ON PAYING LIBRARIANS WHAT THEY ARE WORTH-OR ELSE

James H. Sweetland, North American Convenor, Library Link

Since 1982, the American Library Association has conducted an annual salary survey of US public and academic librarians. While the final data are not out for this year, a preliminary report has appeared. [Mary Jo Lynch, "Librarians� Salaries: A New Approach." American Libraries, (October, 1999): 66]. The important data here are that the 1999 average salary for a beginning librarian was $31,909, while that for all non-supervisory librarians was $39,631. According to Lynch, this was an increase of 2.4%, compared to an overall average increase in similar U. S. jobs of 3.3% from the previous year. For comparative purposes, the present beginning wage for a county bus driver in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (my home town) is about the same as that paid to the average librarian. (Bus drivers must complete a training program of about two months, and must have graduated from high school no college is required).

A recent article by Peter F. Drucker ["Knowledge-Worker Productivity: The Biggest Challenge." California Management Review (41 no. 2 (Winter 1999): 79-94] provides some food for thought as one considers the above. Drucker argues that, just as the most important part of the 20th century economy was the manual worker, with the most valuable asset for a 20th century business being its production equipment, the 21st century�s most important asset will be the knowledge workers themselves.

According to Drucker, knowledge worker productivity involves a number of factors, some of which are relevant to the current discussion:

• Knowledge workers must have autonomy;
• they must be engaged in both constant learning and constant teaching;
• quality is at least as important, and probably more so, than quantity of output; and, most importantly,
• "[productivity] requires that knowledge workers want to work for the organization in preference to all other opportunities."

Or, to be blunt-librarians are gradually becoming aware that their skills are desirable in the larger arena outside the library; they are under increasing pressure to be productive (in terms of quantity) while retaining high quality; and they are more and more likely to possess knowledge of computers, the Internet, and the like. So, if librarians aren�t happy with their current treatment, they can easily move to a different job. And, as the existing librarians leave their jobs, potential new recruits are also looking at librarianship as only one option after getting the library/information degree.

Now, the general evidence remains that many libraries do not provide financial support, or even time off with pay for continuing education. In fact, a surprising number of libraries do not event provide cubicles, let alone private offices. And, as we have seen from the ALA salary survey, a potential librarian could do substantially better to become a bus driver, let alone a "knowledge worker" in government or industry (outside the library).

It is long overdue for libraries to recognize the need to pay their workers what they are worth. In fact, it may be so overdue that it is too late. While too many library budgets are straining to add ever more technology, they are not really considering the fact that someone must operate that technology. Like it or not, libraries must now compete with other agencies for knowledge workers-it�s time for them to budget accordingly. If not, they may end up not as mausoleums of dusty books alone, but as mausoleums of dusty computers as well.

January, 2000
James H. Sweetland
North American Convenor, Library Link

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