[Genealib] Salary / Job Definition Clarification

[James Jeffrey]

Leslie

Good work on continuing your education.  My first question of you is are you working towards an MLS from an ALA accredited school?  

What salaries do entry level librarians make in your library system?

What does personnel do with a new hire when the new person comes with experience?

What are the salaries of senior level libraries in your geographic area?  A search of the local library jobs bulletin board should give you a good survey?

What sort of library are you in, academic, public, or possibly a local historical society setting?

Bottom line, what are they willing to pay you and what sort of benefits will you receive?  Will you have health care, vacation and sick leave, retirement/pension packages?  Will they pay your way to conferences or allow you administrative leave?  Most importantly are you happy in your current situation?

I know this will come a shock to some but I do not have a degree in library science.  They hired me for my History/Archives/Mss training and I would like to think my looks. [They have been gone a good while!]  I receive a handsome package of salary and benefits every year and have been in my current position come next week 22 years!
There are good years and bad years, sometimes the library system has money for conferences and sometimes it doesn't.  Some years we have great budgets and some years they are cut to the bone.  All in all I have had a great time building a terrific collection on the shoulders of good librarians who came before me.

In our library system we have specialist, senior librarians, librarians, and educational outreach specialist.  Currently we have a staff member who is getting read to retire at the end of the year who falls into the later category.  She will be replaced by someone with an MLS [so keep your resume updated when you see the job posting].

Well, I have prattled on a bit much for I have just had this conversation with a former director from a large library system who employed genealogists from the community and paid and comped them
clerical wages.  I was furious for they knew they were getting specialist skills and paying little to nothing for it.

As ever

James Jeffrey
Denver
>>> <LIPS0160 at aol.com> 6/24/2007 12:39 AM >>>
I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there are a list of standards  for 
salaries for Genealogical Librarianship out there?  I am a Genealogist  
currently working on my Librarianship certification and I work in the local  
history section of a local public library - no one seems to be sure of what my  
compensation should be.  
 
I work alone most of the time on organizational projects (before I came,  
nothing was indexed), teach and direct patrons in our Genealogy Club (I also  
research new resources for the club) and give one on one instruction /  
consultation (30 minute sessions) to patrons and non-patrons evaluating  their research 
during regular hours.  I am also responsible for archiving /  maintaining 
vertical files (newspaper, family histories, area older  buildings histories, 
cemetery burial indexes, obituaries and maps).   Occasionally, I conduct 
reference interviews to patrons who walk in off the  street and need to know - or are 
curious as to what we have to offer.  I  also transcribe into Microsoft ACCESS 
obituaries and oral history interviews, as  well as do town research and 
genealogical research for library special  projects.
 
Is there a resource that I can access to help straighten this out? Is there  
anyone out there who does what I do? Do I fit into any special category or am 
I  an anomaly? 
 
Thank you for any replies.
Leslie



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