Librarians' Forum

Thank you to the taskforce for a significant and valuable report!

A staff member asked that I post the comments below. - Shevon

"I skimmed the reports on salary, and I have to explain certain things.

1. We didn’t use software to analyze our data—it was all done manually. Except for CSCAR’s analysis, of course.

2. The data that we used, depending on the analysis, came from ARL stats (spending long hours talking with Kirilidou and Stubbs), or from the annual budget book. The ARL stats seemed to be fairly reliable, but the methods institutions use to generate the ARL stats varied from institution to institution. All the same, they were all that we had to work with, and so we did.

3. The salary data for individuals came from the budget book, but we only included professional librarians. At that time the library administration consisted of the Dean, who was paid from a source separate from the Library’s salary pool. There were 2 Associates to the Dean – 1 for Public Services and 1 for Tech Services. Neither of the 2 Associate positions were ranked as librarians, so I decided to eliminate their salaries (along with the Dean’s salary) from the pool. I can’t recall if I included term appointments—I do recall that their lack of continuity was a concern regarding salary trends.

4. In those years entry-level salaries were increased usually without commensurate increases within the Assistant Librarian ranks or at all in any other ranks."