could hurt new hires, people getting promoted, etc.  Others read it as saying that sharing high salaries would hurt the cause in others ways.  Please explain if you have a moment.

 

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Lane

Associate Librarian for Public Services

Frick Art Reference Library

The Frick Collection

10 East 71st Street

New York, NY 10021

212.547.0638

[log in to unmask]

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

 

From: Joan Benedetti [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 8:01 PM
To: Lane, Elizabeth; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARLIS-L] Library Salaries RE: Pew Research Chart

 

Hi Elizabeth:

 

In fact, we in the Museum Libraries Division have had to listen to those who prefer not to have current salary information included in recent surveys of those of us who work in art museum libraries for fear that it will be used against us.

 

Joan

 

From: [log in to unmask]" target="_blank">Lane, Elizabeth n

Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 11:33 AM

Subject: [ARLIS-L] Library Salaries RE: Pew Research Chart

 

Ms. Gates,

 

Thank you for sharing.  The income disparity we are facing as a profession is sobering and problematic, especially when we consider the academic cost we shouldered to get into our positions.  I cannot help but recall the outrage felt within the Art History world when President Obama stated, "You folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree."  As a profession I hope that we can better translate our value at every opportunity possible… starting with unpaid internships and salary negotiation.  I also hope that we can do more as a professional organization to achieve this goal and vocalize our wishes for all of those we work with to be better compensated.  Perhaps we could put together salary recommendations, such as those provided by ALA?  Please see the link below and note that it dates to 2008.  I think we all need to be more honest about the inadequate salaries many of us live on.  If we had sophisticated documentation to present to the salary decision makers, we could have a better foundation to work from. 

 

Minimum Salaries by State

http://ala-apa.org/improving-salariesstatus/resources/minimum-salaries-by-state/

At ALA’s Annual Conference 2008, the ALA-Allied Professional Association: the Organization for the Advancement of Library Employees (ALA-APA) Council adopted a resolution to endorse a minimum salary for professional librarians of not less than $41,680 per year.

 

I would love to be a change agent on this front.  Let me know if you are interested.

 

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Lane

Associate Librarian for Public Services

Frick Art Reference Library

The Frick Collection

10 East 71st Street

New York, NY 10021

212.547.0638

[log in to unmask]

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

 

From: ARLIS/NA List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leigh Gates
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 9:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ARLIS-L] Pew Research Chart

 

The Pew Research Center has published a rather sobering chart for us librarians:

 

Chart of the Week: Do firefighters or musicians have richer parents?

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/03/21/chart-of-the-week-do-firefighters-or-musicians-have-richer-parents/

 

Check out where Archivists, Curators and Librarians fall!

 

Leigh Gates

Director of Library Services

Harrington College of Design

200 W. Madison St.

Chicago, IL 60606

312.697.8021 P

312.697.3318 Front Desk

 

www.harrington.edu

 

"There is no such thing as information overload—only bad design." Edward Tufte

 

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