Salaries and Specialties
Thinking of pursuing a specific specialty or switching to a different subfield of librarianship? Find resources here, as well as information on average salaries in librarianship and various subfields. See also: job banks for particular specialties.
Suggestions for additional resources? Email rachel@lisjobs.com.
Salaries
- ALA-APA Rural Library Staff Salary Survey (June 2007, PDF) includes no actual salary statistics, but lots of comments from survey respondents on topics ranging from "have you heard about rural libraries that have raised their salaries?" to "what are the feelings about rural library staff salaries? Should they be higher?"
- NCLIS Library Statistics Cooperative Surveys include a number of statistics, including some useful and detailed salary info.
- Quick Facts about the Non-MLS Salary Survey (2006) and a Preview of Data
- ALA 2003 Support Staff Salary Survey -- unfortunately large graphical pdf, may take some time to load and/or crash Acrobat Reader on some machines.
- 2005 LTAIG (BCLA Library Technicians and Assistants Interest Group) Support Staff Survey reports on salary and other attributes of Canadian library support staff.
- Information on the "MONEYTALKS" e-mail discussion list.
- SLA 2007 Salary Survey - not a lot here beyond basic numbers; they want you to pay for the full report!
- ALA's annual Salary Survey -- summary results; they want you to pay.
- ACRL 2009 Academic Librarian Salary survey.
- ARL Annual Salary Survey (main page) and ARL 2007-2008 survey (PDF).
- AALL Salary Surveys are members-only, but non-members can freely browse 1997 summaries.
- ALIA posts biannual surveys on salaries paid to workers in Australia's library and information science sector.
- Salary Information from Ann's Place.
- Average Librarian Earnings from the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
- Gender Equity in Salaries Achieved for Some Information Professionals, But Not For Others.
- 2002 Library Salary Survey - public libraries in the West North Central states.
- Workshop on Salary Negotiation from UIUC's dean Leigh Estabrook. In RealAudio format.
- Library Journal publishes an annual Placements & Salaries survey article about recent grads, plus other articles on the library job market. Placements and Salaries 2008.
Specialties
- PLA's Public Librarian Recruitment information has information on public librarianship as a career and testimonials from current public librarians.
- MLA's Career Development Section offers info on what it takes to be a medical librarian as well as career, mentoring, and other resources.
- Education For a Career in Law Librarianship, from AALL.
- Update to Choosing Law Librarianship, by Mary Whisner. From LLRX.com.
- "Special Librarianship," from SLA.
- So You Want To Be An Archivist, from SAA.
- Music Librarianship - Is It For You? from the Music Library Association.
- "Setting Up As an Independent Consultant," from FreePint.
- Librarian Substitutes is a wiki on which substitute librarians can share tips and knowledge.
- The School Library 101 Tutorial is designed for new school library paraprofessionals and professionals, from the Colorado Library Consortium.
- Y’s Guide to Starting a New School/Library/Job - From Alice Yucht, great advice for new school media specialists.
- "Hiring Reference Librarians: Insights from Some Law Library Directors" reports on survey results.