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Volume 2, No. 12 • December 2005
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Honoring Raymond Roney and LIBRARY MOSAICS, THE Magazine for Support Staff
I want to be in the Spotlight!
Spotlight on the Dynix–ALA-APA Award for Outstanding Promotion of the Salaries and Status of Library Workers
 This year, two people were chosen by the jury to receive the first award, Maurice J. "Mitch" Freedman and Dorothy Morgan. We thought they deserved more space than we gave them in the coverage of the award in the June issue of Library Worklife. This month, we continue the interview with Mitch Freedman, which focuses on h ow to get involved in the pay equity movement in libraries and Mitch’s life after retirement.
LW: Mitch, what pay-related trends do you see in your community or in the nation with regards to library workers?
MF: There is a dreadful anti-worker and anti-union movement ruining today’s workforce’s efforts to provide for itself and its families. MORE
“No More Pay Inequity or Discrimination” Supported at University of California at Berkeley Library Pay Equity Forum
By Norah Foster
In early November 2005, the University of California at Berkeley labor unions: CUE, the Coalition of University Employees, the AFT (American Federation of Teachers), UPTE (University Professional and Technical Employees), and LAUC-B (Librarian’s Association of UC-B) sponsored two well-attended and lively events with keynote speaker, Dr. Maurice J. Freedman, Past President of the American Library Association.
The first forum event was a round table where Dr. Freedman addressed the issue of pay equity for library workers and noted the excellent Advocating for Better Salaries & Pay Equity Toolkit as being specifically designed with helpful sources to gaining pay equity. MORE
Does a "First Class Education" Include School Librarians?
There is a movement, called "First Class Education" that is asking state policymakers to mandate that 65% of all school spending be used only for classroom-related activities. The argument is that the quality of education will increase with this dedicated funding ratio. MORE
Recommended Article: Supply and Demand for Catalogers: Present and Future.
This is a survey of Association for Research Libraries members, looking at MLIS graduates in cataloging, available jobs, and impact of retirements. MORE
I want to write about Career Advancement!
Sometimes It’s Worth the Headaches
Working in Challenging Environments
By Larry White, East Carolina University
My colleagues and I were conversing recently about our professional work history and how we had ended up where we were in life. Most of the tales involved a scrape or two with a challenging situation or individual that changed a career path. ...
Several of my colleagues commented that the jobs I had worked did not seem to be very desirable. ...
There was a method for the apparent madness in working in challenging environments. The primary advantage was learning first-hand how to successfully work through the challenges and improve my knowledge, skills and abilities to become a more effective employee/leader. MORE
Becoming an Effective Library Advocate through the Use of Persuasion
By Ruth Zietlow
Our profession has a unique and important view on society’s need for high quality information resources. This view needs to be heard outside of our profession. We need to develop and hone our advocacy for wide access to reliable, high quality information. I have been a professional librarian for more than ten years. Within that time, I have seen weak ideas succeed, and strong ideas fail. "Selling" a project or idea is a difficult and intimidating task but there are some persuasion techniques we can use to become more effective. MORE
Online Portfolios
Career E-Portfolios: The Next Standard in Career Development
By Casey Schacher
In a society immersed in technology, companies and businesses must have a competitive digital presence in order to contend for contracts and clients. This presence may include digital marketing tools such as promotional CDs as well as Internet representation in the form of web sites. Similarly, recent graduates and new career professionals need advertising strategies that utilize technology in an effort to fully promote their career and educational skills and experiences. This article will focus on career e-portfolios as powerful, yet complex, marketing tools for today’s professional. MORE
I want to write about HR Law!
Library Law Blog
Mary Minow, JD, AMLS, publishes a blog called Library Law (http://blog.librarylaw.com). The tagline reads “Issues concerning libraries and the law—with latitude to discuss any other interesting issues. Note: Not legal advice—just a dangerous mix of thoughts and information." MORE
I want to write about HR Practice!
Effective Communication
By Paula M. Singer, Ph.D. and Laura L. Francisco, PHR
In recent years, communicating with employees has become more sophisticated and complex. No longer can we simply post an announcement in the staff kitchen and assume the job is done. It is important for information to flow vertically as well as horizontally within the library. In this manner, employees are not only able to give and receive the information they need, but are able to trust management as well as each other. Listening has been recognized as an imperative skill that must be learned (and re-learned) and cultural differences are adding to the communication challenge. Regardless of the means of communication or the reason for initiating it, the key to good management is effective communication within an organization. Although this requires effort, the benefits are extremely rewarding. MORE
I want to write about Salaries & Pay Equity!
