Librarian jobs & salaries not looking so good
October 20, 2009
Library Journal has released their 2009 Placements & Salaries Survey with statistics on library jobs and pay.
- The average starting salary for a librarian went down in 2008 for the first time in over a decade, from $42,361 to $41,579.
- There are fewer full-time jobs, more part-time jobs, and more non-librarian jobs.
- New graduates are having a harder time finding jobs and remain unemployed longer.
- Disturbing to me, being a public librarian, was that full-time librarian placements in public libraries fell bby an astounding 12.5% in 2008. Wah!
The full report includes more data, but all in all there were few bright spots. If you pay attention to labor negotiations or budgeting in your own library, you likely know that the numbers aren’t good. Cross your arms protectively, buckle down, and prepare to have a few more bad years in libraries until any possible reprieve. I will be writing a future post about ways to deal with bad economic times with creative web services — watch for it!
But I think you’ll be happy with most programs. Look at the...
October 20th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
The sad thing is that so many states have librarians far under the average. Areas of our state are really low. Even libraries who intended to begin to rectify that are now having to back off that commitment, and layoffs are not uncommon. We are ready to buckle down for a few years but is there any real sign on the horizon that things will get better? Looking for reasons to hope!
October 20th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I’m not optimistic about the future. Even when towns have some more cash in a few years, they are not likely to put it towards rehiring librarians. They’re going to pave some streets or build a new community center, something that everyone can see. Further, as libraries are having to cope with a shortage of librarians they will need to find new ways to function. If they get comfortable operating in this fashion, they will probably not put much pressure on the city to restock their facilities with librarians.
October 20th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Ouch. That hurts. I would like to point out that as a library school student for the last 5 years I’ve heard tales of how soooo many librarians are nearing retirement age and soon all these jobs will open up. Ha! Lately all retirements are absorbed for cost savings purposes. Oh well. Something will turn up, it just may take a little longer
October 21st, 2009 at 10:27 am
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October 22nd, 2009 at 4:53 am
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October 25th, 2009 at 10:41 am
What might even be worse than low salaries for librarians is how so many, especially the more seasoned librarians, are being pushed out of the profession. In the prominent metropolitan public library system where I work this is occurring by eliminating positions and changing job descriptions to the point where there is no room for advancement in the profession. Branch librarian positions were at the peril of becoming a non-union position before the local union put its foot down. At least that did not happen, but the new job “site manager” (rings of factory or retail work) is not one of a librarian. And branches are open to being run by people who may or may not have library experience at all eventually. Yet presently, of course due to staff shortages, the “site managers” still end up working on the desk.
Okay, well, for those of us lower on the totem pole who are not ambitious… we could say well so what, right? Are we not happy where we are? True. But what then when people with more experience or higher positions are pushed downward… where are we going to end up?
The pressure is also on support staff and clerical workers to do the work of librarians for no extra compensating pay. The system I work for would like to see all workers do all things. It seems our system at least will do just about anything it can get away with before the Union steps in.
When people are being asked to retire and offered attractive packages to help their coworkers from being laid off, you know these are lean times. But we should not let the fact that jobs were “saved” fool us. Many of these libraries have no intention of ever replacing these workers and have now adopted the new corporate model of trimming the labor force to increase dollars and cents. Only trouble is, last I heard, public libraries were NON-profit organizations of the humanities. From where I work, lately they’ve got everyone fooled. What sad compromises are being made, unfortunately, the public are not yet on to how this is a disservice to them as well.
October 27th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
10 years experience, loads of positive evaluations, MLIS degree, unemployed for three years – now working as a cleaner part time to pay the bills. Need I say more?
October 31st, 2009 at 2:16 am
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