HOW ARE THE UK�s PUBLIC SECTOR LIBRARIES GOING TO RECRUIT STAFF IN THE NEAR FUTURE?

Patricia Layzell Ward, Library Link Editor

Jim Sweetland�s column last month "On paying librarians what they are worth - or else" which focussed on public sector salaries in the US, struck a chord. Then a few days later an interesting article appeared in the London Sunday Times of 26 December 1999. Recovering from the excesses of Christmas Day a headline jumped out "How rich did the 1990�s make you?" It indicated that the 1990�s have been a profitable period for virtually everyone in the UK, despite one of the worst recessions that happened at the start of the decade. The average income is up 68% since 1990, but the cost of living has only risen by 40%. The article argued that this means the man (sic) in the street is almost 30% richer than a decade ago. It provided some examples. Young professional families have seen a fall in the cost of their mortgage, and taking everything into account, their income has rocketed by 70%. Professional groups had received big pay hikes and accountants are now paid 69% more than in 1990, surveyors 67%, and senior managers and directors more than 80%. This trend is set to continue in the next decade.

Now before a mass migration starts across the Atlantic it should be emphasised that public sector staff - nurses, teachers and librarians would not agree that their salaries have increased to this extent (though as I type an award for nurses and doctors above the rise in inflation is being announced, and teachers at the primary and secondary levels have been promised increases.) As in the US the public sector is being squeezed by central government, and staff are powerless to change the situation. The unions have lost their teeth. A letter in the latest issue of The Library Association Record (Anon, 2000) raises the issue of the LA�s role in promoting the status of librarians and raising salaries - but the Association is not a trade union for librarians. Rather librarians in the public sector join the union that is related to their employer�s sector - there is no strength in numbers. Ian Johnson, Head of the School of Information and Media at The Robert Gordon University has asked, "Where will all the flowers grow?" (Johnson, 2000). He notes the fall in recruitment to undergraduate courses in librarianship while recruits are coming forward in greater numbers for other information related courses. In the UK the situation is now exacerbated by the question of fees, for students will prefer to join career paths where they can earn enough at the start of their careers to be able to repay student loans quickly. The situation is different in the private sector for there is a growing number of well paid posts in the large conurbations.

In the public sector the salary question is likely to lead to a return to part-time study and distance learning as being the way to gain a qualification in librarianship. Full-time study will be the norm for information posts as graduates seek a route to higher earnings.

So where are all the public, school and college libraries likely to find their staff in the future? The problem is serious, and perhaps the Library Association might start by commissioning and publishing a study of salaries across the board in information and library work, and comparing this with posts in related occupations. Then the gap could be identified - follow the lead of the American Library Association.

Patricia Layzell Ward
Library Link Editor
January 2000

References

Anon. (2000), "Fight for fair pay", Library Association Record, Vol. 102 No. 1, p. 20 Johnson, Ian (2000) "Where will all the flowers grow?", LA Library and Information Appointments, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 1-2.

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