j's scratchpad

The Special Libraries Association e-mailed their members this week to invite them to take their salary survey. If you are an association member, please take a few moments to complete the survey because the data helps all of us. It asks for demographic information as well as information about pay.

I always get a little frustrated and confused when I complete the survey because my job does not fit into any of their nice little categories. Yes, I work for an academic institution, but I’m not in an academic library or department/research institute. I probably didn’t answer that question properly because the two choices for being at an academic institution didn’t work for me at all. They would have misrepresented my position more than saying I worked for a news organization.

It’s funny to think that this association keeps talking about how they want to attract people who do work similar to librarians but aren’t librarians, but keeps designing surveys and measurement tools focused on librarians who work in libraries. I can completely understand why some of my colleagues don’t complete the annual salary survey. Their jobs don’t fit the parameters of the survey. I understand the majority of association members probably are librarians working in libraries. Perhaps they need two tools: one for librarians in libraries and one for other information professionals.

On the job responsibilities question (please select only one answer), they never have a category for solo librarians and they need one. I do a combination of the nine items, as do many solos. Each category is so pigeon-holed. Web work is one separate category that isn’t combined with anything. Project management is listed elsewhere. Designing and implementing information services is some place else. Research is by itself. Haven’t the survey designers heard that some information professionals have multiple responsibilities? I selected Other and typed the three categories from their list that best respresents what I do.

They always ask how much my salary increased from last year. I never remember if it was .002%, 2%, or even if we received an increase.

I kept wishing I could see my answers from last year so I could be consistent in how I responded. It makes me think of doing taxes (”Did I take that deduction last year?”), only this survey doesn’t carry any jail time for incorrect answers. I tried to print it out, but it didn’t work and I’m not desperate enough to take screen shots of the entire thing.

I think it took less than 15 minutes for me to complete the survey. If I worked in a library and my job fit their categories better, it would take much less time. Then I ranted for about ten minutes.

Anyway … ahem … if you’re an association member, please take the survey. Many of our colleagues use it to negotiate for better salaries. The more data they collect, the better the results will be.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2004 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Librarianship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.