Wage Gap Calculator
The WAGE Project (Women are Getting Even) is a non-profit organization that is addressing pay inequities. It was founded by Evelyn Murphy, author of Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men and What To Do About It. The site features stories by women who are not being paid like their male colleagues, information about sex discrimination cases and a wage gap calculator. MORE
Raising Library Salaries in New South Wales, Australia
Delivered by Jennefer Nicholson, Executive Director of the Australian Library and Information Association
Nicholson delivered this presentation at the 2005 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Conference in Oslo, Norway, in August 2005. This case is worth noting because of the history of the pay equity movement in New South Wales, the involvement of librarians in a larger study on gender equity and the resulting increases in pay and changes to policy. MORE
I want to write about Statistics!
2005 Librarian Salary Survey Is Now at the ALA Online Store!
The 2005 Librarian Salary Survey is now at the ALA Online Store! Useful for librarians seeking employment in academic and public libraries, and for library directors hiring staff, this report summarizes salaries paid as of April 1, 2005 to staff in six position categories: directors/deans, associate/assistant directors, department heads, managers of support staff, librarians who do not supervise and beginning librarians. The annual survey report has undergone three significant changes to help managers and librarians in academic and public libraries ... MORE
I want to write about Support Staff!
We Honor Raymond Roney and LIBRARY MOSAICS, The Magazine for Support Staff
 Raymond Roney, Charlie Fox, and Ed Martinez—are those names you know? Some of us know them and their work well and wanted to let them know that we appreciate the work they’ve done over the last sixteen years to promote the value and issues of our nation’s library support staff.
Raymond Roney is the Publisher and founder of LIBRARY MOSAICS, The Magazine for Support Staff. Ray, Mrs. Ruth Roney (Circulation), Charlie Fox (Editorial Director) and Ed Martinez (Consulting Editor) have worked diligently to provide a tangible forum for a formerly silent group to have voice. LIBRARY MOSAICS celebrated library support staff contributions to the field of librarianship, introduced us to support staff across the country, honored support staff and support staff supporters, produced the first library support staff salary survey, launched writing careers and helped to build a global community.
Ray has had an illustrious career in his professional positions and his continuing service to library associations, especially the Council on Library/Media Technicians.
Here are tributes from a small portion of those who have been touched by the enthusiasm and dedication of the LIBRARY MOSAICS staff: Dave Dowell, Wendee Eyler, Rayna Hamre, Jennifer Kutzik, Tinker Massey, Alice Poffinberger and Julie Ree.
Ray Roney, Charlie Fox and Ed Martinez ... provided an essential ingredient. In many ways they were the glue that bound together those who were support staff and those who were interested in supporting staff.
Thank you Ray, Charlie and Ed for having the vision, and being willing to pour your blood, sweat and tears into this often-lonely effort for all these years. By helping to unleash and channel the energy of library support staff, you have truly lifted our profession’s ability to provide access to information, inspiration and imagination to all our citizens.
Printed magazines are special—the cover with color pictures, the glossy pages, the illustrations, photos, and articles inside. Print journals can be tucked under your arm and the entire issue can be taken to lunch with you; with personal copies, you can make notes in the margins or even paperclip or dog-ear certain pages. The last issue of LIBRARY MOSAICS in November/December 2005 is the end of an era of print journals specifically for library support staff.
LIBRARY MOSAICS stimulated and enhanced our conversations with each other and the larger library world.
With Ed’s guidance, I became a fearless writer, approaching most subjects with great aggression and passion.
Ray spoke to me about how hard it was to find support staff who would risk writing for them. I vowed to help publicize his plight. I had had some touch with publishing ventures and people, but never had I met such laid back, gentle souls trying to gather the passion of a group in need of vocalization.
I know they were very important to my rehab from a stroke. I needed a reason to improve and be able to relearn the English language enough to convey my opinions and love for the profession. Ed, Ray and Charlie provided me with that impetus.
... perhaps what we readers will miss the most with this particular publication’s demise, because it is so often lacking elsewhere in the library world: the absolute, unqualified, support demonstrated for support staff and the promotion of their voice within the profession, all documented by the physical presence of a magazine-with 4-color cover, ink, glossy paper, photos, and advertising-entirely devoted to that constituency. MORE
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I want to write about Work/Life!
Listen Up!
Achieving Greater Understanding through Listening
By Julius Rhodes
How many times have you said or heard someone say, "Listen and learn"? From my earliest recollections in grammar school to my participation in endless client meetings I often run across people, who unabashedly exclaim, "Will you please just listen?" While I am sure these individuals are well intentioned the fact of the matter is that within each of us is a huge presumption that people do indeed know how to listen. MORE
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Index of all articles from volume 1, no. 1, though volume 2, no. 11.
2006
Jan. 20–25
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (Midwinter Meeting), San Antonio, TX
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