Library Disparity Shows Up in Salary

Here’s an article about a library director in Delaware who only makes $25K per year and receives no benefits. She’s working on her MLS, “yet even armed with a degree, she doesn’t expect any major bumps in salary, comprehensive benefits, or even a larger library. She’s not complaining, though. According to her, “This is just the way things are.” More proof that people don’t join the profession for the money, but for the love of it. Read More.

June 29, 2004 by Ieleen Uncategorized 8

Anna says:

June 29, 2004 at 11:10 pm

living wage
I do it for the love of the profession, but I also like to be able to live off of my salary. Between student loans (both grad & ugrad) and general living expenses, I’m left with very little of my salary every month. I’m not asking for too much — just enough to live on and some extra to set aside for a rainy day (or to fund that conference trip — reimbursing me afterwards doesn’t help when I have to drop $350-$500 for registration six months in advance). The sad thing is that I’m lucky. I do get paid more than many librarians. Unlike those poor souls in the article, I have a great benefits package, as well. It’s coming up with an extra $15-$25 for the co-pay that keeps me from using many of the benefits.

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mdoneil says:

June 30, 2004 at 12:22 pm

Re:living wage
Failure to demand a reasonable salary is why employers feel they can pay such low wages. If you feel you deserve more then ask for it. If they won’t pay it then leave.

I mean this in the overall sense, not in any particular case. Each person has to establish their own worth and demand it. Certain familial obligations may preclude a person from leaving their position, but if a wife has a better job than the husband’s librarian gig and they want to stay in West Somewhere because of her job than the librarian salary may be secondary.

However I’m not taking a salary that will not allow me to live in the style to which I have become accustomed. I want to be able to pay more bills, and put money away for retirement, and take the occasional vacation. If I am not offered that I won’t take the job. If I can’t get that as a librarian I can always go back to school, as librarians we should have an advantage.

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leeb says:

June 30, 2004 at 1:39 pm

Librarians devalued
Why are librarians so poorly paid? This might be because we are not valued much in the employers’/people’s minds. Then, the question is, why aren’t we valued highly in society? Aren’t we serving the important function of finding information for people and they learn and get educated as a result? Doesn’t this benefit society as a whole? So, what are we doing wrong? Maybe, it is because we are not well understand, the reason being that the library industry is stuck in the 60’s, with archaic methods and standards such as AACR2 and MARC. We are not modernising our methods to be more compatible with the ever fast-changing information world. Yes, one should love one’s job and profession. But one needs to be well paid for doing that job well.

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Anna says:

June 30, 2004 at 4:13 pm

Re:Librarians devalued
I don’t think we are devalued because of our metadata standards. I think we are devalued because we don’t do as good a job of convincing people we deserve to be paid as well as other professions with comaprable education and experience. Articles like the one reported here don’t help that, either. I know there are librarians who do it for the love and don’t care about their salary, but when that gets broadcast through the media to non-librarians (and members of the board of directors), it only makes it harder for the rest of us trying to rely on a librarian salary as our sole source of income.

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Amke says:

June 30, 2004 at 8:17 pm

“More proof that…
…that person is stupid!” was my mom’s reply to me reading her that entry aloud! 😉

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Anonymous Patron says:

June 30, 2004 at 10:03 pm

Library Professionals deserve good salaries!
Of course dedication to profession is an invaluable
commodity — but to state at the beginning that one
goes into a profession for the “love of it” and does
not expect adequate and just compensation is simply ridiculous. How many other public service employees
(e.g. City and Town commissioners, police and fire
personnel would say the same.) We need dedicated
library professionals to speak up for and demand PROFESSIONAL salaries and benefits!

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GregS* says:

June 30, 2004 at 10:43 pm

1/3?
“She’s just started a distance-learning, two-year master’s degree program in library science from the University of Pittsburgh. She’s gotten a $10,000 loan from the state to help, but that will pay for barely a third of the coming year’s tuition.”

The cost for library education is disgusting enough all on its own.

Its a very small library so she’s not going to make the same as director as if she was in Dover.

While it would be nice for professional people to get paid better (and in saying this I also mean regardelss of education), nobody does. They get paid for what they offer or the clout they have. Consistent and strong stands on better pay help but do not guarantee better wages.

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infodiva says:

June 30, 2004 at 10:44 pm

hmm, this is why we are paid so little sometimes
Situations like this really disturb me. If librarians refused to work for peanuts the powers that be would either pay more or eliminate the job.

It’s completely and totally insane to get a graduate degree to work a job that has no benefits and precious little salary–unless you already have enough money to live on anyhow.

None of us do this completely for the money–I enjoy what I do even though I won’t get rich–but sometimes you have to use some common sense!

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